{"text":[[{"start":4.8,"text":"The Republican primary was always likely to start the day after the midterm election. In fact, it began even before the polls closed. Florida governor Ron DeSantis framed public anger over corruption, among other grievances, as a decisive factor in the looming Republican humiliation. In doing so, he fired the starting gun for a battle to determine what kind of GOP rises from the ashes of the midterm conflagration."}],[{"start":31.202,"text":"Republicans could go broadly in two directions. One is to double down on a rebooted America First, shorn of Trump and the excesses — the gilded monuments, the self-enrichment, the Iran war, and the brutality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — that most repelled voters. This is a bet that a nativist message can continue to resonate with a large chunk of Americans."}],[{"start":53.832,"text":"DeSantis and vice-president JD Vance are vying to lead this camp. The Florida governor noted that his state had “held the line” while decades-old Republican bastions such as Texas and Kansas had tumbled to the Democrats. Vance was quick to blame the Iran debacle, distancing himself from his boss. He also said he was “open to the idea that we should change [immigration] enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance”."}],[{"start":80.4,"text":"This might appeal to the remnants of the Maga base who will still play a key role in the Republican primaries. Whether it can restore the party’s broader appeal, though, is highly questionable. A big reason Texas saw Democrats win every statewide race is that Hispanics swung heavily in their direction. They did so because of the ICE nastiness — and the demonisation, going well beyond Trump, of Hispanics in general. Nationally, voting figures suggest many traditional conservatives stayed home."}],[{"start":109.409,"text":"That suggests it will be very hard to detoxify the Republican brand without a softening of America First. When it comes to Vance, a rebranding will be particularly tricky for a man who defended the tactics of federal immigration agents after two civilians were shot dead in Minneapolis, and frequently implies that Americanness is defined by ancestral roots rather than civic allegiance. The same applies to Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary now facing possible impeachment, with his highly combative style of Trump loyalism."}],[{"start":140.32,"text":"So there is an opening, at least, for the return of a more pragmatic Republicanism. This is not the Republican Party of Mitt Romney, whose patrician, boardroom conservatism does not chime with today’s America. But there is an opportunity for a Republican who has the skills to articulate it to make a case for the economic benefits of international trade and alliances. It is not yet clear who might be capable of picking up this baton. The obvious candidate, Marco Rubio, may have nailed his colours too closely to Trump’s mast to distance himself. But that the space is there is testament to how much has been changed by the midterms."}],[{"start":177.354,"text":"Tariffs proved last Tuesday to be far from an election winner. In Kansas, for example, tariff tensions with Canada and Mexico — the state’s biggest export markets — helped a Democrat win a Senate election for the first time in 94 years. Trump’s protectionism has not delivered the kind of manufacturing employment boom that was promised. The Democrats skilfully exploited voter dissatisfaction over the rising living costs that it and the Iran war have produced."}],[{"start":206.237,"text":"The Republicans could choose, then, to be a narrower, if more coherent, party of America First. Or they could try to become a big tent again, less coherent but more electable — as the Democrats, in this election, managed to do. The latter path clearly makes more sense, for the GOP and for America. That is, though, no guarantee that Republicans will take it."}],[{"start":228.32,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794365603_3641.mp3"}