What Will a Post-Trump G.O.P. Look Like?

[brooklynite]

New York Times

The infighting will begin the moment Florida, North Carolina or any other must-win state for Trump is called for Joe Biden. It will pit two main camps against each other. On the right, it will be the What Were We Thinking? side of the party. On the further right, the Trump Didn’t Go Far Enough side. Think of it as a cage match between Marco Rubio and Tucker Carlson for the soul of the G.O.P.

Both sides will recognize that Trump was a uniquely incompetent executive who — as in his business dealings — always proved his own worst enemy, always squandered his luck, never learned from his mistakes, never grew in office. Both sides will want to wash their hands of the soon-to-be-former president, his obnoxious relatives, their intellectual vacuity and their self-dealing ways. And both will have to tread carefully around a wounded and bitter man who, like a minefield laid for some long-ago war, still has the power to kill anyone who missteps.

That’s where agreement ends. The What Were We Thinking? Republicans will want to hurry the party back to some version of what it was when Paul Ryan was its star. They’ll want to pretend that Trump never happened. They will organize a task force composed of former party worthies to write an election post-mortem, akin to what then-G.O.P. chair Reince Priebus did after 2012, emphasizing the need to repair relations with minorities, women and younger voters. They’ll talk up the virtues of Republicans as reformers and problem-solvers, not Know-Nothings and culture warriors.

The Didn’t Go Far Enough camp will make the opposite case. They’ll note that Trump never built the wall, never got U.S. troops out of the Middle East, never drained the swamp of Beltway corruption, ended NAFTA in name only, did Wall Street’s bidding at Main Street’s expense, and “owned the libs” on Twitter while losing the broader battle of ideas. This camp will seek a new champion: Trump plus a brain.

These are two deeply unattractive versions of the party of Lincoln, one feckless, the other fanatical. Even so, all who care about the health of American democracy should hold their noses and hope the feckless side prevails.

[beachbumbob]

1. depends how large a humaliating defeat is. A tidal wave could completely DESTROY GOP for

decade(s)

[hatrack]

2. What I'm hoping for is something like . . . .

[NeoGreen]

3. I'm hoping they will be referenced, in a historical sense, along with the...

...Whigs.

[C_U_L8R]

4. That orange stain won't fade or wash off.

The GOP's fuckups will follow them to the ballot box for a generation.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. It depends.

It depends on the donors' wishes, e.g., the oligarchy.

It depends if the post-Trump Republicans are ready to pursue policies that may be at odds with their "base" and/or Evangelicals.

It depends on whether republican leaders are ready to return to bipartisanship.

It depends on newfound sanity.

[griffi94]

6. All the hardcore Trumpers

In 4 years you'll have a hard time finding anyone who will admit to having supported him.
The basic makeup of the GOP isn't going to change. It will just get smaller.
Remember all the Dubya fanatics? It's hard now to find anyone that will admit to supporting him.
The hardcore RWers are unable to change. If you listen to them now, they'll tell you that they didn't
ever support Dubya or the war in Iraq.
When Trump is gone, they'll start whooping it up for Scott Baio, or Kanye West or whichever reality TV type steps in to
"own libs".
For the knuckle dragger wing of the GOP, this is just another team sport. Most of them have no comprehension of policy or anything other than "I'm for the red team".

When Trump is gone his current sycophants will simply pretend that they never really supported him.

[duforsure]

7. They'll look scared and thankful

After huge numbers of them get ousted by voters and indictments. Trump will hurt them for decades, and those remaining will be weakened so much their party will have to change dramatically or be gone.

[MiniMe]

8. Don't know, but I can't wait to find out

[dmr]

9. I think the cult of Trump will be bitter and declare "war" on

anything Democratic.

I think we are in for a bitter, evil and nasty fight.

Eventually we may get to your scenaro.

I am not looking forward to this. Scares the hell out of me.

[Midnight Writer]

12. Yes, I look for the cultists to double down. Become even more dogmatic.

When prophecies fail, it can actually reinforce the faith.

[Aristus]

10. Like the inhabitants of Skull Island after they took King Kong away.

A previously forceful, kinetic people reduced to sad, listless, purposeless drones.

The moral conscience of the film says "You took away their god, their reason for being."

[totodeinhere]

11. I remember discussions at DU in 2016 about what will the Republicans do after Trump loses.

Well, we know how that turned out. So lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

[Xolodno]

13. They'll need to return to the point....

...before Newt Gingrich. He's the one who forbade Republicans from compromising, allowing them to socialize with Democrats, etc. Which then spread-ed like a Corona Virus to the rest of the GOP.

[uponit7771]

14. Trump Who?! Benghazi !!! The republican party will need to be demonized properly so they don't

... return to this bullshit