Joe Scarborough writes blistering eulogy for the Republican Party

Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough speaks with David Rubenstein during a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics event.

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough slammed the Republican Party as "a dying party that I can no longer defend" in a blistering op-ed for The Washington Post on Sunday. Scarborough served as a Republican representative for Florida between 1995 and 2001, and he recently declared himself an independent. "I did not leave the Republican Party," Scarborough wrote. "The Republican Party left its senses."

The political movement that once stood athwart history resisting bloated government and military adventurism has been reduced to an amalgam of talk-radio resentments. President Trump's Republicans have devolved into a party without a cause, dominated by a leader hopelessly ill-informed about the basics of conservatism, U.S. history, and the Constitution.America's first Republican president reportedly said, "Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man's character, give him power." The current Republican president and the party he controls were granted monopoly power over Washington in November and already find themselves spectacularly failing Abraham Lincoln's character exam. [The Washington Post]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.