ANOTHER OPINION: Trump completes takeover of Republican Party – Goshen News

The blowback experienced by the magazine Christianity Today after last weeks editorial calling for the ouster of President Donald Trump is but one example of a damaging phenomenon in and around the Republican Party.

The Grand Old Party has, in rapid order, effectively become a subsidiary of the Trump Organization.

All presidents, by default, become their party leader. But there is usually room for some dissent. There is no such room in Trumps cult of personality.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY used to favor free trade. Not under Trump. The Republican Party used to be concerned with deficits. Not under Trump. The Republican Party used to be suspicious of all things coming from the Kremlin or Pyongyang. Not under Trump.

The rapidity of the party U-turn on these issues and others is startling. So too has been the effective surrender of party figures whose established positions differ from Trumps.

Trump has either forced his intraparty critics out (see former senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker) or forced them to embrace him (see Sen. Lindsey Graham). Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, one of the most conservative members of the House, said during the summer that Trump had, in his view, committed an impeachable offense; within days, Amash was forced out of the Republican Party. Amash, who voted with the Democrats to impeach Trump, hopes to retain his seat as an independent candidate.

AMASH, AT LEAST, has not surrendered. Most establishment Republicans have. As noted this week by FiveThirtyEights Perry Bacon Jr., 26 House Republicans decided not to run again in 2018; another 24 have made the same decision as of the start of the week. Trump certainly isnt the only reason for two consecutive waves of retirements, but its no coincidence. Those Republicans still resistant to Trumps cult of personality are, increasingly, out of office and out of the arena.

The decision by the Republican Party of Minnesota to allow just one name on the states primary ballot is another case in point. There is no chance that allowing Joe Walsh or William Weld on the primary ballot would keep Trump from winning the primary, but party leaders reject the notion that there can be any alternative to the Dear Leader.

There are those connected to the evangelical wing of the Republican Party notably Rick Perry and Nikki Haley who describe Trump as chosen by God for the presidency. Christianity Todays editor who, like Flake and Corker, is about to abandon the arena and retire begs to differ and warns that the embrace of such a flawed figure damages Christian witness. We fear the same applies to conservative policy thinkers and politicians.

Free Press, Mankato, Minnesota

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ANOTHER OPINION: Trump completes takeover of Republican Party - Goshen News