What happens to the Republican Party now? (8 Viewers)

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MT15

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This election nonsense by Trump may end up splitting up the Republican Party. I just don’t see how the one third (?) who are principled conservatives can stay in the same party with Trump sycophants who are willing to sign onto the TX Supreme Court case.

We also saw the alt right types chanting “destroy the GOP” in Washington today because they didn’t keep Trump in power. I think the Q types will also hold the same ill will toward the traditional Republican Party. In fact its quite possible that all the voters who are really in a Trump personality cult will also blame the GOP for his loss. It’s only a matter of time IMO before Trump himself gets around to blaming the GOP.

There is some discussion of this on Twitter. What do you all think?



 
We've already seen all but a handful of GOP leaders fall in line behind Trump even through his defeat. I can't imagine any meaningful split happening. Even if McConnell disavows Trump I think that just takes him out of power and he knows it.

This isn't the first time the GOP has been declared dead in this decade even.
 
Nothing.

The Republican Party belongs to trump. Just look at the House, nearly 2/3rds of them latched on to this stupid Texas lawsuit and they all would do it again. They may have 20 true Republicans Senators, and that's being generous, the rest are all permanently tainted with the trump stain. McConnell has managed to minimize his stain, and that's only because he has his own agenda of packing the courts to protect.

As for those true Republicans that were trying to save the GOP, perhaps they can launch their own party and fill it with whatever moderates they have left. They should abandon the talk radio/Faux Newz crowd and try to govern honestly, if they were successful in doing so, perhaps they could find some Democrats to work along with them.
 
So that’s just semantics, DJ. If the sane Rs leave and form their own party, then it still changes the political dynamics of the country.

So let’s say the non-Trumpists leave, that’s roughly a third of the party. I think more than a third of the people who identify as Republican would go with them. There are a lot of people who have left the Republican Party, but aren’t really comfortable with being Democrats.

I don’t think it’s a lock, and probably not even likely, but ending up with three viable political parties is a real possibility here. Especially the nuttier Trump acts.
 
I mean, nobody sane is going to stick around for this:

 
There’s a hashtag, I just saw this from a R congressman from Illinois

 
Michael Flynn will be the Trump candidate in. 2024. It will be a serious problem.
 
There’s a hashtag, I just saw this from a R congressman from Illinois



It's not schadenfreude or irony, maybe a bitter meeting of expectations that it's not the Democrats who defeat the GOP, but the GOP itself.
 
My father is a life-long Republican. He also has two degrees from Duke University and I have always considered him highly intelligent. I know he voted for Trump in 2016. I know he was very disapproving of most of the way Trump handled the presidency. I know he thinks Trump is a narcissistic buffoon. I don't know if he voted for Trump in 2020, my suspicion is no.

But I texted him last night and said "In 2016, the GOP married Trump and pretty much ceded educated people to the Democrats. It was a strategy they seemed comfortable with. Now they're ceding 'sane people'? Do you really think this is a winning strategy? The party is now led by people in full delusion. Lindsay Graham and Jeb Bush said in 2016 that Trump would destroy the Republican Party. They were obviously right."

No reply.
 
So that’s just semantics, DJ. If the sane Rs leave and form their own party, then it still changes the political dynamics of the country.

So let’s say the non-Trumpists leave, that’s roughly a third of the party. I think more than a third of the people who identify as Republican would go with them. There are a lot of people who have left the Republican Party, but aren’t really comfortable with being Democrats.

I don’t think it’s a lock, and probably not even likely, but ending up with three viable political parties is a real possibility here. Especially the nuttier Trump acts.
Agreed.

But at the same time, their voters are programmed to vote for the R, so whatever these "moderate" Republicans decide to call themselves they will have a hard time winning those gerrymandered districts. Those districts are designed for the trumpist/tea party candidates, not a "RINO".
 
Agreed.

But at the same time, their voters are programmed to vote for the R, so whatever these "moderate" Republicans decide to call themselves they will have a hard time winning those gerrymandered districts. Those districts are designed for the trumpist/tea party candidates, not a "RINO".

Trumpist, moderate or flaming bag of dogshite, they're programmed to vote for the R.
 
But how much longer will normal, intelligent people who are conditioned to vote R put up with the crazy and the racism of the modern Republican Party?

We had roving bands of Proud Boys committing street violence and vandalism last night in multiple cities in support of Trump. They vandalized black churches and burned BLM banners.

We had a sitting R Senator yesterday proudly pose for a selfie with a known former KKK white supremacist who beat a black man nearly to death.

Alex Jones yesterday threatened Joe Biden pretty explicitly, saying he would be removed from office “one way or another”.

The My Pillow guy accused Fox of “rigging the election”.

We haven’t even touched on the Q stuff yet, which is moving mainstream now for Republicans.

Normal conservatives have to be appalled and turned off by this stuff.
 
I am more curious what more traditional conservatives think about this.

Because I feel it is no different than the last 4 (arguably the last 12 years).... they will tolerate all sorts of nastiness and illegal (or pushing close) acts in order to further a few parts of the classic republican agenda. They consider it all show to rile up the left.

Still the case? Think what Trump is doing is just political theater (maybe), but also that it wont have lasting effects? This doesn't seem harmless theater.
 
I am more curious what more traditional conservatives think about this.

Because I feel it is no different than the last 4 (arguably the last 12 years).... they will tolerate all sorts of nastiness and illegal (or pushing close) acts in order to further a few parts of the classic republican agenda. They consider it all show to rile up the left.

Still the case? Think what Trump is doing is just political theater (maybe), but also that it wont have lasting effects? This doesn't seem harmless theater.

The main reason I left the GOP was precisely because they have no backbone and refuse to stand up to Trump. The survival of the party and power became more important than any good of the country. No integrity, no dice. The Constituion was always a means to power, rather than a truly historic document that guides our government.

If Romney were to start a moderate conservative party that brings some sense of sanity to politics, I'd support something like that. I'm not sure if there are enough people out there who would support a revamped moderate party though. That's a tall order.
 
The main reason I left the GOP was precisely because they have no backbone and refuse to stand up to Trump. The survival of the party and power became more important than any good of the country. No integrity, no dice. The Constituion was always a means to power, rather than a truly historic document that guides our government.

If Romney were to start a moderate conservative party that brings some sense of sanity to politics, I'd support something like that. I'm not sure if there are enough people out there who would support a revamped moderate party though. That's a tall order.

I don't know that Romney would be the guy to lead the exodus from the GOP to another new party. Unfortunately, there are few national Republicans with the gravitas to lead the exit and the foundation in the principles of conservatism to be able to articulate the message necessary to inspire the move. It can't merely be opposition to Trumpism; it would need to be a movement informed by principles. IMHO, political parties give lip service to principles, but are more guided by policy positions than principles. That's how you can get wide swings in the things they support over the course of time.

A new conservative party doesn't need to be moderate necessarily, but it must be driven by principles to have a chance of success, in my view. Their policies could even have some overlap with the leftover GOP, especially if there are any traditional economic conservatives remaining in the GOP. But there would need to be total rejection of Trump's economic policies that are centered in a kind of corporate collectivism and a foreign policy that isolates the US from friends and potential enemies. America First might sound good to the uniformed, but the isolation that results doesn't provide the security and prosperity it promises and doesn't insulate the US from negative consequences. There would have to be recognition by people attracted to conservatism that Trump has not governed as a conservative, no matter what his rhetoric claims.

I have given up hope that the GOP will embrace traditional conservatism going forward. They have sold their souls at the altar of a false god. Those of us who reject that will never again have a home in the GOP.
 
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There won't be a new conservative party. There's no oxygen for that in the room. It would just be another 1% type third party.

Here's the thing, you have a lot of conservatives who "don't like either party". That's the mantra. They pretend it's equal, but while they may dislike the GOP they DESPISE the left. It's primarily derived from ethnic culture war issues and seeing the GOP as the defenders of American (Christian white) culture. So while they may not vote FOR a Republican they will ALWAYS vote against a Democrat, which means casting a vote for the Republican.

As long as the cultural divide exists the current version of the Republican party will exist. It has been the driving force behind them since 1964. It's why they are, effectively, a rural white political party. There aren't enough people who vote Republican and aren't at least partially motivated by the cultural divide to fuel a new conservative movement. Not even close.
 

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