Donald Trump Towers Over The Rebranding Of The Republican Party
Days after Donald Trump beat all of the presidential candidates for the Republican party, many card-carrying members have been coming out publicly to either support or oppose him, which has continued to keep the front-runner on the defensive in the only way he knows how and with no signs of stopping.
Here’s Rep. Charlie Rangel talking on the destruction of the GOP on Fox Business during the New York primary.
Most who have stood up in opposition of Donald have done so due to his lack of kindness and his aggressive take on all of those who have opposed him during his campaign.
And while their message has certainly gone through constant circulation into the public, it’s done nothing to even put a dent into his hastily thrown together platform.
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In actuality, he’s gotten through the race without that much of a platform to speak of. Despite his recent speech on foreign policy, the bulk of Americans are perhaps waiting to see if he has it where it counts, with a series of debates against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, which is still a long ways away.
The issue now is over what the Republican brand is, which thus far, has only been the complete opposite of whatever a Democrat wants to do or says.
And even as the Republican party takes a hard look at itself, it can see itself falling apart and yet still cannot accept its defeat as it tries to own its problem without touching it.
In an op-ed by the Washington Post which asks if Donald Trump is destroying the Republican brand, the author talks about the compassionate conservatism on display during the previous Bush administration, but once again, accurately describes the party’s dog-whistle platform approach in the context of Donald Trump.
“…he has built his candidacy on ethno-nationalist appeals, scapegoating immigrants and Muslims and making it absolutely clear that he is leading a movement of, by, and for white people. It isn’t that this is foreign to the GOP, just that it’s so blatant as to remove all plausible deniability.”
One only has to look back at certain moments during the Bush presidency to see when that president took a stand against xenophobia and racism, which, even as far back as those moments are, still drown out the weakened stance Republicans try to display against the bigoted Americans who are anti-immigrants and against minorities, the public arena has to endure today.
The article also points out, just as accurately as before, what the Republican party is afraid of embracing out in the open.
“Trump takes the ugly appeals they used to make with dog whistles and euphemisms, and puts them right out in the open. It’s the difference between a guy in a trench coat saying ‘Psst, buddy, want to buy some racism and xenophobia? Follow me into this alley…’, and a guy standing on a soapbox in the middle of Times Square shouting ‘Get yer racism and xenophobia here!'”
Because, as of this writing, Donald Trump has to prepare and get a crash course on the issues in order to appropriately confront Hillary Clinton at their debates.
New York Times columnist David Brooks talked about this on the PBS NewsHour on Friday.
In the talk, he suggested that the Republican’s brand of Reaganite philosophy wanting the days of the past to return is the reason for the GOP’s downfall, which has been replaced by a white figure who will take America back to that by force.
And whether the Republican party can control that or not is too much of a risk for those conservative leaders to manage — who have been watching, directing, feeding the kinds of supporters that Donald Trump has rounded up, standing there behind the scenes — who are simply too low energy and winded to even try to re-brand under this moment of tragedy.
Last year when President Bill Clinton was asked about Trump, he labeled the businessman as a “master brander.”
Most everyone who has been watching the de-evolution of the party for years has said that they did it to themselves, but the party continues to do so despite the pressures of common sense in changing times.
All Republican leaders nationwide who have taken the stance of opposing everything from the left, refusing to stop taking an absurdist position on everything, can only expect to reap what they sow.
But this is also the fault of those left of center for letting the disease spread through the Republican party and yet, they did what they could at a distance by letting it all play out.
The 114 Congress — which was overrun and created by Tea Party supporters — is currently considered to be the worst congress in recent memory.
They’re called the “do-nothing” Congress where even with recent events, they will not budge or even bother to legislate.
They’re only infuriated when Congress does something, especially when it comes to working with the left, which only makes them angrier.
But even as the old guard of the Republican Party tries to hold onto their vanishing brand, what this means is that the GOP is not destroyed and will only harden its opposition because of what it has become and will have no choice but to fall in line with Trump or keep fighting him.
Either way, the old brand will become extinct.
But now, there’s no doubt that electing the new Republican Party into the White House is all going to be on us.
[Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0]
