It’s too bad Joe Straus is stepping down as speaker of the house.
It’s not too bad that he is retiring per se, but it is too bad that he seems to be doing so because he would otherwise face a tough bid for re-election.
Straus has long been a business-friendly conservative and that alone used to be enough to get a longtime Republican lawmaker re-elected. However, it’s become apparent that business-friendly is not enough anymore. And this isn’t just Texas.
Sen. Jeff Flake in Arizona is also retiring and avoiding a tough re-election bid as is Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.
This is bad news for the GOP and for plenty of Americans for that matter. Straus, if you will recall, faced friction because he opposed the so-called bathroom bill and because he was not in favor of strict immigration crackdowns and businesses, by and large, were with him.
Forming a party that is more unified but also more conservative and less willing to oblige another point of view or, worse, a party that outright rejects the rights of LGBTQ Americans and immigrants risks being a party that is less and less relevant.