Despite his faults and lack of conservative thought, Donald Trump has managed to expose a serious problem within the Conservative, GOP movement. The divide is large and it has come full throttle in this specific election.
So what is this problem? Well it used to be that the Conservative movement while having a lot of different sub groups (Tea Party, Neo-Con, Paleo-Con, Social-Con, etc) united against a common enemy: Obama and the Democrats. Most far right individuals settled for Romney in the 2012 election. He might not have been the top pic of a lot of people, but he was good enough to try to push through. Not perfect, but better than Obama. The GOP was a place of different thought and encompass of different ideas. It welcomed new concepts and theories and questions.
This election, Donald Trump has become the poster-child of the far-right, nationalist movement and has sucked into it a lot of other traditionalists and far-right Republicans. For some people see Trump as horrible, “but not as bad as Hillary.” But that has only happened now that the race has come to a close. Trump was gaining popularity rapidly and surely, like Obama in his first election.
To Donald Trump’s credit he has led to the true colors of the GOP showing. It’s hateful nature, which most people had assumed was a small percentage of the overall conservative/Republican population. But no. Now, as social media is in full force, any criticism of Trump or disagreement with his policies and theories gets one labeled a “cuck.” Remember the days when only liberals send death threats and hatemail? Ah those were the days.
Anyone who disagrees with King Trump is suddenly not Conservative enough, and doesn’t support right framework he’s appropriated. It’s a frightening world we live in today where disagreement is seen as something bad. Pointing out Trump’s long history of Democratic donations, love for the Clintons, support of gun control, and his complete lack of respect for the constitution is betrayal.
It seems that Trump has succeeded in driving a large wedge between different types of right-wing thinkers (which may or may not had been brewing long before him) and now labels like neo-con are seen as form of ultimate betrayal of the party. No party is perfect, and ostracizing those with different points of view closes it off from new ideas that may actually work. It keeps the GOP from evolving and being better than the close-minded one-mind nature of liberals. Parties must grow and learn.
This new (or old depending on your view) isolationist, nationalistic GOP sounds more and more like the Democratic party they claim to be against. For the first time monarchists, American monarchists to boot have come out of the sand castle, and claim allegiance with Donald Trump, while parading the conservative nature of their ideology. But that’s a separate topic.
Trump’s views are authoritarian, nationalistic and they’re not too far from fascism. He’s like the modern day FDR. But bloggers all over are now are obsessed with him, seeing hatred of Trump as betrayal and heresy. It is a sad change in the GOP, where bright and different ideas are put down in the name of hitting the shoe on the podium. “Oh we’ll show those Democrats” and “We have to keep Hillary out of the White House.” Show them what? That years of their notions of the GOP were actually correct? The current Trump supporters, not all, but quite a lot are acting just like Democrats did in 2008 and 2012, where any legitimate criticism of Obama was seen as racist. Here it’s not racism, it just means you’re a automatically an America-hating liberal.
Well we shall see how that works out in the general election when most polls show Trump getting beaten by Hillary (and no, this isn’t a Hillary endorsement, she’s just as bad as him).
The sad thing is that there were legitimate and amazing GOP candidates this election, but they were beaten out in the name of a “firm hand” and a continuation of government overreach. And while the country will likely survive four years of either Trump or Hillary, the GOP will have a very hard time wrestling with this come 2020.
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