If there is a single defining moment of
this election season in my mind, it is from the first day of the Republican
National Convention in July, when conservative delegates joined together to
demand a simple roll call vote on the rules package—and the RNC and the Trump
campaign joined together to shut them down.
Remember that?
Paul Manafort, the principal organizer
of those strongman tactics, may be long gone from the campaign, but his style
suited Trump’s own tendencies perfectly. The incident itself received some
mainstream attention—although far less than it should have—but it illustrated a
potential Trumpian future, with Trump in control of the country and the party.
It’s been said before, and I’ll say it
again—if Trump loses, his influence over the party will be that much easier to
purge, and the movement might yet be saved. But if he wins, he will be the
effective leader of the party for at least the next four years. By that point,
the damage may be irreversible.
The country, of course, would fair even
worse. Trump would trade limited government and constitutional principles for
his own brand of lawless executive actions, in effect no different from Barack
Obama. A platform of ignoring the Constitution and separation of powers outright
would become bipartisan.
What happened at the RNC in July offers
a possible glimpse of the country and the Republican Party of the future, under
a Donald Trump administration. A silencing of dissent, of all Trump’s critics,
and a gutting of the First Amendment, which Trump has already overtly hinted at
through his repeated promises to loosen requirements for libel suits. As
President, he will have more tools at his disposal than merely late-night
Twitter rants.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for
Donald Trump’s America.
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