“If he was so great politically for the GOP, why is the party now out of power?” the board asked with its subheadline of an op-ed published Tuesday
Seems like a legit question.
Why pick a loser.
The dems moved on from hillary.
Why can’t the GOP move on from trump?
Allan
Because the party is Trump, more or less.
Something like ninety percent of Republican voters have been saying for years that the number one most important issue to them is whether or not a Republican supports Donald Trump.
I hope the Republican party continues embracing him, it’ll work out great! 
Cuz the base likes him. Put the popular vote aside, and look at the vote tallies for the EC, and you will see that Trump lost by only ~90k votes.
You could have used the same logic for the 2016 election and Hillary.
She lost some states by small margins and yet the dems moved on from her.
Allan
This attitude worries me. Not directed at you specifically, but if you put aside the popular vote trump did not lose by that many votes at all.
True, but did you see the same level of support for Hillary before, during, or after the election? Trump is a unique phenomenon and, it is a grave error to compare his rise to history
It’s a last gasp type of thing, I think.
I think a lot of the GOP were convinced (circa 2015) that they’d be a minority party from there out - able to mobilize on a state level, but useless on a national level.
Then Trump came, and woke up the disaffected and aggrieved white people demographic, who came out in droves for him.
The GOP is afraid that moving on from Trump means losing all the new GOP voters Trump made - and they’re probably right.
If he indeed is unique. What happens when he gets old or dies.
What is the Republican strategy then?
Allan
I mean if Biden make his demise in an untimely manner the dems would be fine.
Can you say the same about the republicans?
Allan
Well, we have no shortage of Trump clones, but that is a good point: will the magic transfer over?
I think the upcoming mid terms will be the test. The democrats are going to get a shellacking regardless, but the tell will be how many of the winners are Trump disciples. If he makes a bunch of kings, we will know the answer.
As much as I would have hate to have seen a Hillary presidency, it probably would have been better for the republican party if Hillary had won in 2016. Trump would have been seen the same way Romney and McCain were in 2020, and someone else (hopefully someone sane) would have risen to be the 2020 nominee.
As it stands now, the GOP is going to have the stench of Trumpism for the foreseeable future. People like me who were straight GOP voters for decades have left the party en masse. What is left in the GOP is largely that contingent that is involved in the cult of personality around Donald Trump.
Feels like you’re applying rationality to a situation in which there is none.
I’m trying to see this from the perspective of an old guard Republican “elitist” - the Lindsay Grahams and Mitch McConnells of the world.
I think they’re desperately trying to find a rational answer.
If they were being rational they’d take the L now to regroup later and stage a comeback. Thinking you should win a hundred percent of the time at any cost for power isn’t a rational strategy.
There just isn’t any evidence right now that Trump is a drag on the party
There’s a disconnect between the old guard and the new guard - a disconnect deep enough that the mindset of an old guard Republican might shy away from relying on the next generation of Republicans to rebuild.
They’re trying to keep things going until they die, and let the next generation of Republicans deal with the fallout.
I think that it will more and more become a regional issue. There are deep red districts where the Trump base will elect at both the local, state and national levels. What will be interesting is what happens if indictments start raining down on Trump’s head? Does the base run away or add on to the big lie and say that he is being railroaded by the man?
Well except that when trump took office in 2017 the house contained 241 dues paying republicans.
Now is 218.
And the senate was 54 republicans, now down to 50. Georgia and Arizona flipped 4 seats to the dems.
Allan
