https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/08/election-2016-opportunity-republicans-gop-brokenThis election was a great opportunity for Republicans. Instead, the GOP lies brokenJamie Weinstein
The Republican primary featured a slew of conservative superstars. But we picked Donald Trump, a man devoid of principle, who has split the party in two
Last modified on Tuesday 8 November 2016 09.03 EST
The 2016 Republican primary was supposed to be an embarrassment of riches for the GOP.
In contrast to 2012, the Republican party was set to feature a slew of young, articulate conservative superstars fighting it out for the nomination. The only question was whether it would be the year of a tough-as-nails union-busting Wisconsin governor (Scott Walker), an inspiring Florida senator (Marco Rubio), an ideological Texas firebrand (Ted Cruz), or perhaps an Oxford-educated policy wonk from the Bayou (former governor Bobby Jindal). Or, maybe, one of the more seasoned former conservative governors would win the day, such as Florida’s Jeb Bush or Texas’s Rick Perry.
But such hopes were dashed on 16 June 2015 when one Donald J Trump took what he now calls the “famous escalator ride” down Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. The establishment immediately mocked him. But he went on to shock them.
Over the next 11 months, the ideologically malleable alleged billionaire browbeat his way to the Republican nomination. He tagged his opponents as too low energy (Bush), too dishonest (Cruz) and too little and sweaty (Rubio) for the Oval Office. He would allow nothing to stand in his way – certainly not the truth – in his quest for the Republican nomination.
To evangelicals, the thrice-married New Yorker with a potty mouth that made even Howard Stern blush pretended to be a committed Christian, even declaring that the reason the IRS was auditing his tax returns was probably because of his religious devotion. To immigration hawks, he pledged to deport each and every illegal immigrant in the country, even though he said after the 2012 election that the reason Mitt Romney lost was because of his harsh stand on immigration.
But Trump didn’t win the Republican nomination because of his policy positions. He won because of his personality and brand. For nearly four decades, he painted himself as the world’s greatest businessman. Trump’s lifelong marketing scheme got a boost from Hollywood in 2004 when he was cast as the star of the NBC reality TV show The Apprentice, where he flaunted his executive authority each week in front of millions.
Trump was at his best when he wasn’t talking specifics. He promised to make all America’s problems go away, to make America great again, if Americans just put their faith in him. He was the strongman who was going to make everything OK if you just trusted him and didn’t ask questions.
And it worked in the Republican primary. But the nomination fight revealed much more about Trump’s Republican opponents and the Republican electorate than it did about Trump. To those who cared to look, it was well known before Trump ever entered the presidential race that he was a dishonest lout whose business success was far less than claimed.
But Trump’s presence in the race revealed that the supposed GOP superstars were too weak to stand up to the charlatan in their midst. As for the Republican primary electorate, we learned that perhaps they don’t care so much about conservative principles after all – that the conservative movement may be nothing more than a collection of magazine offices and think tanks in Manhattan and Washington, DC. No true believer in conservative principles could ever get behind Donald Trump.
In winning the Republican nomination, Donald Trump may have destroyed the Republican party and drastically set back the conservative movement. His anti-immigrant vitriol, his mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, his portrayal of American exceptionalism as an arrogant concept, his anti-women invective and, yes, his occasional racism will taint the Republican party for the foreseeable future.
Well, it will taint the Republican party if it lasts. But that remains an open question. The odds are Hillary Clinton will win, and the question will then be: what will become of the Republican party? Will the #NeverTrump wing and the Always Trump forces come together? Or will a civil war break out, ultimately tearing the party it apart?
The GOP should have been ascendant this election cycle. Instead, it lies in ruins, all thanks to Donald Trump. He’s the man of the hour, exactly as he would want it to be.
