If Donald Trump has shown one thing, it's that he has the power to divide. Not only has he furthered the divide between Republicans and Democrats, but he has even divided the Republican Party, whose divide is now the size of the Grand Canyon following his antics post-election.
The Republican Party has hit a point in which it hasn't hit before. Historically, it's been the big tent party, able to attract several different politically-minded people: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, libertarians, neoliberals, etc. However, under Donald Trump's Presidency, a populist wing established itself in the party, and I would argue has now become the base of the Republican Party.
Trump's relationship with conservatism is complex. Throughout his four years, sure, he implemented several conservatives policies, however, at the end of the day, a conservative-minded policy doesn't necessarily mean someone is a conservative. American conservatism is unique as it's just that, American, and what this ideology tries to accomplish is conserve the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We can dig deeper into these documents in other posts, but I think we can all agree that an important principle in these documents is checks and balances within the government, largely presented by James Madison who is known as the Father of the Constitution.
Post-election, Trump has disrespected those checks and balances, and in effect broke his oath in upholding the Constitution. Let's look back to January 6. Leading up to that day, then President Trump was barking at Vice-President Mike Pence to not certify the election results. At that point, Trump and his cooky backers who routinely appeared on right of center media had spent weeks building up the false premise that Mike Pence had a role to play on January 6, and he actually had a Constitutional role to not certify the electoral votes. He didn't. January 6 was never supposed to be anything more than a ceremonial process, where electoral counts are counted by the Vice President in front of Congress. This is stated in Article 2 of the Constitution. The Constitution, like Dan Crenshaw lays out in his podcast following the treacherous day, never says there is a process for objections, debate, or voting to be held unless no candidate reaches a majority electoral vote. It's hard to hide the fact that Trump tried to do everything in his power to keep power and win the presidency back. That's not a conservative-backed philosophy, is it? In fact, it's hard to think of a move that disrespects our founding more. In the 18th century, we tried to escape monarchy after all.
Like many conservatives, I too voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020. It was brutal to do, but I didn't see another way forward. However, he showed post-election that he is hell-bent on power, which is the exact reason why I will never check his name on an election ballot again. There are many in this same position, who want to rid Trump from the Republican Party and get it back to the party of conservatism, and not populism.
New polls show that people like me are in the minority within the party. A new poll released by Morning Consult and Politico shows that 54% of Republicans would vote for Trump in the Republican Primaries. Next closest? Mike Pence, at 12%. It's clear that if Trump runs in 2024, the nomination is his. However, if Trump doesn't run (which at this point I believe it's more likely he does run. As I alluded to earlier, he is hell-bent on power) it's evident that whoever wants to win the race has to have Trump's blessings.
For those who want to save the Republican Party from Trump's power-hungry hands, it's time to stand up. It's time to take the Grand Old Party back.
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