Rebuilding The Party (Part 2)

This is part two of a discussion I began on Tuesday, regarding rebuilding the Republican Party in the Age of Trump. Part one can be found here.

As I wrote on Tuesday, essentially the results of the 2016 election offer problems and opportunities for both parties. The Democrats are looking at significant short-term problems (exacerbated by an extremely unfavorable Senate map for the 2018 midterms), but could also leverage their newfound status as the opposition party into long-term gains, much as Republicans have during the Obama years. Republicans, meanwhile, are strengthened in the short term, but this outward unity could backfire if not handled properly—again, similar to the lessons learned by Democrats during Obama’s presidency.

But what will this newly resurgent Republican Party look like with Donald Trump at the helm? And will it remain the party of choice for conservatives?

The short answer is that we simply won’t know the answers to either question for months, perhaps years, yet. Only a week after becoming the president-elect, Trump still hasn’t named any members of his incoming Cabinet, although many of the top names reportedly under consideration (now including Ted Cruz for Attorney General and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach for DHS Secretary) are promising. And the fact that the Heritage Foundation is apparently playing an outsized role in the vetting of names and setting of proposed policy for the transition is encouraging, as well.

And if we have learned anything from this election, it is to always be careful in predicting the future.

During the election, of course, the was ample evidence to suggest that a Trump administration would be just as liberal as a Clinton administration, from his past statements to muddled answers on everything from abortion to immigration. That evidence has been exhaustively noted both here and elsewhere, and there’s no reason to rehash it again now.

Since the election, there have been both good signs and bad—the aforementioned names reportedly under consideration one the one hand, and the possibility of big new spending projects such as a major infrastructure bill on the other—with the result that overall, we have about as clear a picture of the incoming Trump administration as we did during the primaries. Actions, as they say, speak louder than words, and the first concrete actions Trump will take (aside from naming Mike Pence as his running mate) will be the announcement of the incoming Cabinet.

The most important thing Trump could do to prove all of his fiercest conservative critics wrong one more time, would be to extend an olive branch and a welcoming hand to those same critics. The news that people such as Cruz are under consideration for a Cabinet position—and, as I write this, word that Trump could meet with Mitt Romney this weekend—is already more than many of us expected or dared to hope for. But again, this is all just rumor and speculation until decisions actually start being made.

Until then, all we on the outside can do is watch and hope for the best. This could go down as either one of the best presidencies for conservatism, or one of the worst.