Conservatives have complained for decades that the liberal vision of the GOP as a white nationalist party was just a caricature, and that the party was actually run by small government idealists. A few of them probably actually believed it. Trump destroyed that comfortable illusion in 2016, and nothing has changed since he took office. As Dennis Green would say, “They were who we thought they were.”
Can the racist genie be put back in the bottle after Trump leaves the scene? There are three scenarios for the GOP after he’s gone:
- The party continues to be an overtly white nationalist organization;
- The party divorces itself completely from white nationalism and becomes the principled small government organization that the Never Trumpers thought it was; or
- The party reverts to “dog whistle” tactics, using terms like “political correctness” to send the message to the Reactionaries that the leadership is still really on their side even if it can’t say so in so many words. Reactionary positions continue to prevail on issues such as immigration and entitlement cuts.
#2 is electoral suicide, as the Reactionaries are the largest faction, by far, within the GOP. It won’t happen. #1 probably won’t wear well with time. The best bet is #3. Hey, it worked for years before Trump–why wouldn’t it work again?