I don't know who the nominee will be, but I can guarantee you one thing: The GOP will spend the next 20 years trying to replicate Trump.
Sad, really. A man who couldn't even win a popular plurality has the party in a iron grip. A movement whose entire political philosophy can be summed up with the phrase "f**k your feelings." That's the GOP now.
It won't work because...
- Only Trump is Trump
- The conditions of 2016 will never be repeated
- Demographic changes will make what was already a long shot in 2016 an impossibility.
I suppose it will be fun seeing someone like Tom Cotton try to be edgy and transgressional on the campaign trail and in debates. He'll just look pathetic. As strong as my loathing of Donald Trump has been for the last 30+ years, I have to hand it to him: he's really the only person for whom this works.
