In his Substack titled, “The Convention Spoke and Told Us: The GOP is Dead,” Kinzinger explained various examples of how the RNC demonstrated that Trump has succeeded in turning the GOP into a “cult of personality.”
From that Substack article:
It was called the Republican National Convention, but in fact, it had nothing to do with the GOP most of us once knew. Gone were the party’s serious policy debates and platform planks. In their place was a celebration of Donald Trump, who has succeeded in converting one of the country’s two major parties into a cult of personality. When it ended, the delegates sent a ticket into the presidential election with no true Republicans on it.
. . . Because it is now the Trump Party, the crowd in Milwaukee lapped up Navarro’s message of fear which, after all, is the gateway to rage. Few noticed that, contrary to tradition, past Republican leaders – former President Bush, past nominee Mitt Romney, and former Vice President Dan Quayle – were all absent.
. . . I won’t hide the fact that I grieve the old GOP and fear the cult of Trump. I am equally concerned, though, by Democrats who are shrinking from the fight, concluding that Trump’s election is inevitable. I would say that given a remnant of traditional Republicans remains, and independents must be turned off by a Trump who wants to be emperor. It’s time to gather our courage and energy. The fight against him is not lost.
After reading that, this feels far too late for commentary like that. The well has long been poisoned. With all that is going on with the Democrats I guess I could see how we could not be focusing on the populist takeover of the RNC. But its too late, November will be tumultuous no matter what. If Trump loses in November the Trumpets will be razing the streets. The question that bites at my mind is, even if we do win, what happens? They can’t run Trump again in 2028 they know that. But they also can’t let go of this thing they’ve created because its been purged of those who didn’t swear their fealty to Trump.
It’s not as though he just started opposing Trumpism today.
Yeah but now the hard lines are cemented. Saying this now is taking a megaphone to a brick wall. The only proud Republicans left are Trumpets.