An interesting opportunity opened up this week when it was announced that Donald Trump will form his own social media platform in the near future.
The interesting opportunity, in my view, is for the Republican Party.
The one thing we have learned to count on with Donald Trump is the enormous size of his ego. It was therefore inevitable that he would form his own social media platform. The fact that his financial backer for this project is the radical clown who makes pillows for a living, is testament to Trump’s modus operandi of always using other people’s money for his schemes regardless of the source.
Forming his own social media platform is only the first step, in my opinion, to forming his own political party for the 2024 Presidential campaign, even if forming his own party would destroy the Republican Party’s chances of winning in many elections to come. It is all about him, and his ego. He doesn’t care about anything else and never has done, even from his earliest days in New York.
However, the possible advent of the “Donald Trump Party”, offers the Republican Party the chance to re-create itself in the image of traditional republican values.
I have never understood how the Republican Party allowed itself to be high-jacked, first by the evangelical religious “right”, and then by an egomaniac like Trump. The U.S. needs a party with traditional conservative values just as much as it needs a party with traditional liberal values. In fact, the Founding Fathers designed the U.S. system that way, so a political balance would always be maintained.
Trump will certainly take his followers with him to the new party, and that will side-line all of them to the fringes, where they belong. It comes down to which reality will take precedence. Trump’s ego versus the reality of what will happen to the Republican Party if he moves on. The answer is obvious.
However, and unfortunately, there are two directions Trump’s ego could take him. He could form his own party, and risk being marginalized, or just completely take over the Republican Party lock, stock and barrel. Logic and sense would choose the latter, but we are dealing with Donald Trump, and therein lies an opportunity for traditional Republicans.
Traditional Republicans, in my opinion, should make every effort to encourage Trump’s egomania by advocating the formation of the “Donald Trump Party”. It would be difficult for him to resist, if he was subject to a protracted and flattering campaign.
Such a strategy would require a long-term plan on the part of traditional Republicans, and that plan would not be easy for any politician. It would mean accepting that the next couple of elections would be lost, while the Party re-thinks its role in U.S. democracy. The result could be the re-establishment of a traditional conservative movement that is not tied to any lunatic fringe, or religious fervour.
I have stated before that the U.S. Constitution does not specifically require the separation of Church and State. Perhaps the reforming of the Republican Party can finally correct that original error. As I said, the U.S. needs a strong conservative/sensible party just as much as it needs a progressive/sensible party. At the moment, it has neither. Both parties have lost their way. America deserves better, and requires better, for its future survival. Side-lining Trump would be a good start. Unfortunately, the “silent majority” within the current Republican Party do not seem to have the intellectual ability, vision, or balls, to pursue such a strategy. It is an interesting opportunity that may well go unheeded.
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE. THE U.S. NEEDS ALL THE HELP IT CAN GET.
