A New Republican Party
Americans are still reeling from Sunday night’s debate between presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The severity of Trump’s comments in 2005 continues to reverberate among Republican leaders as well as female voters. On Friday, a recording surfaced of Donald Trump making extremely lewd comments about women. The release of this recording has sent Trump’s campaign into what some perceive a death spiral with little hope of recovery before Election Day, and he’s taking the Republican Party down with him.
If you are keeping track, there are less than 30 days left until voters head to the polls and almost every presidential election there is what’s called an October surprise. An October surprise is a news event created or timed which will influence the outcome of an election. In the context of this election, the leaked Trump tapes are this election’s October surprise, and instead of dashing a candidate’s presidential dreams it may have just toppled an entire political party.
Trump’s braggadocios comments have caused a rift within the Republican party and shattered any semblance of party unity. On a conference call Monday morning, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan informed Republican lawmakers he would never campaign for Trump and would instead focus his efforts in maintaining the party’s majority in Congress. Meanwhile, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told members the party would stand behind its presidential nominee. There is no doubt a line drawn within the Republican party between Trump supporters and Anti-Trump, and regardless of who wins at the ballot box, the GOP will never be the same.
As Chairman Priebus continues to stand behind Trump and drag the party and its nominee across the finish line on November 8th, Republicans are trying to make sense of how this election got so far off course At what point did the Grand Old Party become a party who is willing to tolerate a candidate who boasts about sexual assault? It is no wonder, female voters are willing to take a gamble and vote across party lines.
The 2016 presidential election for Republicans has brought about what some would argue is internal strife between the #NeverTrump crowd and what some are calling a Tea Party take over of the Republican Party. Either way, on November 9th, there will be a lot of soul searching among Republicans. The best case scenario is for Republicans to maintain control of Congress, the worst case scenario, Democrats control both the White House and Congress, leaving the GOP to go back to the drawing board and find a viable candidate to take on Clinton in 2020.
This election will leave not only an indelible mark in the history books, but also within the Republican Party for years to come. And to think, it all began because a real estate mogul to an elevator ride down to the first floor of his building and stepped outside to announce on the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was going to run for president.