The Death of the Republican Party

My experiment to resume blogging has certainly lagged since April! But there's something about the approaching election, and Trump descending even further into hell, that motives me to write again.

Today's topic is the death of the Republican party. It's not something that I wish for -- I've had Republican periods in my life, especially growing up when the Republican party was led by decent people acting decently. 

But today's incarnation of that party is definitely self-destructing. And while it's scary to watch and see how it divides and damages our country in the process, I feel some comfort that it's finally happening.

So I'll start with facts, something that I know are completely foreign to Trump and many Republicans today. But I still rather like facts. And here's an interesting fact to observe: the last time the Republicans had a legitimately and popularly elected president of the United States was in 1988.  That's 32 years, or 8 administrations, ago.  An entire generation.

A small refresher:

Election	Republican	Votes	Democrat	Votes
1988	George Bush	47,946,000	Michael Dukakis	41,016,000
1992	George Bush	39,102,000	Bill Clinton	44,908,000
1996	Bob Dole	37,816,000	Bill Clinton	45,590,000
2000	George W Bush	50,456,000	Al Gore	50,996,000
2004	George W Bush	62,039,000	John Kerry	59,027,000
2008	John McCain	59,934,000	Barack Obama	69,456,000
2012	Mitt Romney	60,589,000	Barack Obama	65,446,000
2016	Donald Trump	62,980,000	Hilary Clinton	65,845,000

These numbers are pretty telling, aren't they? And sure, Americans love to debate the merits / stupidity of the Electoral College system but that's not the debate here. The simple fact, shown above, is that when it comes to Americans voting, their legitimate vote has consistently favored the Democratic candidate since the elder George Bush won the popular vote in 1988. Back when I was in high school!

And why did I italicize 2004? Because the numbers favored Bush... but I'm being strict here, and saying it doesn't count. Because if you're not the legitimately, popularly elected president in your first term, how can your second term re-election be considered legitimate? But if anyone wants to bicker with me here, and show that Republican presidential candidates haven't consistently lost the popular vote since 1988, you can claim that one half-baked result. (But does that actually make you feel any better? It's a pretty pathetic way to claim a win.)

Now I know that Trump has never demonstrated any behavior that remotely resembles the appreciation of history, and the application of lessons learned from history to current affairs. And obviously a large portion of his base -- uneducated white males -- would scoff at my exercise, too. After all, isn't history and other brain-exercising thought considered uppity, left wing academic tomfoolery?

But I think there are still a number of Republicans who are acutely aware of this trend. And while they might not think about it in stark numbers, they have the hollowe ache in their souls of not remembering what it feels like to truly win a presidential election without some amount of controversy. What does a clean, clear mandate feel like? Only Republicans who can remember 1988 can answer that question.

So this bad karma, this plague of loss for 7 presidential election cycles, continues to eat away at the Republican party. But rather than fueling a climb to higher ground to claim a true win, with a strong candidate they can be proud of, the Republicans are sticking with a fascist who is now completing the definition of that title by promising, yes specifically promising, to interfere in our election. Something that we're used to seeing in utterly corrupt nations in Latin America, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere. But now such a level of corruption that can stain the entire fabric of our dialogue, trust, and system of government has come to roost in America.

Manipulating elections -- has it really come to this? Yes it has.

Unbelievably, the descent of the Republican party apparently hasn't stopped yet, as most of them still aren't arguing with Trump on this issue. The historic bitterness is too strong. And as their leader, Trump is behaving like a rabid raccoon cornered in the back of a garage. He's hissing, lashing out, and thrashing around. He's well beyond being rational. He simply wants to survive at any cost. Including publicly admitting that he's more than happy to directly interfere with the upcoming election because he knows he going to be trounced and add to the 7 presidential election cycles of shameful Republican loss.

Fortunately, more Republicans are stepping away from this maniacal, sick beast of a man and realizing that tethering their future to him is not going to help them win back respect. Republicans like Romney, Collins, Blunt, Ridge and a handful of others have enough integrity to demonstrate reason and resistance. Kudos to them. But is this small number of thoughtful Republicans enough to save their party from self-destruction?

Republicans have a lot to overcome in this narrative, and their endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016 showed how desperate they were four years ago to put a Republican in the White house. Unfortunately their gamble both paid off (he's there) and was another disaster (he didn't win the popular vote). It's this half-victory that is exactly what they don't need to start restoring their party. And with Trump promising to meddle in the 2020 election, a Trump win -- though highly unlikely according to today's numbers -- will be even less than a half-victory. 

Is the continued death of the Republican party even more certain, given this outlook? It seems that way. But perhaps more Republican dissent can help save us all from the angry, insane rodent that is backed into the corner of our country's collective garage.