Trump's Big Tent GOP Seems Like a Great Place to Party for a While

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Democrats have been calling Republicans and conservatives racists, misogynists, and xenophobes for so long that it’s pretty much become background noise for us. There is no need to indulge their unhinged ad hominem fever dream. Unless one is a mental health professional who is being paid to treat the unwell patient, of course.

Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in this election was a repudiation of the Democrats’ core beliefs and lunatic generalizations of Republicans, especially the “They’re all racists!” nonsense.

As with most things in American leftist politics, the cries of “RACISM!” got louder when Trump showed up on the presidential scene. From the moment he came down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy and deliver some hard truths about illegal aliens, the Dems have been portraying him as the most racistly racist racist in the history of racism.

Trump responded to that by making greater inroads with Latino voters than any Republican before him. He was able to do that because he grasped an important aspect of the border debate that eludes Democrats — legal immigrants from Latin America are some of the staunchest anti-open borders people in the United States.

Trump also exceeded expectations with black and female voters in 2024, which no doubt left millions of Democrats curled up in the fetal position on their floors, screaming “WHY?” through their snot bubbles and tears.

In the forty years that I have been a Republican/conservative activist, there has been a lot of talk about making the GOP a “big tent” party. The idea is sound. Conservative principles — especially regarding the economy — are good for all Americans. All that Republican politicians have to do is make that case to the electorate.

Aye, there’s the rub.

Republicans have never been blessed with a wealth of politicians who convey a message well. We were blessed with Ronald Reagan, but then we had three decades of GOP pols who fell for every trap question ever put to them by the hostile Dem propagandists in the mainstream media. (Yes, I know that there are a couple of exceptions, but I’m making a point here.)

When Donald Trump came along, far too many Republicans bristled at his speaking style. While I was a huge skeptic about his conservative cred in 2016, I was always a fan of his free-form extemporaneous approach to giving speeches. I was also a fan of mean tweets from Day One. He didn’t sound like a politician.

That’s the reason he has now twice been elected to the highest office in the land.

There was much for Trump to criticize about his two opponents in the race this year. A lesser politician would have left it at, “Vote for me because I’m not as bad.” The electorate wants more than that, however. Voters like a positive message, and Trump’s 2024 pitch was very upbeat, despite all of the Democrats’ caterwauling about his “dark” campaign (none of them ever watched an entire Trump stump speech).

Promises of prosperity for all Americans and peace for everyone in the world were key components to Trump’s messaging this year and they worked. While Kamala Harris was — as my friend Stephen Green put it — “running on a bio,” Donald Trump was offering policy positions that promised relief from the myriad woes that the electorate had visited upon it by the Biden-Harris administration. By staying on message — a new wrinkle for Trump — he was able to cut through all of the “LITERALLY HITLER!” noise from the Left.

That messaging grew the Republican “tent” organically. No pandering promises of taxpayer-funded government goodies or top-down outreach initiatives were needed. Trump the salesman pitched the American dream, and it worked.

Left to the devices of emotional weaklings like the Bush/Cheney/Romney wing of the GOP and the insufferable Never Trump grifters, the Republican Party would now be facing permanent minority status in Washington, if not throughout the country. Instead, it’s looking at a lot of new, youthful faces that bode well for the future.

There is a lot of discussion now about whether this is truly Trump’s Republican party or if the more invertebrate element will reassert itself when he’s out of the picture. I lean toward the former, but anything could happen. Trump did energize people who aren’t typically political or frequent voters.

On the other hand, he also got the Republican National Committee and the rest of the party hierarchy to grow the hell up and finally understand that Democrats are always on a war footing for elections and that they needed to be as well. This was the first presidential election where the GOP had anything resembling a get-out-the-vote game, despite decades of paying lip service to developing one.

The party has a lot to work with at the moment, including an incredible bench for upcoming elections. Well, in most places. Here in Arizona, the GOP bench is the ghost of Kari Lake and three tumbleweeds. I won’t let that dampen my mood though.

What remains to be seen is whether the Republican Party can seize the moment to which Trump has delivered it. Last week, Mr. Green wrote a VIP column (you can sign up here and use promo code FIGHT for 60% off to check it out) that was a detailed examination of how to turn “low-propensity Trump voters into reliable Republican voters.” They should be having meetings about that at RNC HQ right now.

This is an incredible time for a party that has been wallowing in the depths of despair for the last four years. Let’s hope the feeling will linger.

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