It’s become yet another subsidiary of Trump Inc.

When historians chronicle the end of the Grand Old Party, they may mark 2024 as the turning point. Something called the Republican Party will surely exist for years to come, like a legacy brand subsumed by a competitor, but it appears to be coming to its end as a functional party. Instead, the Republican Party has become just another subsidiary of Donald Trump Inc.

Yesterday, Trump announced his effective takeover of the Republican National Committee, endorsing Michael Whatley, the chair of the North Carolina GOP, as chair; his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair; and one of his top campaign advisers, Chris LaCivita, as chief operating officer. LaCivita will reportedly also remain with the Trump presidential campaign, splitting time. The current chair of the party, Ronna McDaniel, is stepping down because of pressure from Trump.

Officially, these are only recommendations, but they seem nearly certain to become reality.

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  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    21·
    9 months ago

    Maybe I am missing some obvious third option, but I think there are only two main possible outcomes at the end of all this several years hence:

    1. The GOP ceases to exist as a non-fringe party, with Democratic primaries between the establishment-Democrat wing and the progressive-Democrat wing as the main event politically.
    2. Fascist dictatorship

    The normally reliable rate of young people turning Republican as they age and get settled in life has dropped to basically 0, so the GOP is basically stuck with the ones they’ve got and their election-rigging chicanery, and both situations ratchet a little less to their benefit with every passing year. They haven’t won the popular vote for president in 20 years, and if gerrymandering went away they would lose control of congress irrevocably overnight.

    The bad thing is that I think a lot of Republican politicians are aware of this. It might be part of why the ones of them that aren’t resigning seem so comfortable with accelerating fascism. In the first case, their careers will end in useless humiliation that attaches to them personally, and they’ll have to find a real job.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        2·
        9 months ago

        I think there are three things going on here.

        • Polling in December 2023 is going to give Biden a massive drop in support, because the Gaza war and Biden’s foreign-policy-business-as-usual response to it had just tanked his support among politically aware young people. As much as I personally would wish that wasn’t true, it’s definitely going to have an impact; I’m surprised his support dropped by only ten points since the middle of the year (maybe representing a depressingly small number of young voters who are politically active enough to realize that support for Israel is a bad thing, or maybe counterbalancing factors).
        • I think The Economist just likes to spin bad stories about Biden. There’s a lot in this story that to me is suspect, e.g. “Americans under 30 did not much trust either probable nominee. But they trusted Mr Trump more on the economy, national security, the Israel-Hamas war, crime, immigration and strengthening the working class.”
        • This year and this mideast war and these candidates notwithstanding, the overall demographics year over year are exactly as I described them. You have to count back to the grouping that is minimum 68 years old before you find even plurality Republican support, and even including the silent generation (!) they are never a majority. That is not as it used to be.