We still don’t know who will win the presidential election this fall, but Jay Caruso is looking ahead to the Republican Party’s post-election future. He shares his analysis at National Review Online.
After Mitt Romney was defeated in 2012, the GOP conducted a “post mortem,” the purpose of which was to make inroads with the working poor, with minorities, and with women — all consistently pro-Democratic voting blocs. In the 2016 cycle, Trump completely upended the GOP’s restoration plans, and forced them back to the drawing board.
This has served as a major setback for a party that looked to be on the verge of domination. And yet, if it is clever, the GOP can use the opportunity to its advantage. Barring some major catastrophe, Donald Trump will likely lose to Hillary Clinton. And, when he does, his defeat will spell the end of the GOP as we know it, and the beginning of a new Republican party that is better placed to advance conservative ideals.
Although the political landscape has changed in recent years, the GOP has struggled to adapt its voter-appeal approach to the times. As is now clear, Republicans can no longer merely talk of “lower taxes and smaller government,” in order to get people to listen and to vote. They must take a different approach, but without having to surrender conservative principles to do so.
For over 20 years, the Republican party has embraced larger and more expansive government. In George W. Bush’s administration alone, Republicans supported No Child Left Behind, the 2002 Farm Bill, and Medicare Part D, among other things. In so doing, they advanced the idea that government can work so long as the right party is the one aiding its expansion. It is for this reason that voters are cynical when Republicans promise to, say, abolish the Department of Commerce. Given past results, they know that it is not going to happen.
