The demise of America’s Republican Party

There was a time, not so long ago, that a normal political party had an apparatus of professionals in its midst – capable and honest individuals who have been around for a while and can get things done. But now, with the emergence of Donald Trump in the political arena, those people might as well not exist!

There was a time when a normal political party was united by a consistent belief system. For decades, the Republican Party of the United States of America has stood for an American-led international order abroad and smallgovernment democratic capitalism at home. That capitalist ethos at least gave Republicans a future-oriented optimism.

It has been gruesomely fascinating to see the Trump phenomenon eating away the party of Lincoln and Reagan. Trump is dismantling all the good things Republicans stood for: NATO, entitlement reform, compassionate conservatism and the relatively open movement of ideas, people and trade. Trump’s policies – if they really exist – are defensive recoils: build a wall, ban Muslims, withdraw from the world and unite with Vladimir Putin’s Russia because Putin is a great leader, much, much better than our President Barack Obama!

Can anyone think of a political party or movement, call it what you want, that has devoted so much time to hatred without being blinded by it? For example, look at the way Donald Trump has been calling people of integrity liars and traitors for almost a year.

I have a strong feeling that this year’s American presidential election, come 9 November, is probably not going to end the way an election normally ends. It is going to end catastrophically, in November or beyond, if, God forbid, Donald Trump is elected 45th President of the United States of America.