It is imperative that I note at the top here that I am still having a ball with pretty much everything that is going on with the Trump 47 administration. President Trump is attempting things that have been on conservatives' buckets lists for decades. Issues that pre-Trump Republicans had neither the will nor the imagination to tackle.
While all of it is an amazing spectacle to behold, it would have been much nicer if the Republic hadn't reached the point where we needed it. Because the Democrats are constantly looking for new leftist deep ends to plunge into, it's a lot of work just to get back to a place that could be considered normal.
At present, the Democratic Party is incapable offering anything useful to a conversation about the future of the United States. Some might say that it never has been, but I would disagree with that. I may not like the Dems' ideas, but I do like having political foes who at least have some. I'll get to why that's useful in a moment. I summed up where we're at right now in a column I wrote over the weekend:
Rather than counter with proposals of their own, Beltway Dems are doing the only thing they know how to do anymore, which is demonize any Republican who is trying to pull the country back from the brink of the abyss that the Biden years brought it to. There will be no rational, bipartisan discussion about the federal government because it's sacred to the Democrats.
Waiting for one political party to clean up the messes of the other is no way to run a free country. Politics is cyclical here in the good ol' U.S. of A. The Dems will be back in power again. If they're still working with only hatred as their core principle, they'll do everything they can to destroy all of the good that is happening right now. Sure, it would be nice if a viable third party were in the mix, but that's not the reality here. I would say "Spare me the big 'L' Libertarian outrage," but they're all out bong shopping at the moment.
Healthy competition is always good. When I'm headlining a comedy show, the experience is better for all involved when the act before me has a killer set. He or she is happy. I work harder and have a really killer set. Most importantly, the audience is thrilled.
These are electric times for those of us on the political Right in America and I hope they continue for a while. However, I have no interest in one-party rule, even if it's just for a couple of decades or so. The Trump 47 version of the GOP is the most functional I've ever experienced the party being in 41 years of activism. We still don't know if the Trump Republican zeitgeist will continue beyond his presidency, though. If there is backsliding towards a uniparty, I won't be that interested in GOP rule anymore and I will probably be off to some island to explore functional alcoholism as an expatriate.
Relevant: Fingers Crossed That the Trump Effect on the GOP Lasts Far Beyond His Presidency
What I think would be best for conservatives when it comes to the future of the Republican Party is seeing the Democrats pick themselves up off the mat at least a little bit. It's like kicking an ugly stuffed animal around the yard in the aftermath of the 2024 election. A Democratic Party that fought back with some substantive, semi-coherent principles — as opposed to nothing but toddler tantrum rage — would help the GOP get even sharper and more focused, which would bode well for the post-Trump future. Fighting against the defined principles of the opposition would help the party stay in shape. We still wouldn't like any of the principles, but there would be something that we could react to without involving law enforcement.
Standing around and waiting for the Dems to cry themselves out is getting kind of boring and will eventually lead to lethargy. Lethargy will lead to a return of the Bush Republican "go along to get along" ethos.
That will lead to us all speaking Mandarin while wearing gulag jumpsuits.
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