There are two parallel universes in conservative politics, each with its own tribes and conflicts, its own narratives and debates. These universes are isolated from each other, just as the tribes within them are divided.
In one universe, the Congress returns from recess to address legislative priorities like a year-end funding bill, the timing of which will have great consequence on the first 100 days of the next presidential administration. In this universe, other legislative debates, from federal Zika funding and internet sales tax proposals to the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, also loom in the background.
The other universe doesn’t know or care about these debates. It sees bigger things going on, like rapidly heightening racial tensions, with black Americans feeling out of place in the country that is their home and police increasingly afraid to do their job for fear of being called racist. The ruling class’s march towards a flatter world – from free trade to the European Union – seems stalled by popular backlash. And in many parts of anxious America, even these developments are irrelevant as the persistent miseries imposed by drug addiction and family breakdown give many the sense they are losing the America they once thrived in, irrespective of any headlines.
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