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Jabin Botsford

Anyone who genuinely cares about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/25/gop-primary-alternative-trump/" target=_blank>the future of the Republican Party</a> — and you should if you care about strengthening democracy — has only one option in November: Vote to destroy the party to save it.

I care about the GOP. No one has ever mistaken me for a conservative, but I believe our democracy functions best when there is healthy, fact-based competition between liberal and conservative viewpoints. Progressive ideas and policy positions are improved by being challenged, and the best decisions are forged from vigorous debate.

Now, however, we have the Democratic Party on one side and the Republican dumpster fire on the other. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/21/trump-gop-division-new-hampshire/" target=_blank>GOP is a cult</a>, held in thrall by an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/25/trump-charisma-moderation-ideology/" target=_blank>unstable bully and would-be authoritarian</a>. Held captive by a man who sent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/steve-brodner-politicians-jan-6/" target=_blank>armed insurrectionists to the Capitol</a> in a violent attempt to overturn his defeat in a free and fair election. Held hostage by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/13/trump-threaten-punish-enemies-president/" target=_blank>a man who punishes any perceived disloyalty</a> with political execution.

At the 2020 Republican National Convention, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-no-party-platform-rnc/2020/08/24/a56c057c-e61c-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html" target=_blank>the GOP didn’t even offer a party platform</a>. Instead, it simply affirmed its “strong support for President Donald Trump” and his “America-first agenda,” whatever that might be at any given moment.

The nation would be foolish, at this point, to expect Republicans to rise up and free themselves. Look at how the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/25/congress-border-security-ukraine-trump/99a0293c-bbb9-11ee-b176-fe5fd794e716_story.html" target="_blank">congressional negotiations over border security</a> and Ukraine aid have changed since Trump’s New Hampshire victory on Tuesday. Just last week, GOP senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), were optimistic that the package would swiftly be approved by the Senate. But on Wednesday, McConnell told a closed-door meeting of his caucus that there might no longer be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/25/ukraine-funding-border-deal-trump/" target="_blank">a path forward for the bill</a> — because Trump opposes any remedy for the border crisis that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/19/immigration-border-deal-republicans-johnson-trump/" target="_blank">might make President Biden look good</a>.

This is insanity. Democrats are offering something Republicans have wanted for years, and might never be offered again: tougher border security without a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, including “dreamers.” But Dear Leader Trump says no and, suddenly, GOP senators are afraid to say yes.

Republicans in Congress, clearly, will not free their party. And it looks doubtful that the GOP base has any intention of breaking the chains that bind it.

Former U.N. ambassador <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/23/nikki-haley-woman-campaign-2024/" target=_blank>Nikki Haley finished a strong second</a> in New Hampshire, becoming the anti-Trump by default. But the next contested primary is a month away, and it is in her home state, which might not feel very welcoming. For four long weeks, she will have to survive withering personal attacks from Trump and calls from powerful Republicans to drop out of the race in the name of party unity. And then, if she makes it to Feb. 24, she will need a miracle.

The RealClearPolitics <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/2024gop.html" target=_blank>average of polls in South Carolina</a> shows Trump with a 30-point lead. Those surveys were taken before the other GOP candidates dropped out, so Haley can be expected to close the gap. But virtually all of the state’s Republican elected officials have fallen in line behind Trump — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/13/tim-scott-republican-presidential-campaign/" target=_blank>including Sen. Tim Scott</a>, whom Haley first appointed to the Senate in 2013 when she was governor, and who obsequiously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykuEtKJ2D7A" target=_blank>told Trump “I just love you”</a> during Trump’s New Hampshire victory speech.

It is also wrong to expect the justice system to come to the party’s rescue. It is possible <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/19/trump-defamation-trial-jury-instructions-satire/" target=_blank>that one or two</a> of the criminal <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/18/trump-civil-trials-strategy/" target=_blank>cases against Trump</a> could end — in conviction or acquittal — before November. But that seems to me increasingly unlikely. And even if the former president is a felon, I find it hard to imagine his party throwing him overboard.

What can save the GOP from itself? Defeat. Crushing, unambiguous defeat.

Our political parties reform and reconstitute themselves after being soundly rebuked by the voters. After the disaster of President <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/080974-3.htm" target=_blank>Richard M. Nixon’s resignation</a> and the aimlessness of the Gerald Ford administration, Republicans regrouped and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/08/reaganism-outpolls-right-wing/" target=_blank>became the party of Ronald Reagan</a>; his policies were not those I agreed with, but they were coherent and could be negotiated with. After <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/jimmy-carter/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jimmy Carter</a>, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis lost successive presidential elections, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/clintons-political-brilliance-on-full-display/2012/09/06/4f5da282-f7d5-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html" target=_blank>their party turned to Bill Clinton</a> and the “new Democrats,” whose ideas were a break with the past — and, again, held together as an ideology.

If you want the GOP to be a serious conservative political party and not a MAGA cult, send Republicans into the wilderness. Vote for Biden. Take away Republicans’ control of the House. Give Democrats a bigger majority in the Senate. Vote Republican officials out of statehouses, city halls and school boards.

Make the metaphorical ashes from which a new GOP can rise.

2009 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Coal to Cream: A Black Man’s Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race (Free Press, 1999)

Last Dance in Havana: The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution (Free Press, 2004)

Eugene Robinson writes a column on politics and culture and hosts a weekly online chat with readers. In a three-decade career at The Washington Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor, and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s Style section.

Eugene Robinson

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