Ex-House Freedom Caucus chair says GOP isn't 'a conservative party anymore,' but Democrats are 'worse'

Bob Good lost his primary last year after Trump backed his opponent, so it's worth reading his complaint with that in mind. But that doesn't mean he's wrong. Anyone who's watched the spending fights, the earmark returns, the way "conservative" has become a vibe rather than a checklist knows exactly what he's pointing at. The party that used to fight Obama over debt ceilings now writes budgets that would have gotten a member primaried a decade ago.

The interesting part isn't the complaint, it's the "but Democrats are worse" qualifier. That's not a contradiction, it's the whole story of why nobody bolts. Good isn't describing a party he's about to abandon. He's describing a coalition he thinks has lost its discipline but still beats the alternative by a mile, and he's right about that math even while he's grousing about the rest of it.

There's a real tension in the GOP right now between governing coalition and ideological movement, and it's not going away because one former Freedom Caucus chair says the quiet part out loud. Populism won the party's voters. Deficit hawkery lost. You can mourn that and still show up to vote against the party that wants to double the deficit on purpose.

None of this is new, either. Every generation of conservatives thinks the last one had more spine. What's true is that a party built on winning elections will always drift from a party built on ideas, and the fight over which one Republicans actually are isn't settled. Good just said the part most officeholders won't.