How President Trump saved the Republican Party from itself

He made the changes that the party leaders wouldn’t

Shortly after Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama in 2012, I said it would be the best thing that ever happened to the Republicans - IF they let it be.

Had Romney hacked out a win, the party likely would’ve continued doing the same old thing. But I was hopeful - not optimistic, but hopeful - that his loss would induce the party to make much needed changes.

2012 was an extremely winnable election for the Republicans. Obama’s election in 2008 had little to do with Americans craving liberal policies. We were coming off a dreary eight years of Bush Jr., the economy was sluggish, people were sick of war, and here comes this young, charismatic guy, giving these uplifting speeches about hope and change.

I remember one day during that campaign, I was having lunch at Steak 'n Shake with my father, whose political views are similar to mine. I told him that I understood why Obama was appealing to people who were not well politically informed, and he agreed.

Because of the backlash against Bush and the economy, it was the Democrats’ election to lose, and the Republicans clinched the loss by nominating John McCain - an unexciting moderate mediocrity, and a career politician who stood for nothing but the status quo.

But the honeymoon was short lived for Obama. Once people saw how he governed, they responded with a massacre in the 2010 midterms. Republicans gained an extraordinary 62 seats in the House and six in the Senate.

All the Republicans had to do now was pick a solid nominee for president, but they came up with Romney, who was about as bad as McCain. Obama, amid far less enthusiasm than 2008, got a modest win - 3.9% of the popular vote; down from 7.2% four years earlier.

To send a message to the Republicans that I would not automatically vote for anyone they forced on us, I voted for the Libertarian Party nominee both times - former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, respectively. I’m now even more proud that I refused to vote for Romney, after what he did as a senator.

I said frequently after the 2012 election that the Republicans needed to do three things going forward.

1. Be fiscally conservative. That’s always a winning issue. Far more Americans prefer lower taxes and less government to the opposite, and the economy is usually the most important issue to voters.

2. Attract minorities. For many years, the Republicans could win presidential elections by simply getting 65% of the white vote. But with whites continually decreasing as a percentage of the population, it was clear that the party needed to broaden its outreach; not merely concede that Democrats would always get 90% of the black vote and 75% of the Hispanic vote.

3. Remain pro-life, but otherwise be socially tolerant - not socially liberal. There is a small but significant segment of society for whom being pro-life is the most important thing in a candidate, and who simply will not vote for a pro-abortion candidate, no matter what. Losing that constituency could very well be the difference between winning and losing a presidential election. But at the same time, society was rapidly becoming more liberal on issues such as same sex marriage and marijuana legalization. It was important to welcome people who were socially moderate and even left leaning.

I knew that IF the Republicans did those three things, they would have a majority party. But I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for those changes. Since the early 90s, shortly after I began following politics closely, I had felt that there was some great talent in the party, but that the talent was marginalized by the party leadership, which was super pro-establishment.

Much to my pleasant surprise, those three things did start happening in time for 2016, and from an unlikely source. At first, I took a wait and see approach to Donald Trump’s candidacy. Having been familiar with him since the late 80s or early 90s, I never had any strong feelings about him, but I needed to be convinced that his candidacy wasn’t just a publicity stunt.

At first, I was turned off by some of his tactless, abrasive comments, but I liked that he wasn’t controlled by special interests. Then, seeing how much Democrats and establishment Republicans hated him made me think he must be better than I realized. And I certainly thought that he had the country’s best interests at heart far more than Hillary Clinton did.

What I saw from his first term was far from perfect; he’s not as much of a small government advocate, or as much of a constitutional scholar, as I’d like a president to be. But he did a lot of good, giving us a thriving economy, a secure border, energy independence, and peace through strength, among other things. And above all, I saw him as someone who dearly and unapologetically loved America, and tried his best for the country.

Furthermore, the extraordinary lengths to which the media, Democrats, and establishment Republicans went to destroy him exposed the establishment as being even much more corrupt and evil than most of us realized.

And slowly over the nine years since he began his first campaign, I’ve seen him start to build the majority coalition that I hoped for in the aftermath of the 2012 election.

The Republicans are still the party of fiscal conservatives, but they’re now also the party of blue collar workers.

They’re still the party of suburban and rural America, but they’re now also the party of far more blacks and Hispanics than at any time in the modern era - despite Trump being constantly branded a racist and white supremacist.

They’re still the party of conservative Christians, but they’re now also much more welcoming of other lifestyles. Trump was the first person elected president as a supporter of same sex marriage, and two of his biggest advocates on Fox News are a gay woman, Tammy Bruce, and a transsexual, Caitlyn Jenner.

The Republicans are now the party of those who support free speech, civil liberties, medical freedom, and who oppose war, while the Democrats have become the party of mass censorship and the military industrial complex.

Of the main four Republican presidential candidates this year, two were the children of Indian immigrants - Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. Both were raised Hindus, and Ramaswamy still practices that faith. And Trump is expected to increase his vote totals from both Jews and Muslims this year.

When the Republicans swept Virginia’s three statewide races in 2021 - after Democrats had swept them in the two previous elections - two of the three offices were won by minorities. A black woman, Winsome Sears, was elected lieutenant governor, and a Hispanic man, Jason Miyares, was elected attorney general.

Of course, I hope that President Trump wins back the presidency in nine days, and I think he will. But that’s beside the point of this article, which is the much needed changes that Trump made to the Republicans, and how deeply indebted they are to him.

When the party gathers for its 2028 convention, it will be the first time in a whopping 16 years - nearly a sixth of a century - that they will nominate someone other than Donald Trump. What they will do then, only time will tell. Maybe they’ll throw away the progress that he made for them, and nominate someone like the pro-establishment moderate mediocrities who plagued the party from 1988-2012 - guys whose only appeal was that they weren’t as bad as their Democratic opponents.

But Trump has given the Republicans what they need to be a majority party for the foreseeable future.