The bell tolls for the GOP. Long gone are the days of Reagan’s Morning in America, as dusk appears to have arrived for the Republican Party.
After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, the GOP performed a so-called autopsy on itself, with the overall takeaway being that the party needed to expand its reach to appeal to more demographic groups. Here we are almost four years later, and it has become strikingly clear that there are worse things than being dead for the party. And it looks like the party of Trump.
Instead of focusing on a positive, uplifting vision for the country based on limited government, individual liberty, and economic prosperity, the party has a nominee – now its standard-bearer – who has engaged in the most negative political campaign in memory; a nominee whose entire slogan is based off of the premise that our own country is not great; a nominee that is set upon dividing this country’s people against each other by blaming various minority groups for its problems; a nominee that is historically unfit for the highest office in the land. The party of Trump.
Nothing more perfectly exemplifies the party’s degradation into the realm of ethical bankruptcy than the elevation of the alt-right into the party’s upper echelons. The nominee has repeatedly retweeted white supremacists and anti-Semites, with the campaign even using material created by these hate groups for its own official use on multiple occasions. If that wasn’t enough, the CEO of the Republican Party’s presidential campaign was brought on board after overseeing Breitbart News, “the platform for the alt-right” and the employer of one Milo Yiannopolous.
I am disgusted that this University’s chapter of College Republicans invited Milo to speak. The legitimate issue of free speech aside, Milo does not represent true Republican principles. He exemplifies the decay of the party. He stands for hate and division. There is simply no reason any Republicans, much less educated Republicans, should be celebrating this person, much less allowing him to represent the party and what it supposedly stands for. As a card-carrying member of the GOP, I am ashamed to see the party of Lincoln, Reagan and Kemp turn into the party of Trump, Duke and Yiannopolous.
The only way for the Republican Party to survive starts with dumping Trump and everything he stands for. If this dangerous lunatic is at the top of the ticket come Election Day, the GOP will lose the Senate. And considering the downward spiral Trump is in, the House majority is not entirely secure, either. The party is going to lose the presidential race now regardless but will not even be redeemable if it continues to stagger down the road Trump is leading it on.
I am pleased that some Republican leaders in Alabama like Representatives Roby and Byrne and Governor Bentley recognized this over the weekend and stepped up. Yet, the more courageous stand is saying what one is for instead of merely saying what one is against. It is time that principled Republicans across the country come out and endorse the only principled Republican running for President: Evan McMullin. He cannot win, but this election is not about victory at the top of the ticket anymore. It is about beginning on the long path towards redemption. Vote McMullin at the top of the ticket and for the many qualified Republicans running in down-ballot races, like Senator Shelby here in this great state. This is the conscionable course of action left for true Republicans this election cycle.
The GOP died in 2012 and appears to be barreling through the Eighth Circle of Hell with Trump at the helm. He must be stopped. He cannot remain on the Republican ticket. Or there may never be a Republican elected President ever again.
Sean Ross is a senior majoring in political science. His column runs biweekly.
