Whether They Realize It Or Not, The Republican Party Dies After This Election
Perhaps they fed their monster too long. Perhaps they didn’t realize it would bite the hand that fed them. I am not talking about Donald Trump or even Ted Cruz. I am talking about the base of the Republican Party. For years, they have been fed a steady diet of fear, hatred, bigotry, and lies about the economy, the Democrats, and the nebulous others. Their lives weren’t as good as they should have been, and they needed someone to blame.
The cry went out far and wide, “If you put us in power, we will fix all of your problems!” The public has been wary of this call because they were burned the last time they gave the Republicans full control at the turn of the century. They were told if they gave them the Congress the Republicans would restore the Rule of Law. They would impeach an unlawful President. They would work for the people.
The base gave them the Congress as asked, and as always the representatives lied. We know the results of that lie. The rise of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. However, they are only two strains of the same virus that have always infected the party since the days of their proclaimed Saint Reagan. Cruz is the infection of theocrats who believe that the country can only be saved if everyone follows them and their beliefs. Trump is the infection of Authoritarianism that has always flourished in those who fear more than dream.
There is, of course, the third strain which is the core of the party, the business and bank interests which fund the whole thing. The other two strains have tagged along for the ride to a greater or lesser degree for some time, but now their influence is going to destroy the core which has always been the mollifying factor. After all, if you are paying for the ride, you can almost always call the shots.
The problem is the people feel that the representatives of their party are only listening to those who pay for the ride and no one else. They are right, of course. The base of the party is more in line with the other two strains of the disease that is eating away at the corpse of the GOP. The establishment of the party is supposedly already hoping for a contested convention, so they don’t have to give the nomination to Donald Trump. Likewise, they don’t want to give the nomination to Ted Cruz either because he represents a choice that ends just as badly for them in a general election.
However, millions of people at the base of their party have decided that these two people are the ones they want to carry the standard for them in the coming election. More than any of the other seventeen candidates who entered the Republican race, these two extremists have come out on top with the Republican faithful. An authoritarian billionaire, who says whatever he feels like, even some progressive ideals, is leading the pack. Just behind him is a man who believes that the Constitution was based on the Bible, despite John Adams’ denial of said argument.
The Republican Party may believe that it can put the genie back in its bottle after this primary, but it’s too late now. Two years from now in the next election, some other candidate with less heretical baggage than either of these two current candidates will use their tactics to get elected into Congress. I can guarantee that in four years when the next Presidential primary season starts that more than one Republican candidate will mimic Trump’s tactics and message, including the progressive parts about trade which are anathema to the GOP.
If the Republican Party doesn’t shift its views on outdated and destructive stances it stubbornly keeps, it is guaranteed to destroy itself. It will not hold. Its own people are tearing away from it and demanding it stop pandering to the thieves who have stolen all the money from them. Enterprising and smart politicians will start to take advantage of this anger and disappointment, even if they still call themselves Republicans. This new faction will push the party in a new direction away from where it is today, possibly, or maybe they will break completely away from the GOP to form something new.
Either way it plays out, the Grand Old Party is no more. It must fundamentally change after this election or say good-bye forever. Even they know they cannot maintain their strategy of reliance mainly upon white voters. Obstructing the vote and a Democratic President is bound to eventually backfire, especially when you consider that the youth of this country is disproportionately liberal. Even some of our allies and most of the rest of the world are beginning to think that we are its largest threat to world peace. Some of that is in no doubt because of the insane rhetoric spouted from these extreme Republican candidates.
Whether you shed a tear or dance on its grave we are watching the last breath of a party in shock as the knife of Brutus thrusts deeply in its back.
