Many Never Trump Republicans who left the party are now calling for its complete destruction, in the hopes that something new will rise up to replace it.
Good luck with that.
The Republican Party isn’t going anywhere.
Yes, it has morphed from the party of the elites to the party of the working class. That change started before former President Trump and will likely last long after, no matter what Trump does or doesn’t do.
Political parties, by their very nature, are opportunistic. They change according the whims of the voters. It takes a while for voters to change their minds about the political party they want to support, but when they change, they change quickly.
The Republican Party has shifted its outlook because its voters have shifted their outlook. Same with the Democratic Party. Where the GOP has gone downscale, the Democrats have gone upscale.
Look at the debate over energy policy in this country.
Democrats used to look out for the needs of union voters, those who work on pipelines, drive trucks and build things.
But outside of the teacher and government employees, many of those union voters can’t count on the Democrats to help them anymore.
Look what President Biden did on his first day in office. He killed 20,000 union jobs by killing the Keystone XL pipeline.
Energy security is not nearly as high on the Biden agenda as environmental protection. Why? Well, because big Democratic donors care little about union jobs. They care about climate change. And big money talks; little workers walk.
Now, one union group that does get the attention of the Democrats are teachers.
This presents a huge opportunity to Republicans.
Elite Democrats don’t really care about what is going on with public schools because they don’t send their kids to public schools.
But they care what the teacher unions do and they don’t dare cross them. Why? Well, because the teacher unions help Democrats organize and they are the point of the spear when it comes to the ideological war being played in our nation’s classrooms. They are the indoctrinators.
But working-class families don’t care about all of that ideological nonsense. They want their kids to learn something useful in school, and these days, they want their kids to actually go to school. In person.
Republicans should be pushing hard to radically transform our educational system to take power away from the unions and put it into the hands of parents. Educational dollars should flow to the students, not to school administrators and unions that have proved incapable of delivering a decent education.
The Biden administration’s plan is to double down on the unions, give in to all the demands that they are making, and basically bribe the teachers to do the job that they are well-paid to do. Republicans should resist.
The economy is the final issue that will help to define the Democrats as the party of the elites and presents for the Republicans one final opportunity to show that they are representing the working class.
We have already seen the Biden game plan because it is the same as the Obama plan:
Flood the nation with low-cost immigrants who can be exploited by big business.
Increase regulations to put a big burden on small business, but a relatively light burden on the biggest corporations.
Increase taxes on businesses and partnerships, knowing that multinationals can absorb the costs. Cut taxes for well to do liberals who live in high-tax, blue states.
At the same time, turn on the spending spigot to buy the allegiance of minority groups.
The higher taxes won’t pay for all the new spending and the result will be slower economic growth, which will lead to more welfare spending and greater dependence on the federal government.
This is why the Republican Party isn’t going anywhere.
The Democrats will mismanage the economy, overreach on regulation, do nothing to reform our schools and abandon the working class once again.
Trump may or may not be on the stage when the voters go back to the polls. It doesn’t matter. The Democrats are going to do what the Democrats are going to do and that presents a great opportunity for the Republican Party to come back into power in two short years.
Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at www.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) when he was majority whip and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).