• ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Something I've been thinking about, part of the reason Trump won in 2016 is because the Republican establishment failed to coalesce against him the way the Dem establishment did for Bernie. That means that it is very possible that corporate interests push the Republican party machine to become more Democrat-like in order to freeze out popular reactionaries in the future. Thing is I think that a change like that might lead to the Republican party completely collapsing - the Dems can afford to depress their own turnout by nominating unpopular ghouls in a way that the Republicans can't, even gerrymandering won't be enough to keep them in power if a significant chunk of their base tunes out the elections.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      the Republican establishment failed to coalesce against him the way the Dem establishment did for Bernie

      The Republican Establishment isn't in control of the state and local parties in the way the Dem Establishment manages things. The geriatric ghouls selected Jeb Bush as their nominee in 2016 and - for a thousand reasons - he was an utter flop that created a huge vacuum into which Trump poured himself. Obama exploited a similar deficit of charisma against Clinton in 2008, but his wins were tighter and he still needed the Kennedy network to make it through precisely because of the rigid Dem party structure.

      By contrast, a ton of the Trump enthusiasm comes from Right Wing Talk Radio. The shock jocks absolutely adore him. The podcaster weirdos all think he's totally Alpha. Dude is intoxicating to the wanna-be famous crowd.

      I don't think Republicans really have a counter to that inside their own ranks. All their guys are boring empty-suits and weaselly dorks. The only way they can really beat Trump is by bringing him down to their level. And that means turning him into a loser. Maybe a bunch of meme-artists from the Ted Cruz Campaign can pull that off...

      Thing is I think that a change like that might lead to the Republican party completely collapsing

      The Republican Party can't collapse so long as its tent poles - billionaires willing to inject endless amounts of cash into the right-wing media establishment - endure. As long as the American economy continues to dump endless amounts of wealth into the hands of socially conservative patriarchs, you're going to have a GOP in some form or another.