The Republican Party spent four years trying to coexist with (that is, live under the thumb of) President Trump. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t, but it’s definitely over now. With Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol building, it’s evident that this experiment was a failure.
After trying to portray himself as the “law and order” candidate, Trump’s election delusions inspired a mob breaking down doors to get into the chambers of Congress. After trying to portray himself as the patriotic president, Trump has overseen an anti-American disgrace. It is a vindication of nearly every criticism of Trump the man and Trump the president.
This is a case of all of the Republican Party’s failures crashing down on one embarrassing, shameful day. Insisting Trump could change was a fool’s exercise. Hoping he would grow into the office, like he was some child king, was nonsense. Trump lost, threw a temper tantrum that cost Republicans two Senate seats in Georgia, and then encouraged a mob to force members of Congress to evacuate as they attempted to certify the results of the election that he lost.
The GOP failed to convince enough of its own voters that it was on the right path. The party failed to keep Trump from turning the party into his personal brand. Even Republicans who weren’t Trump’s biggest fans talked themselves into going along for the ride, keeping their head down to try and hold a coalition together. This was clearly a mistake.
Trump must be excised from the party. He fueled the flames of controversy because he is a narcissist incapable of coming to terms with the fact that he lost to a bumbling old man like Joe Biden. His accomplishments are irrelevant: He should have no role in the future of the party.
The Republican Party cannot turn to Trump to lead it again in 2024. It also can’t turn to those like Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who were feeding the conspiracy that Trump won the election up to the moment they were forced to flee the Senate chamber. Otherwise, the GOP would be accepting what happened today as the price of politics.
This doesn’t mean the GOP should abandon the policies the Trump administration pursued, obviously. It doesn’t mean that every Republican in office must be defeated or disbarred. But the party must reckon with its failures today, and that starts with a permanent disassociation from Trump.
