Will Trump Destroy the GOP?

The Trump candidacy has been educational. For example, it inspired me to look up the difference between bellicose and belligerent.

Apparently, bellicose refers to people who are displaying aggressive behavior and belligerent refers to people actually engaged in aggression. Trump engages in bellicose rhetoric. If he acts on his rhetoric, he will become belligerent.

Trump appears to be having a tiff with leaders of the GOP.

Trump comes off as the type of person who likes to punish his enemies.

If he does this, we might see a complete fracturing and dissolution of the Republican Party.

This actually happened once before. Thomas Jefferson, who preferred local governance and small business to big business had created a Party which he called "The Republican Party."

Andrew Jackson was a pro-slavery populist. Jackson's organization captured Jefferson's party and renamed it the Democratic Party. The Jeffersonian contingent created a new party called The Whigs as many of the US Founders were members of the Whig Party of Great Britain.

The Whigs compromised with the Democrats on the Kansas Nebraska Act. This compromise would have would expanded the institution of slavery in the Western US. A group including John Fremont and Abraham Lincoln created a new party which they called "The Republican Party" after Jefferson's Republican Party.

Anyway, one likely outcome of a Trump presidency is the presidency would disenfranchise the current GOP leadership leading to a complete break up of the Republican Party.

This happened once before. Jefferson's Republican Party favored limited government. Andrew Jackson was a populist who took control Jefferson's Republican Party. The former leaders of the GOP left and created a new party.

The problem with this scenario is that the populist Trump will create an re-invigorated left and that by destroying the GOP, there will be no effective force to counter the Democrats for the foreseeable future.