The Republican Party Has Always Been the Party of Donald Trump.
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Trump isn’t an anomaly. He had unwavering support throughout his entire presidency and Democrats are best to remember this.
When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, we were met with a wave of hesitant warnings from his Republican colleagues. You’d be right to think Trump’s support among the rest of the world and in the United States was low, but his support in the Republican Party was consistently around 89%. The Republican Party was always the party of Donald Trump.
Republican politicians denounced Trump in the beginning stages of his presidency but came around to him after four years. This isn’t because Donald Trump turned heel and started passing well liked legislation or suddenly became presidential. It’s because they realized it was now okay to openly support and agree with Trump’s rhetoric — something they thought the party had moved past.
Jeff Flake continuously disavowed Trump’s actions through his presidential term claiming Trump wasn’t the future of the Republican Party. Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke out against Trump, claiming he is a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” Political commentator and media host Ben Shapiro continuously denounced Trump’s actions and remarks through his presidential term and did not support the president in 2016. We even got an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times from former Homeland Security Official, Miles Taylor claiming he was “part of the resistance inside the Trump Administration” and was “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda and his worst inclinations.”
These words from Miles Taylor mean nothing when he played a significant role in the Trump administration’s child separation policy and showed his ability to willingly give up on being the ‘resistance’ when he left his position for a job at Google. Flake’s empty words mean nothing when he voted alongside Trump 81% of the time. Sen. Lindsey Graham endorsed Trump and became one of his most vocal supporters, encouraging Trump to run again in 2024 and voted alongside Trump 90% of the time. Ben Shapiro is now vocal about his support for Donald Trump and voted for him in his 2020 reelection bid.
Once the politicians, pundits and supporters caught wind of the realization that while Trump’s regressive, authoritarian and proto-fascist actions weren’t favorable to the rest of the world, his actions weren’t bad enough to disqualify him from their own party. From there they fell in line.
But what made Trump scary wasn’t his ability to get his republican colleagues to fall in line. It was his ability to rile up a mass constituency and remind a wide array of voters that running on his platform is favorable. Political philosopher Noam Chomsky claims the power of a president or politician isn’t their electability or their ability to get legislation passed but rather their ability to inspire and mobilize political activism — something Trump has been undeniably good at. While Trump lost his 2020 bid for reelection, he is still responsible for reminding the Republican Party who they are and who they always were.
Even though the 2020 presidential election had a record breaking voter turnout, Trump had the highest amount of GOP votes for an incumbent president ever (though Joe Biden surpassed Trump and Obama’s record for most votes ever for a candidate). Trump utilized the powerful selling tool of nostalgia to appeal to the past. It’s easy to look at the past and think of the good when your brain naturally responds with good memories when thinking about the past — whatever those memories may be. While not everyone who voted for Trump is racist or bigoted, he reinvigorated the dormant bigotry and racism we thought we were moving past.
People are willing to sacrifice democratic principles in order to achieve desired economic outcomes. Though baseless, Trump hammered on the economy and stock market his entire presidential term. This caused many voters to justify and revive that dormant racism and bigotry in favor of those desired economic outcomes. And those who weren’t racist and bigoted before Trump may have found ways to justify or mimic it in favor of their desired economic outcomes. Likely why violent hate crimes hit a 16 year high under Trump.
Donald Trump was never a bold and risky choice to redefine the Republican Party as some outside, never-before-politician who had the power to take on Washington from within. He was never the knight in shining armor that was going to lead the republican constituency to rid Washington of lifelong corrupt politicians. Trump was someone who echoed the once suppressed inner woes of the Republican base.
This miscalculation by the Democratic Party caused the 2020 election to be much closer than it should have. Running on being the party of not Donald Trump isn’t enticing to those who already have problems with the democratic establishment. They needed to stand for something. They needed to package a concise message for their vision of the future of America instead of talking in platitudes about healing the nation and returning to normalcy — especially when normalcy isn’t good enough for a lot of us. Democrats better remind themselves of this come 2024 considering Biden will likely only serve one term and Trump telling his advisors he wants to run again in 2024.
Trump’s unwavering support through four years shows where the Republican Party stands and what they value. Trump likely paved the way for a more competent fascist. The GOP and Trump’s base will likely mimic the unwavering support they had for Trump because Donald Trump is the Republican Party and the Republican Party was always the party of Donald Trump.
