In the wake of 2020 elections, once again partisan headlines are declaring the death of a political party. "The Republican Party is Dead" blared the New Republic. "Trumpism is Dead" ran a headline in the Arizona Central and New York Magazine wrote "Republicans Need a Postmortem, But Trump Won’t Even Admit He’s Dead."
In politics though, there is nothing so overstated as claims that the losing party or politician are finished. From Grover Cleveland, to Winston Churchill, to Richard Nixon, to the White House flipping back and forth between the parties after of our recent elections, such claims are proven false.
In considering the Trump presidency, and doing so with hindsight — not emotion; putting aside Trump the man for a moment, we must conclude that the reasons why Trump got elected in the first place exist now more than ever.
We should remember the reasons why voters turn to unconventional candidates and even third parties have remained constant.
When the nation's two-party system fails to resolve the issues of the day, voters look elsewhere.
The GOP rose in the wake of the Whig Party’s failure to grapple with slavery.
Twenty years later, the Greenback Party arose because D.C. Republicans and Democrats were taking too long to resolve what type of money the United Stated should have: gold, silver, or paper.
The Greenback Party — employing deft marketing skills — aptly named their party for the issue they championed: paper money, that is green paper money.
Seventeen years ago, when government was failing Californians and the two parties were viewed as ineffectual, California voters turned to a complete outsider named Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In much the same way, Donald Trump became president of the United States.
Prior to 2016, the Tea Party movement arose.
The Tea Party was a protest movement inside and outside of the Republican Party.
The Tea Pary, a protest movement arising within and outside of the GOP, believed:
—Government was no longer responsive to voters.
—It also believed that big government, as created and defined by the Democratic and Republican parties since President Ronald Reagan, was not the solution but, as Reagan so cogently explained, the source of our problems.
Those problems included weak economic growth, government overreach, out-of-control spending, political and media elitism, attacks on traditional American values, and a grid-locked political system.
By 2016, that very sentiment boiled over in the American electorate.
Donald Trump captured it.
Rather than court the Establishment, Trump cursed it by promising to 'drain the Swamp.'
Once in office, the elitists spent four years attacking Trump.
The Democrats and media attacked every aspect of existence and ridiculed his policies.
Meanwhile, the left leaning media wantonly derided Trump supporters, continuing their their assault on American Values.
Although Trump’s policies led to increased economic growth, that growth was strangled by the government's response to COVID-19.
Additonally, government overreach and abuse reached unprecedented heights.
Federal government spending rose nearly $2 trillion from $4.6 trillion to $6.5 trillion in just one year; it's even higher when we take into account spending by the Federal Reserve.
Even Trump’s patriotic efforts were derided by the left and just one day after his 1776 Commission proposed more patriotic teaching in schools.
President Biden has now blocked its implementation.
All of this adds up to the Washington Establishment not being able to run President Trump out of D.C. fast enough.
Their current success, however, has not changed the reasons our nation's 45th commander in chief was elected. Nor will their "achievement" solve the problems America faces today.
Quite to the contrary, the high tax and high regulatory policies of President Biden, matched with the pandemic downturn, will lead to a weak economy for years.
Guaranteed, government spending will explode in reaction to that weak growth.
Meanwhile, Biden has promised a crackdown on Americans he has, wrongfully in most cases, claimed are a danger to the United States. At the same time, Big Tech has declared war on conservative views and, more importantly, on expressing those views.
This is to say, much of America is not only not being heard, it's under attack.
In reality, few believe government will solve those problems, especially since government is the cause of them. Indeed, government largesse, as well as the politicians promoting it, have rarely solved major issues of the day; rather it institutionalzes problems, to harken back to Reagan.
As for the current state of our political parties, many don’t believe they are capable of solving those institutionalized dilemmas either.
Given their participation in growing government, the doubters are right.
Will there ever be a third party?
The reality is that an effective third party is most unlikely because of greenbacks.
We just spent $14 billion during the last election cycle.
A third party would have an impossible time raising that kind of money and competing nationally — the fate the Greenback Party endured over a century ago and the Reform Party did in the 1990s.
Today, if those on the Right split into two parties, certainly in the short run, it would hand Democrats overwhelming victories.
Meanwhile, dissatisfaction with government will only grow; the two major parties will struggle for loyalty. In other words, the reasons why Trump got elected in the first place exist now more than ever, just waiting for someone to, once again, capture the sentiment of discontent. Those reasons haven't gone away, and they aren't about to either.
Tom Del Beccaro is an acclaimed author, speaker and national columnist. As a radio and television commentator, Tom makes over 400 radio and tv appearances a year, across the Country and around the world, including in Ireland, the U.K. and the Middle East and is heard and seen by millions, including on Newsmax. Tom is the former Chairman of the California Republican Party and former U.S. Senate Candidate. His book, The Divided Era, explains how the more government decides the more it divides. Tom is the Chairman of RescueCalifornia.org, which is raising funds and gathering signatures for the Recall of Gavin Newsom. Read Tom Del Beccaro's Reports — More Here.
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