Local Voices: Is Donald Trump Destroying The Republican Party?

By Shedrick Byrd

Is Donald Trump destroying the Republican Party, as we know it?  I would say yes!
Since President Obama’s first inauguration, members of the Republican Party have been out to destroy him.  Their focus on destroying President Obama has taken away the attention to their party or the country’s needs.  They have been busy criticizing and demonizing the President on every move he makes.   Well as the saying goes, “the rooster has come home to roost”.
And the rooster is Trump who has taken over the Party.  Not like the established Republican Party, he does not follow their play book or policies. The established Republicans have always been the party for the rich and be-dammed for the poor.  They stay in lock-step and united when it comes to their policies, and are not willing to change.
 
Trump, with loud braggadocio talk, uses negative and slanderous language against the Republican Party and other candidates running against him.  The Party has become so befuddled by Trump’s tactics and methods of politics until they are totally at a loss as to what to do. Trumps’ policy is to embarrass his opponents with foul and insulting language, and entertain his audiences with racist and “tough guy” remarks.  Thousands of low income, working class, and racist people are cheering and voting for him.  In his rhetoric he tells his audiences that they are angry and frustrated with America and that he is going to make America great again.   That’s the raw meat he provides to his racist participants.  

At the beginning of the Republican campaign after Trump announced he intended to run, I shrugged it off as a celebrity stunt.  I thought he was just looking for some publicity.  I still don’t believe even he was serious about running for President based on the statements he made whenever he spoke as a candidate. 
His blistering bigotted remarks with the theme “Make America Great Again” arouses the crowds.  I thought to myself, after “Jim Crow,” when was America not great? 
His mean spirited remarks allow racists to come out of the woodworks.  With the encouragement he got from his supporters, I think he was surprised, and went ballistic. The supporters made him more serious about believing he could win the Presidency.     

The media classify his voters as angry Americans.  What are they angry about?  Trump said they were angry because of the economy, Obama Care, and what they consider a bad nuclear deal the administration made with Iran.  Journalists and pundits let him get away with that stuff without challenging him on substance and detail.  With that rhetoric, he began to gain even more supporters.     
The establishment class Republicans haven’t gotten the message yet.  Instead of analyzing what’s going on in their party and why so many people are voting for Trump, they are massing forces to fight him while leaving their outdated policies intact. 

The poor working class Republicans continue to send messages that the Party either needs to change, dissolve or branch out. Even if Trump is stopped from being nominated as the Republican candidate, the “horse is out of the barn,” as they say, and the Republican establishment will have to change the way they do business to survive as a viable party.  
Trump has almost destroyed the Republican Party and if not stopped, he’s moving to destroy America.  At his campaign rallies, he spews hate and bigotry. There must be some way to curb his hateful and bigoted remarks.  The media has kowtowed to him so much he thinks his behavior and outbursts are like Teflon, nothing sticks.  To the media he is the laughing stock of all the candidates, and they promote his acts. The most recent antics Trump is promoting are having his supporters commit violent acts against protesters at his rallies. Trump is a mad man who is dividing the country, and he must be stopped. 

If the Republican Party can’t stop him we must conduct a mass campaign to vote against him during the general campaign for President. 
Trump has lost his mind – if he ever had one.  If not stopped, he will destroy the Republican Party and the nation’s political system!  
Shedrick Byrd is a frequent contributor to the New Journal and Guide.