How Donald Trump destroyed the Republican Party in 2015

[josephpalazzo]

History will remember 2015 as the year when The Republican Party As We Knew It was destroyed by Donald Trump. An entity called the GOP will survive â€" but can never be the same.


Am I overstating Trump’s impact, given that not a single vote has been cast? Hardly. I’m not sure it’s possible to exaggerate how the Trump phenomenon has torn the party apart, revealing a chasm between establishment and base that is far too wide to bridge with stale Reagan-era rhetoric. Can you picture the Trump legions meekly falling in line behind Jeb Bush or Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.)? I can’t either.


Trump didn’t blow up the party on his own. He had help from a field of presidential contenders that was touted as deep and talented but proved shallow and wanting. Bush raised shock-and-awe money but turns out to lack his father and brother’s skill at performing on the national stage; he seems to want to be crowned, not elected. Rubio is like the teacher’s pet who speaks eloquently in class but doesn’t do his homework. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was slow off the mark, perhaps having been stuck in traffic on the George Washington Bridge.


Who else would be acceptable to the GOP establishment? Certainly not Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.). Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Ohio Gov. John Kasich all had their glory days in the last century. Carly Fiorina has never held elective office. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) have come and gone.


At year’s end, the campaign is dominated by three candidates who appeal over the heads of the establishment and straight to the unruly base: Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who negates the fact that he is a sitting senator by waging all-out war against the party leadership; Ben Carson, a distinguished neurosurgeon who seems increasingly out of his depth; and Trump, the undeniable front-runner.


What Trump has done is call out the establishment on years of dishonest rhetoric. Progressives often asked why so many working-class whites went against their own economic interests by supporting the GOP. The answer is that Republicans appealed to these voters on cultural grounds, subtly exploiting their resentments and fears.

Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-donald-trump-is-destroying-the-republican-party/2015/12/28/747668f6-ad9e-11e5-9ab0-884d1cc4b33e_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[stromboli]

Well color me the doubting curmudgeon here JP, but it ain't over till the pig shits on the cockroach.
when we have a non-republican president and a non republican congress to go with, I'll buy that; not until.

Old country sayings: I'm full of it them. 

[josephpalazzo]

Whether Trump wins the nomination or not, the GOP won't be the same, especially if it inevitably faces another 8 years of a Democratic POTUS.

[TomFoolery]

The problem with all of the GOP candidates is there is no room for moderates.

Jeb Bush is probably the closest thing to moderate the party has and so far the Republican fanbase isn't buying what he's selling. John Kasich has styled himself as a compassionate conservative: he expanded Medicaid and made a show of extending “unconditional love” to the LGBT crowd and endorsed a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. I can't imagine the GOP ready to jump on that either.

Everyone else is doing cartwheels in crazy land and selling tickets on their bandwagon faster than Cirque du Soleil.

[Unbeliever]

As I've said before, I think just maybe Trump's doing this on purpose, to destroy the Rep. party from within.

Whether intentional on his part or not, I'll enjoy watching the Trumpocalypse.

[_Xenu_]

As I've said before, I think just maybe Trump's doing this on purpose, to destroy the Rep. party from within.

Whether intentional on his part or not, I'll enjoy watching the Trumpocalypse.

It wouldn't honestly shock if he was in this at least partially for the lolz. Having said that, he's definitely an egomaniac and just might stand a chance at the nomination.

[Unbeliever]

Hell, if he destroys the Rep. party, he'll be my hero!

[Baruch]

Party-Zens ... fun loving Buddhist monks?

Obama is Shrub II.  Hillary is Shrub III.  Sanders is only in to keep the Progressives from bolting.  Follow the money to the war mongering and bank mongering.

Nobody wins, and lives, who isn't vetted by the CIA/FBI.  Presidential talent is unnecessary, the cabinet et al, hand selected like Cheney hand-selected (masturbated) himself ... is where the action is.  The exact opposite of Lincoln't cabinet.  Biden may be the real President, as Cheney was before him.

[Unbeliever]

Wouldn't it be neat if Trump won the nom and picked Palin for his running mate?

[_Xenu_]

This is the most important part of the article and the author does have a point.

The party might nominate Trump, in which case the establishment will have lost all control. Or party leaders might somehow find a way to defeat him, in which case they will have lost the allegiance of much of the base. In either event, the GOP we once knew is irredeemably a thing of the past.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Think about it:

[stromboli]

Think about it:

That's a twofer. I don't like Redford either. Fucker turned one of my favorite hunting spots into a ski resort.

[Jason Harvestdancer]

What do you call it when a life-long Democrat runs for president as a Republican?

Playing the TRUMP card.

[Baruch]

What do you call it when a life-long Democrat runs for president as a Republican?

Playing the TRUMP card.

Also the HILLARY card.

Deep State ... heads I win, tails you lose ... sucker!

[josephpalazzo]

Ouch, even GLENN BECK agrees with the OP:

Watch and weep:

http://mediamatters.org/video/2015/12/16/glenn-beck-if-gop-nominates-donald-trump-it-wil/207565