The Republican Party Isn’t A Political Party (Anymore)

A few months ago, Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle wrote a fiery essay on former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. In the wake of the Mar-a-Lago raid by the FBI over classified documents that Trump had in his possession, she wrote it is time for the GOP to block him from running in 2024. She warns the party to do something about the Orange King before it’s too late:

Reality check, friends. Donald Trump isn’t going away unless you make him. And unless you make him, he will continue sullying the party with his scandals, sacrificing its standards and, increasingly, its electoral chances on the altar of his rapacious ego. However temporarily expedient cooperation might seem, in the long run, it’s the most dangerous course.

I’ve been fascinated over the years since Donald Trump glided down the golden escalator in 2015 how many people on the left and right tend to say that the Republicans don’t stand up to Trump. The belief is that if more GOP lawmakers actually stood up to Trump, then maybe he wouldn’t have had such a hold on the party. In fact, former blogger Nick Catotaggio said as much in a column for the Dispatch last fall.  The lament for someone in the Republican Party to do something, anything to make Donald Trump go away has only risen in recent days, especially in light of the recent town hall on CNN. That even left many thinking that the 2024 GOP Presidential primary is over with Trump as the winner and it is all the fault of Republicans for not standing up to him.

But I think that line of thinking is wrong. There have been a number of Republican leaders that have spoken out and stood up to Trump even at times while in office. The problem is that most of those that have spoken out tend to end up out of office. There was former congressman Mark Sanford who criticized Trump and then lost his primary. There’s Francis Rooney, a Florida congressman who criticized Trump in the run-up to his first impeachment. He was the subject of threats, so much so he not only backed off, he chose not to run for re-election. Michigan’s Justin Amash was also critical of Trump and also driven from Congress. His successor, Peter Meijer, voted for impeachment during Trump’s second impeachment and lost to a Trump-backed challenger (with some help from the Democrats). In fact, almost all of the Republicans who voted for the second impeachment either lost their primaries or decided not to run for re-election because of excessive threats to themselves and their families by Trumpy people.

Like a mobster, Trump brooks no criticism. If anyone says anything other than Trump being chosen for leadership by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are going to find themselves outside of the party.

The problem with the GOP is not one of lack of courage. Yes, there are a number of leaders that do lack courage, (looking at you Mitch McConnell), but that isn’t the problem. The problem with the GOP when it comes to Trump is that it isn’t a political party, or to be more concise, it no longer acts like a political party. In fact, it hasn’t acted like a political party for at least a decade if not more. Trump just brought that weakness to the fore. In fact, he saw the weakness and exploited it to his benefit.

In a democracy, political parties select candidates, mobilize voters, raise money for candidates and hold government accountable, among other things. These are all duties that the Republican Party used to do. However, over the last few years, they have lost control of each of these functions. Some of this has happened under “reforms” that ended up weakening the power of political parties. Reforms like the primary system have weakened both major parties, but while it might have damaged the Democrats, it eviscerated the Republicans by driving out moderates and lifting up fringe candidates. One of the earliest examples came in 2010 when moderate Republican Mike Castle a representative from Delaware was on tap to become the next Senator for the First State. But an unknown candidate named Christine O’Donnell beat Castle in the primary and the seat went from a sure thing for the GOP to a Democratic seat.

You could say that O’Donnell’s horrible showing was a fluke. But looking back from 2022, l’affaire “I’m not a witch” was prophetic. The GOP couldn’t control keeping a nut job from winning the GOP nomination in a small state like Delaware. That was a warning Klaxon that the party structure of the GOP was brittle and ripe of someone to bring the entire national structure down.

Donald Trump may not be smart, but he can sense weakness and the GOP was a wounded animal in the woods. The national party had no way to stop him and the primary system allowed him to win a plurality. I can remember in 2016 commentators like Ross Douthat talking about how “the party decides,” meaning the party had a way of getting rid of crazy candidates like Trump. But “the party decides” amounted to primary voters who wanted Trump.

The reason Trump won the GOP over isn’t because of a racist, crazy base. Crazy people in a democracy is a given. Racist people in a democracy are a given. But political parties should be able to screen candidates before they happen to have their finger on the button. Political Parties aren’t there to give the voters what they want but to give them competent candidates. The reason Trump is in control of the GOP and could possibly become president again is that the Republicans have no way of stopping someone like Trump from even becoming a serious candidate.

Once Trump was in control of the party he sought to make it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump organization. He got rid of the rest of the decaying structure that didn’t suit his purposes. For example, a political party spends a lot of time crafting a party platform that serves as a guide of what the party is all about and it is expected that party candidates will try to hewn as close to the platform as possible. But Trump didn’t care about tax policy or the status or Puerto Rico. So, there was no platform in 2020 except supporting Donald Trump.

Donald Trump succeeded in finishing off the GOP as a political party. All of the functions of a party are spun off to other groups, many of which Trump controls. What the GOP is now is a lifestyle brand, and branding is something Donald Trump understands.

But it’s more than a brand. It is also a mob and it is the rule of the mob by the mob that matters. Mobs, like what we saw on January 6 are a threat to democracy because they seek to upend order and the rule of law. Mobs also tend to look at anyone outside of the mob as an enemy that must be eliminated.

This is what Democrats and NeverTrump conservatives are up against. The party is a husk that is inhabited by an evil spirit. The body politic is infected and is now a zombie shambling across the land looking for anything to devour.

Coming back to McArdle, there is a reason that no one did anything back in 2016. Yes, part of it was that everyone thought someone else would do it, but there was another more salient reason:  there was no Barry Goldwater who went to President Nixon to tell him to resign. There was no elder statesman or woman that was able to provide a come-to-Jesus moment with some of the lesser candidates, let alone Trump (who probably thinks he is Jesus). In 2020 South Carolina Representative and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn was the elder statesman that promoted Joe Biden for President ahead of the critical South Carolina primary. His decision saved the Biden campaign which at that point was hurting after losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. Clyburn’s backing got the African American vote in South Carolina in Biden’s corner and led to him getting the Democratic nomination and ultimately the Presidency.

In 1974, there was someone like Barry Goldwater who was considered a respected leader in the party to tell the truth. But there was no GOP lawmaker with that kind of gravitas in 2016 and there most certainly isn’t now. The reason that hasn’t happened and won’t happen is because there is no real party structure. The Republican Party is a Darwinian popularity contest and it is the base that decides, not any lawmaker or party apparatchik.

So, what can be done?

In the short term, the only option is to do what McArdle did in 2020; vote for the Democrats. I’m sure that warms the heart of many liberals ready to say ‘I told you so,’ but voting for the GOP at this point is to take a sledgehammer to liberal democracy. Best to hold your nose and vote for the Democrats.

But that is a temporary solution. To be honest, it is not an optimal solution. If you are in a position where your vote is between an imperfect small d Democratic Party and an increasingly authoritarian Republican Party, then the rule of law is already hanging by a thread. It is a sign of an unhealthy democracy. While many people who mouth it don’t really mean it these days, we really need two healthy political parties if we want a healthy society.

Long-term to happen is one of two outcomes, neither of which will happen anytime soon.  The choices are to either a) rebuild the GOP by creating a faction that of people beyond Trump who have internal reform as one of their goals,  or b) create a new center-right party from scratch. Those are the two options. However, both options are going to be long slogs. There is no magic candidate waiting in the wings that will solve all our problems. There is no candidate that will stop Trump with a speech written by Aaron Ross Sorkin ala the West Wing. What I’ve seen over the years is that people are more willing to complain than to do the hard work needed to have a vibrant democracy. I don’t think most NeverTrumpers and Trump critics have the patience let alone the willingness to build a political party, let alone change the Republican Party from within.

The party no longer decides because there is no party. And that makes American society as a whole poor indeed.