College Of Political Knowledge

I have written many times that my maternal grandfather was a Republican and worked for Ike in 1956 because he believed that Ike would do a better job for the country……

Here is what the GOP stood for in the 1956 elections…..

How about a comparison of then and now…..

What the Hell happened?

Take a closer look at the platforms of 1960 and 1964…..

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1960

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1964

What the Hell happened to the GOP?

I blame the election of Ronald Reagan.

I personally think that his, Reagan, hateful rhetoric like lumping all welfare recipients as “Welfare Queens” stirred the latent racism that was simmering ever since the civil rights movement…..started the GOP down the path that brought it to Donald Trump and the events that occurred in the Capitol on 06 January.

I have read an article about the devolution of the GOP…..

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/18/the-long-sad-corrupted-devolution-of-the-gop-from-eisenhower-to-donald-trump/

…

the Republican Party of the past at least showed itself capable of responding to domestic and global issues, offering and implementing successful policies to deal with pressing problems like poverty, environmental degradation, and a refugee crisis.

So what happened?

There is no easy explanation, but there are a few key catalysts for the party’s slide into extremism.

Ultimately, the Republican Party’s drift away from inclusion and the public interest and toward a coterie of extreme donors and ideologies does have an electoral cost, one that could force reformation or perhaps the birth of a new political party — just ask the Whigs.

Now the big question is….where will the GOP end up?

For now I think they will stay in the grip of Trump…..and a recent poll confirms my fears…

A majority of Republican voters said if former President Trump were to start a new political party they would likely join, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.

Sixty-four percent of registered Republican voters in the Jan. 28-29 survey said they’d join a new political party led by the former president, including 32 percent who said they would very likely join.

What could happen to change the course the GOP has set?

It will not be Trump…..he says he is still in control….

Former President Trump will re-enter the political spotlight Sunday when he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference. What to expect? If a report at Axios is any indication, the speech will be a “show of force” that makes clear Trump is still running the show within the GOP and remains the Republican candidate to beat for 2024. Details and related coverage:

• One unnamed adviser sums up the theme for Mike Allen as, “I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I’m still in charge.” Trump will position himself as the presumptive 2024 nominee—though it’s not clear whether he’ll run—and as more powerful than ever. Also expect lots of I-told-you-so about President Biden. And for now, “payback is his chief obsession,” writes Allen, which will take the form of backing primary challenges to Republicans who turned against him.
• Trump may have a point about his support. A new USA Today poll finds that 46% of Trump voters would ditch the GOP to join a new party with him. Half think the GOP should be more loyal to Trump, even if that means losing more mainstream Republicans, compared with just 19% who think the party should be less loyal to Trump and embrace establishment Republicans.
• At Hot Air, conservative Allahpundit takes note of other Trump surveys of late, including by Gallup, Rasmussen, and Suffolk. “This makes three polls in less than a month establishing the same two key facts about the current Republican Party,” writes the pundit. “One: There are many more Trumpers than there are anti-Trumpers. Two: There are enough anti-Trumpers to make life difficult for the GOP if things stay too Trumpy.” In Allahpundit’s view, 50% of the GOP is more loyal to Trump than the party, 30% back Trump but not enough to buck the party, and 20% want the GOP to head in a new direction.
• At Red State, a post by Bonchie digests the recent Trump reports and issues a prediction: “Playing kingmaker may actually be Trump’s ultimate goal over the next four years. While I’d certainly not rule out a 2024 run for him, I think he enjoys the intra-party battle just as much.”
• Trump, meanwhile, continues to maintain a relatively low profile at Mar-a-Lago. GOP Rep. Steve Scalise told ABC News on Sunday that he visited the former president recently, finding that he “was a lot more relaxed than his four years in the White House.” And in a sign of the loyalty Trump still commands, Scalise refuse to explicitly acknowledge that the election wasn’t stolen, when asked directly.

For those that think “unity” is possible…..WAKE THE HELL UP!

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