Trumpism and the end of the Republican Party

Donald Trump has blown up the Republican Party. It’s not clear what will replace it.

Trump didn’t do the deed on his own. The Republicans have been at war with themselves for decades, a war that found expression in renegade presidential candidacies like that of Pat Buchanan in the ’90s, in the ongoing tension between economic and religious conservatives and more recently in the rise of the anti-establishment Tea Party.

But Trump, a New York developer, has shrewdly exploited these contradictions to deliver the coup de grace.

Technically, Trump will appear on the November ballot as the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. presidency. In fact, he will be the standard-bearer of a movement that some commentators are already referring to as Trumpism.

Trumpism is not a coherent ideology. It is a cult of personality that reflects the changing moods and thoughts of one man. Yet there are some key pillars that appear relatively fixed.

First, like old Republicanism, it is nostalgic. It appeals to those mourning a mythical past in a mythical land, where minorities kept their grievances to themselves, cops were tops and America ruled the world.

Second, it is insular. As Trump explained in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times this week, he is not wedded to the concept of collective defence under NATO.

This is a stark break from old Republicanism and harks back to the isolationist America Firsters of the early 1940s.

Trumpism expresses American disillusionment with the wars in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. But it goes well beyond that to question U.S. military support of longtime allies such as Japan, South Korea and the nations of Western Europe.

In the Times interview, Trump was asked if he, as president, would come to the aid of a fellow NATO member threatened by Russia. His answer: not necessarily.

Third, and somewhat contradictorily, Trumpism is belligerent. Trump may question the value of facing off against Russia over, say, the Baltic states. But he calls for more defence spending and a bigger military.

He would rip up the nuclear deal with Iran and, in ways he declines to explain, destroy the Islamic militants known as the Islamic State or Daesh.

Under the tenets of Trumpism, America might withdraw from the world. But when it did choose to engage, it would always prevail.

Fourth, Trumpism is protectionist. This is perhaps the most fundamental break with old Republicanism.

Trump promises to either radically rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico or scrap it. He would can the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment pact signed by 12 countries (including Canada). He clearly has no love for a World Trade Organization treaty that he says allows China to cheat.

He says he’s not against free trade deals in principle. But the criteria he uses to judge such deals are so stringent that he might as well be.

Trumpism prevailed in the Republican primaries, where Trump swept the board. It also prevailed in the Republican convention this week in Cleveland.

Texas senator Ted Cruz may have stolen the show at this convention Wednesday evening when he openly refused to endorse the man who had beaten him for the Republican nomination. But the boos that greeted Cruz’s eloquent speech served also as a reminder that his principles — the principles of traditional Republicanism — now matter less than loyalty to Donald Trump.

The Republicans go into the November election not just as a divided party but as a party that, to all intents and purposes, no longer exists.

It has been replaced by an array of factions existing to promote various politicians — such as Cruz, House Speaker Paul Ryan or Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

At the forefront are the Trumpists, the most important faction of them all.

These factions may be united by their common hatred of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee. This common hatred may even allow them to win in November.

But they are no longer the Republican Party. Eventually, that party may be reborn in a different form. Right now, it is gone.