After weeks of stories of high-ranking officials bidding adieu to the Grand Ole Party, some Republicans are now biting the bullet and saying the party must stand with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Republicans Who Say Nay!
From long-standing county precinct committee chairmen up to the former presidents who will not endorse the Orange Menace, many Republicans have made their distaste of Trump widely known.
Conservative columnist David Brooks wrote in the New York Times back in March,
“Donald Trump is epically[sic] unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa.
Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy.”
After the convention, Brooks penned another piece, entitled “The Dark Knight,” in which he flat-out called Trump a “demagogue.”
The Dark Knight https://t.co/9RcfQ1jYqu
— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) July 22, 2016
Washington Post conservative columnist Michael Gerson implored the party to “dump Trump” earlier this month, writing in the Charlotte Gazette-Mail,
“… The United States is the model for the world when it comes to integrating Muslims and people of other faiths into a pluralistic society. Rather than recognizing this achievement, Trump would undo it and foster the kind of conflict he warns against.
But there is even more at stake. Those who support Trump are setting the Republican Party at odds with the American story told by Lincoln and King: a nationalism defined by striving toward unifying ideals of freedom and human dignity. Is this what the speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader, the chairman of the Republican Party and so many other good people intended when they entered politics? Is this how they define their soul’s high purpose?”
Indeed, Gerson and Brooks hold court with many other Republicans in their repudiation of Trump. This is nothing new.
Strategists within the party, however, are seeing things a little differently.
Republicans Who Say ‘Meh…’ But, OK
According to The Hill, several Republican strategists are voicing concerns that a disavowal of Trump by the GOP as a whole will tear apart the party. They write,
“’The bandwagonning [against Trump] that a lot of Democrats are trying to goad Republicans into is one way of ensuring that very good [Republican] candidates have an even harder time getting across the finish line in November,’ said one Senate Republican strategist. ‘A lot of Republican commentators and analysts fall in the same category.’”
That may indeed be true, though I am hard-pressed to find many so-called “very good Republican candidates.” When your party’s platform is as disgusting as the 2016 GOP platform, it’s hard to find anything to like.
The Hill also reported,
“Republican strategists on the ground in key states, however, say the handwringing over Trump is a Washington parlor game that ultimately could cost Senate candidates.
‘Those guys live in a world where all they do is talk about Trump, the impact of Trump and the future of the party. Voters, vis a vis their own needs, aren’t thinking about the future of the Republican Party,’ said another GOP strategist.
‘Candidates should disavow things they disagree with Trump on but they should focus on their own races. They should focus on their own voters more than the future of their party,’ the source added.”
On that last bit, the unnamed source has a point. However, the fact remains that Trump IS the face of the Republican party, whether they like it or not.
Will They Or Won’t They?
Anyone who pays attention to politics can see that Republicans are in a complete tailspin. I think the chances are slim to none that the party will officially “dump Trump” anytime before the evening of November 8.
The damage, however, has been done.
Most people don’t spend the majority of their days immersed in politics, like those of us at Liberal America, but Trump has made an impression on the country. And, for the most part, he is leaving an awful taste in people’s mouths. People who never pay attention to politics are paying attention to his vile, racist, misogynistic, disgusting behavior.
And I truly believe they will make their feelings known this November.
Featured Image via DonkeyHotey via Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
