Relentless positivity replaced by ‘vermin’ and ‘scum’ in the modern GOP

Pour one out for sunny, Reaganesque Republicanism.

The latest blow came this week, when Tim Scott, the second of two candidates with a future-focused, relentlessly positive message and a smiling disposition, dropped out of the GOP presidential primary. He was preceded to the exits by his fellow happy warrior Mike Pence. Both capitulated to an electorate more interested in candidates eager to violate Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment — thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican — shredding each other to make a point.

The last of their kind amid a field of slash-and-burn culture warriors and angry brawlers — candidates willing to call their political enemies “scum” and “vermin” — Pence and Scott had bet that there was a silent majority of Republican primary voters who wanted a return to an optimistic, whistle-while-you-work-the-base standard bearer.

If there are in fact any of those voters left, they could surely use a drink. The closest alternative they have now is a candidate polling so dismally he failed to qualify for last week’s debate.

“I’m the only one with a sunny atmosphere,” Doug Burgum, the billionaire North Dakota governor, said in an interview from a parking lot in downtown Dubuque, Iowa, this week, taking in the new shape of the winnowed field as he vowed to stay in the race through Iowa and New Hampshire.