By the way, I didn’t even get into the nastier things about the GOP I could have said like “May also lose Senate majority in no small part because conspiracy crazed tinfoil hats who believe that JFK Jr. is alive and enlightening them on 4chan have now become the mainstream base of the party, and they will refuse to vote for its candidates in protest of their state officials refusing to participate in a fascist coup.”
Somehow I doubt that "Jonestown style Kool-Aid cult" will turn out to be a long-term strategy for success for a political party.
I am not entirely sold on the idea that conspiracy theorists et al. are the mainstream of the GOP. True, the GOP as of late has shot itself in the foot, figuratively speaking, for example by failing to come up with a coherent platform for 2020 other than "Four More Years!" (and even that is being too gentle on them). I do think such marginal thinkers (if I can call them that) are attracted to the GOP because they see them as more anti-Establishment than the Democrats, for certain. I would stop a bit short of saying they are the base or mainstream of the party.
The GOP definitely needs to do some soul-searching, and whatever the results are in GA Jan. 5, they will have plenty of time to do it. I hope enough people still care about two-party politics to try to save the party. I offered some ideas in my post "The Future of the GOP" , and a number of commentators (maybe you were one?) said essentially, "do all of the above".
Someone who cares will need to consider the fact that the strongest support for Trump in 2020 (as in 2016) came from precisely those areas that voted most strongly for George Wallace in 1968 and Richard Nixon in 1972-- home to many people who, frankly, are waiting for death or the Second Coming to relieve them of their alienation (if they even are familiar with that word/concept) and misery. Then they will need to put on their rational hats and consider this fact for what it is: an interesting statistic. Maybe someone will study the reasons why certain people are attracted to certain political ideas. Until then, the GOP needs (in my opinion) to put itself forth as a dynamic, flexible yet principled, party which believes, for the most part, in limited government, control at the smallest possible level (state vs. federal; local vs. state) and in the genius of the American people. Donald Trump did none of these things: he won once, but it was a Pyrrhic victory that damaged the party in the short run. Since the GOP has nothing like a Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings, its members will have to improvise.
The GOP may never win the Black vote, the non-Orthodox Jewish vote, the LGBTQ+ vote, etc. at least on the national level-- but they need to find a way to at least be competitive with these important voter subgroups.
Eh, if anything, I think Trump ditching the voodoo economics garbage saved the party.
If they were still for the "small government" malarkey, they'd be a moribund party.
I think becoming more interventionist on the economy is the way to save them.
Except Trump's domestic policy has arguably been the most right-wing president we have had since the 1920s. He hasnt really done anything that would qualify him as more moderate on domestic policy/economics than Reagan or W Bush really at all.
Reagan used the regulatory state to expand healthcare coverage, did the Montreal protocol , raised capital gains taxes.
W Bush did Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, and expanded the welfare state by a larger amount than any President since LBJ.
Trump hasnt really done anything that qualifies himself as more moderate on domestic policy or economic policy than Reagan. Also people liked the job Trump did economically and most people think his economic policies worked and he was more of a supply-sider than even Reagan was. Even on trade both Reagan and W Bush did tarrifs too so even on trade Trump hasnt really been different than Reagan or W Bush.
The GOP had a bad run from 2006-2013 sure but much of it was cause 2006/2008 was a fallout from the Bush years. 2012 was that Obama ran an extremely good campaign, its difficult to knock of an incumbent when things are seemingly getting better(As bad as the economy was in 2012 it was better than things were in 2009/2010), when you cant run on your signature accomplishment as governor, having a fringe right element seemingly take over a large section of the party and Romney not running a good campaign.
2016 the GOP won cause its extremely hard to win 3 consecutive terms in the white house especially with someone as flawed of a candidate as Hillary, and when after 8 years in the White House only 36% of American think the economy is good(the number in 2020 was 49% so less people thought the economy was good in 2016 than in 2020). Plus there were multiple crises happening abroad which goes against the incumbent party after 8 years in the white house.
For proof of the fact that Trump is an overrated campaigner is the fact that he underperformed the down-ballot GOP both in 2016 and in 2020.
Poll
