Trump without the Republican Party
Do you remember Reagan? What about Trump?
Reagan surrounded himself with experts and listened to them. Trump surrounded himself with people who agreed with him and listened to himself. There’s no comparison.
As you know, despite the widespread prevalence of Covid-19 conservatives They decided to hold a CPAC.
Asked later what it thought about the packed house of ardent conservatives refusing to wear protective coverings during an ongoing pandemic, COVID-19 responded, “Look, I’ve already taken out a half-million Americans, so if these loud-mouths want to bellow and bark about freedom, I’m happy to jump down their throats and give them a taste of ultimate imprisonment.”
COVID-19 was the special guest at the opening of the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday
When Don Jr., in his speech on Friday, claimed that CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) is now TPAC (Trump Political Action Conference), he was not exaggerating. If you think about it, it’s a natural progression from June 2020 when the Republican Party did not create a party platform for the 2020 election, adopting Trump’s “platform” instead, to being completely subsumed by Trump.
Every speaker at the conference so far has declared that the traditional Republican Party is dead and has been replaced by Trumpism.
The most fiery Trump supporter was Ted Cruz, the last candidate standing against Trump in the 2016 primary. Back in the day, he called Trump amoral, a pathological liar, a narcissist and a serial philanderer.
After Trump was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate and then won the election, Cruz apparently put his scruples aside and became one of Trump’s biggest boosters. In his speech at the conference, he declared “Let me tell you this right now: Donald J. Trump ain’t going anywhere,” in response to the recent talk by some Republicans of removing Trump as the leader of the Republican Party now that he is a disgraced former president.
It was proved to me that if a fool wants to be king, he always has soldiers.
At the end of his speech at CPAC, Trump instructed his supporters to donate money to him via his PAC or his website. This is something that he has never done before. It will have a big impact on the GOP’s ability to raise money if donors are donating directly to Trump, rather than to the Republican Party.
Now, by denying the GOP the ability to use his name and likeness to raise money, he is robbing them of a cash cow. Politics is an expensive business. Fundraising is critical to fund both the party and its campaigns. Plus the money that Trump raises is his to spend as he sees fit, not necessarily for the benefit of the Republican Party or its candidates.
Very quickly, Trump is taking over the party. Why is he doing that rather than starting a new party? Because it’s easier. The party infrastructure is already in place. The mailing lists already exist. Name recognition and reputation already exist. Affiliated officeholders and candidates already exist.
If Trump were to start a new party, he would have to create all of that. It would take time and money. Time and money that could be better spent on fundraising and choosing candidates for upcoming races as well as laying the groundwork for his run in 2024.
And what is our exit strategy? How do we prevent the nightmare of a second Trump term? Or even of a second Trump presidential campaign? Because if he loses, we already know what will happen. He will once more whip up his supporters and the violence will be worse and more widespread than it was on January 6.
And if he wins . . . that is too terrible to contemplate. It would be the end of our country as we know it.
