Jeffrey Goldberg: I Feel Like We’re Watching an Experiment by GOP State Leaders ‘to See Just How Small Their Hard Core Base Is’

EXCERPT:

GOLDBERG: “You know, I would call it a small tent strategy except there’s not really a strategy per se. There are impulses or emotions that are driving this rather than a strategy. But what I mean by a small tent strategy is that I feel like we’re watching an experiment conducted by state leaders of the Republican Party to see just how small their hard core base is. You know, it’s almost as if they’re trying to work themselves down to 33, 35 percent. And it’s -- it's almost has — it almost has a kind of ritualistic purification quality to it. You know, there is this — you had seven senators, you know, who voted for conviction. People thought, oh, there is a split in the Republican Party. There’s really not that much of a split right now among elected officials in state parties.”