On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, as Trump supporters chanted outside the Capitol building in DC and smashed through security barriers, this is what Trump’s Twitter feed said: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” Republicans were left at a loss as once again; the Executive branch of the government appeared to be self-destructing, a common occurrence over the last presidential term. Four years of Trump’s presidency had done for Democrats what it had failed to do for Republicans—it united them. As Congress convened within their chambers, Republican lawmakers were divided into those who defended Trump, criticized him, or remained quiet.
As seen in the Democratic wins for the White House and the Senate, a divided Republican Party cannot stand against a united Democratic Party. To heal for a better future, they need to leave Trump behind. This will unite the Republican Party, promote a return to more traditional GOP values, and bring a sense of order to the party.
No president in recent history has divided the country more than President Trump, and his own party is not an exception to this division. This has been especially on show in the last few months, where Trump’s baseless election fraud claims have inflamed party tensions. These claims have repeatedly put Republicans in a dilemma, where if they support his claims, they are seen as anti-democratic; yet if they do not support his claims, they lose the support of Trump’s enormous voter base and face challenges from Republicans more eager to blindly support the president. Once they make a decision, it is startlingly hard for them to turn back, and the two sides have clashed repeatedly over the last few weeks. As then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in his speech last Wednesday, “We cannot keep drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts and separate realities, with nothing in common except our hostility towards each other and mistrust for the few national institutions that we all still share.” McConnell has pointed out what Republicans have been struggling with for the past four years—whether to endorse traditional Republican values or the more wayward “Trumpism.”
The GOP has traditionally believed in a smaller government, lower taxes, a free market approach to the economy, and reduction in national debt. Trump has delivered on exactly one of these counts and caused an enormous chain reaction as a result. His tax reform, billed as a staple Republican reduction in taxes for the rich, coupled with lack of spending moderation, caused the national debt to skyrocket, even before the COVID crisis. During Trump’s time in the White House, the national debt rose 7.8 trillion dollars, approaching levels seen during World War II, relative to the size of the economy. According to the Washington Post, the rise in the national debt under Trump’s presidency ranks as the third highest increase compared to any presidency, after the increase under George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln. For reference, George W. Bush began two foreign wars, and Abraham Lincoln had to fund the Civil War. Looking at the economy, Trump’s approach has been anything but free market, with billions of dollars of federal subsidies being funnelled to fossil fuel corporations. The stimulus package passed under Trump’s presidency allocated 72 billion dollars to the fossil fuels industry, more than any other country in the world, according to the Overseas Development Institute.
Finally, Trump’s volatility has been a major nuisance for Republicans. His spur-of-the-moment idea to “buy Greenland” was just one of the more high-profile unanticipated decisions he made. More recently, Republicans spent months debating with Democrats to push a 600 dollar per person stimulus package through, only to be faced with a message from their own president asking for a 2000 dollar stimulus package, exactly what they had been fighting against for the past months. The president then called the bill his own Treasury secretary had helped negotiate “a disgrace.” Trump’s unexpected decision threw Republicans into a spin. When 2000 dollar stimulus checks were voted on in the House, the party split, with 44 Republicans voting for them and 130 voting against. The motion eventually died in the Senate after Congress adjourned without voting on the stimulus check raise. Instead of being the reliably Republican president that the GOP had hoped for, Trump has only been unpredictable at best and destructive at worst.
In order for the Republican party to move forward and unite, they need to abandon the volatile Trump, who has left a decidedly negative legacy, and move forward towards a new era. Through his divisive rhetoric, repetition of baseless claims, and violent movement, Trump has given Republicans a series of loyalty tests, each one more destructive than the last, culminating in the storming of the Capitol last week. His presidency has hardly followed Republican values, and often has completely gone against them. Trump’s unpredictability has been a major obstacle for Republicans during his presidency, and his statements during the Georgia runoff elections have shown that this will continue to be a problem even after he leaves office. If Republicans want to maintain a united front, they need to distance themselves from Trump, or live with the consequences.