Donald Trump is not a Republican. The bigotry, appeasement of foreign enemies, disregard for rule of law, crude behavior, and borderline incendiary attacks on democracy that characterize the Trump administration do not fairly represent the values or goals of the Republican Party. The GOP, which once advocated for traditional social values and small government, now represents indoctrination into a cult of personality around a morally reprehensible, dishonest, and bigoted, and corrupt billionaire that uses big government for personal gain.
How did Republicans allow this to happen? To answer this question, it should be made clear that Trump is not solely responsible for the rapid debasement of the GOP during his presidency: Republican leaders at all levels have played an equally damaging role. The Trump administration, while lacking a clear policy agenda since it took power, has been able to maintain a stronghold over the Republican party by delivering on conservative economic, family planning, and judicial priorities. However, Trumps bigoted remarks, praise of foreign adversaries, and shortsighted foreign policy moves throughout his first term have angered and isolated millions of Democrats and Republicans alike, shrinking Trump’s, and therefore the GOP’s, only reliable source of support to straight white men in rural areas without a college degree. While far from representing the entire United States, uneducated, working class men make up a powerful voting bloc in states, districts, and counties that tend to maintain a Republican majority, or at least where a Republican has a chance of winning. In addition, Trump’s far-right, divisive rhetoric conflates patriotism and nationalism, important values for conservative voters, with unconditional support for the executive. The GOP has set, and now must live up to, the expectation that Republicans running for office need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to appeal to Republican constituents. In short, Republicans at every level demonstrate, and therefore further perpetuate, that conservative leadership, regardless of actual impact, is the primary marker of a good president and that patriotism is dependent upon unconditional loyalty to party and the executive.
The emphasis placed on party loyalty has led to another damaging change to the GOP under Trump: an unwillingness to cooperate with the left. Trump’s I’m-a-political-outsider-so-you-can’t-tell-tell-me-what-to-do attitude paired with the fragile definition of what appears ‘weak’— and therefore un-American — has, to use traditional Republican language, ‘trickled down’ to all levels of the GOP. Republicans, following Trump’s lead, have abandoned any ideological coherence in order to prioritize loyalty to Trump and populist rhetoric, putting the GOP on the defensive in the face of Congressional Democrats with strong policy agendas. The result of this lack of coherence is extreme polarization that has prevented both legislators and private citizens from engaging in productive discussions or drawing effective conclusions on policy issues. While Democrats and Republicans will always disagree on fundamental policy issues, Trump’s, and therefore the GOP’s, blatant disrespect for and personal attacks on Democratic leadership and unwillingness to even entertain productive policy discussions with the left marks a disappointing and frankly unpatriotic shift from the once considerate, country-first Republican Party to the stubborn, party-first cult of personality we see on the right side of the aisle today.
In their present condition, the GOP can only survive by generating an atmosphere of chaos and anger. Paired with their rapidly decreasing bases of support, the GOP’s application of voter suppression and other corrupt tactics to garner support, or rather to suppress opposition, are transparently undemocratic and have not fooled the increasingly dominant voting bloc of younger, educated Americans. Republicans are trapped in an escape room of their own making — and the only way out is Joe Biden.
Despite a strong disapproval of Trump, many Republicans may find it difficult to cross the party lines that have been so deeply polarized by Trump and to vote for the Democratic candidate. However, Republicans must understand the necessity of Trump’s defeat if their party is to survive. If Trump gets the opportunity to further his increasingly extreme behaviors, rhetoric, and incoherent (or nonexistent) policies for four more years, traditional conservatism in the two-party system will be isolated to the point of irrelevance.
The key benefit of a moderate Democrat in office for Republicans is stability. The past four years have clearly been politically tumultuous, forcing both sides of the aisle to reorganize their priorities in order to face unprecedented challenges presented by Trump. At the very least, four years of Biden means a return to normalcy. Under the conditions of normalcy, Republicans will have the chance to reclaim their party’s core conservative policy agenda and rid themselves of the reputation of bigotry and hate that Trump has brought upon them. As a moderate, Biden faces opposition from both Republicans and the left wing of the party, so it is unlikely that he will be able to pass far-left leaning legislation or a significant amount of liberal legislation in just four years. Biden is a seasoned politician, so he knows the importance of and has extensive experience in bipartisan compromise. In addition, Biden’s moderate positions on issues like criminal justice, energy, and the 2nd amendment are generally in line with the sentiments of GOP policies, at least in principle.
While Biden’s moderate policies and willingness to compromise can benefit the Republican Party policy-wise, the most important offering from a Biden administration to the GOP is an opportunity to regroup. Under an experienced civil servant that puts country first, the GOP has the opportunity to reconstruct Republican party characterized by duty to country, conservative values, integrity, and representation of all Americans. The past four years have revealed, in the most extreme fashion, the structural weaknesses of the GOP’s electoral strategies and how those unaddressed weaknesses lead to one of the most flippant and least productive political moments in our country’s history. As previously stated, the Republican Party has become a cult of personality based around bigotry and truly unpresidential leadership, and a Biden victory would push Republicans to reverse that trend.
The fate of not only the Republican party, but also our democracy is at stake on Election Day. Joe Biden’s election is a requirement to the survival of both conservatism in the Republican party and to the survival of the democratic system the Republican party depends on. Joe Biden will protect and honor the foundations of democracy this country was built on: a system that is in dire need of protection from illiberal, unconstitutional, and potentially irreversible debasement by the Trump administration. So, Biden isn’t your ideal candidate. Fine. Vote for him now so you can be confident that the democratic institutions will still be in place for you to vote for your first choice in 2024.