After everything we know about Donald Trump–the sexual abuse, January 6, the destructions of norms, the lying, the threats–he’s still the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for president. After everything we know about him, the GOP leadership will support him if he gets the nomination. It’s a remarkable transformation of a conventional political party into an authoritarian one. Its members and leaders are no longer loyal to the country. They are loyal to the Republican Party.
As the GOP presidential field unfolds, it looks like a repeat of 2016. A host of lesser candidates joins the race and Trump consolidates his plurality. This year, though, candidates will emulate Trump instead of trying to differentiate themselves. Back in 2016, Trump’s primary opponents tried to look like serious people in contrast to the carnival barker who called people silly names. This time, they’ll try to look like authoritarian blowhards, too.
The transition of the GOP from Reagan conservativism to reactionary populism happened disturbingly quickly. The strain of anti-democratic authoritarianism that dominates the party has always been in the country’s political bloodstream, but it hasn’t been this dominant in one party in decades, maybe since before the Civil War. The fact that it has largely gone unchecked is the result of a failure of leadership and an irresponsible right-wing media ecosystem.
The Republican Party of 2015 has devolved into three groups. The largest are those who have fallen in behind Trump. Many quietly harbored the views he said out loud. They resented immigrants and minorities, feeling that their lives were threatened by outside forces. They are dominated by evangelical Christians, the same people who justified slavery and Jim Crow in religious terms. They are solidly behind Trump and will rationalize anything he says or does in the name of their vindictive God.
On the other extreme are the never-Trumpers. They fall into two camps, those who believe Trump is an existential threat to the country and those who enable him because they believe Democrats are worse. The former group is composed of true patriots who mostly maintain their conservative beliefs but will support people and policies that curtail the influence of the authoritarian strain in the party.
The latter group loudly proclaims that they didn’t support Trump, but largely supports the authoritarian shift in the party. They’re people who once proclaimed themselves adherents of libertarian and free-market, but today rationalize extreme abortion restrictions and book bans. They probably won’t vote for Trump in the primary or general election if he’s the nominee but they’ll do their part for his re-election by bashing Democrats as just as bad while justifying various disinformation campaigns pushed by right-wing media outlets.
The final group are the people who indicated before 2016 that they would never support Trump and yet have capitulated today. Think Lindsey Graham who said that if they GOP nominated Trump they would lose and deserve it. Or Mitch McConnell who said that he would support whoever is the GOP nominee in 2024. These people could have stopped Trump. They had the keys to party. They controlled much of the fundraising apparatus and the control of the party operations. Instead of leading, they followed. They were more concerned about control of the Supreme Court than the well-being of the nation. They put power before patriotism.
We’re heading into 2024 with an unabashed authoritarian as a front-runner and a bunch of authoritarian wannabes as challengers. And it was all so preventable. The GOP had the responsibility to rein in Trump and their right flank and they ignored that duty. They could have voted to impeach Trump, if not for trying blackmail Ukraine with US aid, then for trying to prevent the transfer of power. But they didn’t.
Instead, it’s déjà vu all over again. An empowered Trump, spouting increasingly anti-democratic rhetoric, opposed by a slightly less authoritarian group of opponents trying to peel off a piece of his fanatical base. It’s a mess created by feckless Republican leaders who abandoned patriotism and enabled authoritarianism.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Maybe. Then again, perhaps it wasn’t avoidable. I look at this as the culmination of decades’ long policy and disinformation. You’re not sure what happens when you pull the pin other than a loud bang. But what else happens besides the noise? We’re seeing it in living color and living the dream sans nightmare. The outcome of decisions and elections have consequences and they do, in fact, matter.
What concerns me now, in real time, is what happened Friday. In the four short days since you wrote this article, His Eminence has been summarily indicted again. His posse made the rounds on the Sunday news shows yesterday. Denying that the audio recordings we heard was not what His Eminence said. It would seem that the “stable genius” isn’t. Perhaps a re-interpretation and assignment of the term “artificial intelligence” is appropriate here.
The threats however have begun anew. The calls for violence. The shouts for armed insurrection. The threats, veiled and all too real, being leveled at government officials, judicial officials, and law enforcement in the war of labels and the conflict of deflection. From November 2020 until January 2021 sedition was called for. A nefarious call to arms for those with a grudge and a low IQ to unite and take back the country. From whom was the part not spoken. To whom it was to go was. The sacrificial lambs were to be slaughtered on the alter of Mar-A-Lago to perpetuate the greed and self- aggrandizement of one man. It is fortunate they did not succeed in their folly. Since Friday however, when the indictment of His Eminence became relatively general knowledge, the calls for blood, violence, and armed insurrection have begun anew. I don’t see the chapter currently being written ending on such a positive note.
People liked Trump. He was a real person not politician robot. They also remember how good their lives were and he showed political will where there was none before. He also had quite a few foreign policy wins., and out played the Democrats at every turn. Not that they could be blamed. They were simply out of practice after a long string of complacent weak losers. They didn’t have to work hard at anything they wanted.
Overall Trump wasn’t a terrible president certainly better than Bush I, Obama, Bush II and Biden. Only the REEEEE…Orange man bad! Crowd. (like coco) would disagree. For them an orphanage could be on fire and Trump could save all the orphans single handed and coco and his ilk would complain Trump didn’t do it fast enough! There is literally nothing Trump could ever do no matter what it is that they will deign good enough, or worthy of any notice.
But don’t worry. I don’t think Trump is going to get the nomination, (since he is purposely destroying it) and if by some miracle he does get the nomination he won’t win. Hopefully we won’t get grandpa Biden and we’ll get someone that maybe can do the job,
Both ancient boomers need to go off and retire. Trump to his billions, charity pro-ams, buisness and golf, and Biden to his nursing home. I know for certain I’m not voting for either.
Excellent breakdown. The Republican party evolved from the party of small government and low taxes to a party of authoritarianism. What is interesting about this evolution is it’s occurring at a breakneck speed. What brought it on in the opinion of several writers is due to what some folks call woke.
Woke means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” The current governor of Florida has built his presidential campaign around fighting woke. He bands books and fires teachers that address the history of race and social justice in the United States. Not unlike Hitler, who burned books or imprisons members of the Jewish Faith. What is interesting about the anti-woke movement is its methods are just as poisonous to the constitutional principle of equal protection as they assigned to the woke movement.
Pulling down the shades and denying there are currently issues of racial and social justice in this country is self-deception. Another factor is the public’s attitude toward the courts. A supreme court justice is accused of accepting huge gratuities from a wealthy member of the Republican party. In addition, using his wife to funnel funds from questionable sources into his bank account. This destroys the public notion that the court will act fairly toward all folks who come before them. Of course, folks fail to grasp the notion these doubts have never been proven correct in the case of the lower courts. Trump inspires a group of morons to vandalize the capital of this country and beat up police officers. Republicans claim the investigation into his conduct is a form of persecution. The taking, carrying away and concealment of classified documents falls into the same category. Of Course, his true believing followers fail to grasp the notion being president does not automatically transfer title to all public property he decides belongs to him. Trump will more than likely be indicted by the feds in the weeks to come. This should lead to further violence and property destruction by members of the Republican party. Moreover, Trump may be reelected.