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Ive been watching as Americans all across the country celebrate Joe Biden becoming the president-elect. There is a sense of joy and hope that has not been seen in our country for four years. Im excited but know there is a lot of work and due-diligence that we as Americans need to participate in.

As I contemplated what the landscape of the next four years would look like I couldnt help but wonder what the future holds for the Republican Party. A party that had its roots in ideals of lowering taxes, a free market capitalist society, gun rights and deregulation.

Those ideals may still be at the heart of the Republican Party, but President Donald J. Trump has brought in a new veneer of blatant sexism, racism and xenophobia wrapped in a veil of Christain and conservative ideology. From what Ive gathered over the last four years is that not all Republicans identify with Trumps form of Republicanism, but these few outliers are hard to find.

My fellow opinion writer, Jack Lewis, wrote about a group called the Never Trumpers who operate an organization called the Lincoln Project. On their website they state that they have a singular mission: To defeat Donald Trump and Trumpism.

The term Never Trumpers refers to the hard-right conservatives who oppose Donald Trump. A group who sees the support of Trump as leading to the debasement of their movement and eventually the destruction of the country.

The hope is that Trump supporters will awaken from their cult-like stasis of devotion to Trump, to create a new, reality-based conservative movement. A kind of post-Trump era of conservatism.

My hope is that the Lincoln Project can continue to grow and move the party back into the realm of reality. What will help this process is for prominent Republicans to stop pandering to the tin hat, conspiracy believing Trump supporters.

Their fear of losing power is so great that they will use and manipulate their base no matter the means necessary. The hypocrisy of it all is amazing. The party that shouts about following in Jesus footsteps more often than not, lies to its followers using fear-mongering that outsiders will come and destroy their country.

A Washington Post opinion columnist on politics both foregin and domestic, Jennifer Rubin, has one of the best responses on how to combat the Trump Republican party. She wrote an open letter to Republicans where she calls upon l Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) to advocate for fact-based politics within the Republican party again.

In one segment of her open letter she writes, I bet you are more than a little relieved that President Trump lost. His erratic, outrageous conduct and refusal to operate in the real world no doubt caused you no small amount of embarrassment and pain.

Her directness in this letter tells us that there is still this confusing divide among Republicans. We saw this in the 2016 elections when prominent senators such as Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) gave Trump no support, but swiftly changed their narrative when his voter base agreed with Trump.

Even now we see Graham telling the president to not concede the presidential seat because of voter fraud conspiracies. What happened to the backbones of Republican Congressman? Do they feel so insecure in their ability to win on their own that they are willing to grovel at the feet of a man who doesnt believe or uphold any of their partys core values?

Rubins open letter goes on to call out the Trump based ideology that has overtaken the Republican party. Just as important, it is time to stop indulging the cranks, the conspiracy-mongers and the out-and-out liars in right-wing media and in your own caucus, Rubin wrote. Call out silly and baseless smears; insist on factual rigor at hearings.

An article by Bloomberg News discusses some of the drastic measures some Republicans are willing to take in order to reclaim the party. Some conservatives believe it isnt enough to just end Trumps tenure in office. Rather, they hold that all officials who enabled Trump must be ousted, that Trumpism must be disavowed and the party needs to be destroyed before it can be reconstructed.

Others would argue against such an extreme course of action. Seeing this path as leading to the loss of power within government. Their fear being that the strength they have in Congress being lost to Democrats who wish to enact a progressive agenda.

This fear seems ungrounded seeing as the Republicans have lost the majority of power before and come back to reclaim it. They lost the majority after George W. Bushs second term and would reclaim it once more in 2016. As the Bloomberg article put it, Parties can bounce back quickly, even after defeats that look epochal.

Would the first tactic work? Could Trumpism be extinguished or is it here for the long haul?

It seems unlikely that there will be a break from the Trumpian landscape of American society. An Atlantic article argues that there are already several contenders for the 2024 election coming out of the woodwork.

Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri are aligned with several of Trumps ideologies. Cotton has an op-ed in the New York Times where he urged for the deployment of troops to Americas cities to dispel the riots against police brutality and inequality in the justice system.

Cotton seems to share Trumps radical ideas on the Republican party and plans to be an unwavering defender and future extender of the partys revolution into Trumpism. He has rejected the notion of systemic racism in the police force.. He has a strong opposition stance on immigration and would likely push for harsh immigration reform, the likes of which we have already seen within the Trump administration.

Hawley is another possible carrier of the Trumpism view of the Republian party. He holds a strong America First stance like Trump. Hawley has co-sponsored legislation with Cotton that would cut legal immigration in half that has gained him notoriety as a freshman senator.

The Atlantic article talks with Geoffrey Kabaservice, the director of political studies at the libertain Niskanen Center, who comments that many Republicans see these men as more sophisticated and effective versions of Trump. The question here is will Trumps base go along with a more sophisticated Trump?

Veteran Democratic pollster Stanley B. Greenberg, has been polling the Republican party since 2016 to see what comprises the Trump base. Hes seen that evangelical Christians, conservative Catholics and self-identifying Tea Party members make up about 67% of Trumps base.

A recent Pew study survey shows that the Republican partys composition of registered voters consists of 66% white Christains, 58% men, 57% whites without a college degree and 56% are older than 50. These numbers are large for the Republican party, but do not reflect that overall demographic of society.

A national poll conducted last year by the Public Religion Research Institute found a lot of correlations between those who are conservative and Trumpism ideology. Many believe in building Trumps border wall, imposing a strict Muslim travel ban and limiting legal immigration.

A large majority also endorsed the belief that discrimination aginst white people is as big a problem as that faced by minorities. They believe immigrants are invading America and will eventually replace American culture and ethnic backgrounds.

Roland Brownstein, the author of the Atlantic article mentioned earlier, comments that we have to look at the lasting effects Trumps presidency will have on American society. Most former presidents have played little to no role in the internal inner workings of the party after their tenure, but Trump looks to be shifting this narrative.

Brownstein commented that while working on his article many people he spoke with assumed that Trump would remain highly visible after his tenure in office. Trump may continue to build his base after this election loss to come back in 2024 for his second term.

We have to question not only what Trump will do after he is abdicated from the throne he seems to have sat himself upon, but what will his base do? We can only hope that the former Republican party can take back control from the Trumpers.

Everyday that prominent Republican Congressmen deny the outcome of the election shows us that they have become so entrenched in the Trump ideology that they lack the ability to accept reality. Like desperate children they will hold tight to their beliefs, faces morphed into a grimace, denying the truth in hopes of making their conspiracy theories reality.

Erin Holve can be reached at [emailprotected] and @Erin_Holve on Twitter.

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Trumpers have Hijacked the Republican Party or The Metamorphosis of the Republican Party - The Orion

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business

The leaders of Fox News will never say this out loud, but they believe that their media empire is bigger than President Trump.

And they have billions of reasons to think so: Billions of dollars in revenue along with millions of loyal viewers.

Fox employees are confident that the Biden years will be prosperous for the network, and they're not losing sleep over the prospect of "Trump TV," according to numerous sources at the company.

But some observers think they should be concerned. It is possible that the outgoing President could damage the Fox brand and peel away disillusioned viewers if he launches a media company of his own. It is possible that the right-wing media map, long controlled by Fox, is about to become balkanized.

In the days since Fox and the other major networks called the election for President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has been stoking anger at Fox and promoting the much smaller and often more conspiratorial right-wing networks Newsmax and One America News.

Then again, he has also been watching Fox, tweeting quotes from favorable commentators, and seeking counsel from Fox's 9 p.m. host, Sean Hannity.

Here's the best way to interpret what's going on: Trump and Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch have had a corporate marriage of convenience for five years. Trump is threatening to break up, but Fox has been through plenty of these rough patches before.

The question now is what Trump might do after he leaves office. A Trump-branded streaming service appears more likely than a "Trump TV" cable channel. But almost anything is possible: A radio show hosted by Trump, an expansion of the Trump campaign's current webcasts, or a licensing deal with a company like Newsmax.

What about a "Donald Trump Tonight" talk show on Fox? Is that out of the question?

The answer is no, at least not entirely. There are almost always pieces that could be moved. For example: Hannity's been at Fox for almost 25 years now. Maybe he could retire and let Trump take his place.

But at the moment, Trump is fuming about the network's coverage. So here is a viewers guide to the months ahead.

Trump was a Fox News viewer before he was a Fox News star. He learned a lot about the Republican party's base by watching the network and calling into the morning show "Fox & Friends" while still starring on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice." He continued to call in to and appear on the network regularly while running for the Republican party's nomination in 2015 and 2016, even as he attacked Fox host Megyn Kelly and lambasted some of the network's commentators.

He has had the same carrot-and-stick approach ever since: Complimenting his Fox supporters -- rewarding them with interviews and Twitter plugs and visits to the White House -- while complaining about Fox's dissenters.

Murdoch used to be vocally critical of Trump's conduct. The media mogul famously wrote on Twitter in the summer of 2015, "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?"

But Murdoch made peace with Trump as the Republican primary field narrowed and Trump won the nomination. He didn't believe Trump would beat Hillary Clinton in the general election, but when Trump did, Murdoch reached what one family friend later called a "detente."

The media marriage was visible for all to see on TV. Fox touted Trump and he touted the network. The Murdochs profited while Trump benefited from Fox's promotion and propaganda.

Earlier this year I wrote a book titled "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth," based on information from confidential sources in and around Fox. I quoted a former "Fox & Friends" producer who said outsiders misunderstood the relationship.

"People think he's calling up 'Fox & Friends' and telling us what to say. Hell no. It's the opposite," the former producer said. "We tell him what to say."

This braggadocious view is backed up by a scroll through Trump's Twitter feed, which shows that he often starts his day by watching the "Friends" and repeating what they said on TV.

Trump's Fox News fixation was a major theme of his presidency. He hired people from Fox, fired people because of Fox, and gave most of his national TV interviews to Fox. Sometimes it was hard to tell where Trump ended and Fox began. But even with this close relationship, he was still prone to sending mean tweets whenever he didn't like something on the network. Fox executives usually just ignored his complaints. They felt that they, not the President, had the power.

It's important to recognize that Fox has a near-monopoly position in right-wing TV. The network's audience is extraordinarily loyal, as was demonstrated in late 2016 and early 2017 when three of Fox's biggest stars -- Megyn Kelly, Bill O'Reilly and Greta van Susteren -- all left in a nine-month period, and the ratings basically stayed the same.

For many in the TV business, the lesson was that, on Fox at least, everyone is replaceable. Does that lesson apply to Trump too?

In some ways he is Fox's biggest star of the past five years. But now his presidential show is ending.

Trump might think that Fox needs his star power, and on the margins it's true that Trump appearances and interviews are right-wing ratings boosters. But the network was No. 1 long before he became a politician.

As sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote in her 2016 book "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right," about Tea Party supporters in Louisiana, "Fox News stands next to industry, state government, church, and the regular media as an extra pillar of political culture all its own."

"To some," she explained, "Fox is family."

It takes a lot more than a Trump tweet to convince people to abandon family.

Nevertheless, Trump might be trying to dissolve this media marriage.

In line with his past jabs at Fox's news coverage, he wrote on Thursday that "@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE."

Fox's daytime ratings are looking somewhat soft this week, but that's not a surprise, since Biden's victory is interpreted as bad news by the Fox base.

The network is also feeling pressure from the far-right, from channels such as Newsmax, which are criticizing Fox for projecting Biden's win in Arizona and calling Biden the president-elect.

Newsmax's ratings have skyrocketed in recent days, but Fox is still heads and shoulders above all of its challengers.

Trump's tweet on Thursday continued: "Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!"

Trump leveled similar charges against Fox throughout the 2020 campaign.

But his assertion that he was Fox's "Golden Goose" doesn't add up. The network has been growing steadily for years, thanks to a loyal audience that distrusts most of the rest of the national media. Stars like Hannity encourage and worsen this alienation each day by attacking what he calls "fake" news.

Sources inside Fox predicted that Trump would snap back to normal and praise the network's opinion hosts in a day or two. Earlier this week, he posted numerous videos from both Fox and Newsmax's pro-Trump shows.

Axios reported on Thursday that "Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News."

A subscription streaming service would let him convert rallygoers into paying customers and compete with Fox at the same time.

A Fox insider heaped doubt on that idea, however, by pointing out that Trump is old-fashioned -- he is obsessed with big-screen television, not newfound streaming apps.

When I was working on my book, the Murdoch family friend told me of the relationship between Trump and Fox, "There was something in it for both of them. At the end of the day, business trumps ideology. Business trumps principle."

Whatever he decides to do, the coming months will go a long way toward answering a two-sided question: Does Fox need Trump more, or does Trump need Fox more?

Continued here:
The Trump-Fox News relationship is coming to a head. Here's what might be coming next - WICZ

Across the street from the British embassy, with its red telephone box and Winston Churchill statue, in Washington DC is the residence of the US-vice president. It has its own basketball court, on which Mike Pence reportedly installed a logo from the 1986 film Hoosiers starring Gene Hackman about small-town Indiana sports.

Fortunately, the Washington Post noted a couple of years ago, the logo is removable.

Pence, a former governor of Indiana, and his wife, Karen, will be packing their bags and moving out of the residence in January to make way for Americas first female vice-president, Senator Kamala Harris of California, and her husband Doug Emhoff.

Said to have nurtured ambitions for the presidency since he was 16, Pence must now decide what to do with the rest of his life. Among the 61-year-olds options: a return to his roots in conservative talk radio as a way to remain relevant in his party.

I think he would want to stay involved in Republican politics and probably in a more conventional way than the president, said Michael DAntonio, co-author of The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence. So he could be a broadcaster, and therell be lots of opportunity for that, but he would be nicer than Trump.

When he was on the radio in Indiana, he called himself Rush Limbaugh on decaf. There is a lot of potential in that identity for him.

In a more low-key version of Trumps own ascent-by-celebrity, Pence used his prominence as a conservative radio show host in the 1990s as a springboard to a political career in 2000. He served six terms in the House of Representatives and was an early advocate of the Tea Party movement.

Elected governor of Indiana in 2012, he was widely condemned for a slow response to an HIV outbreak and for signing religious freedom legislation that made it easier for conservatives to refuse service to gay couples. Then he joined forces with Trumps election campaign in 2016 and proved a crucial enabler and apologist for the 45th president.

That continued on Monday when Pence signaled his support for Trumps baseless legal challenges to the 2020 election result, tweeting: Told @VP Team Today, it aint over til its over.. and this AINT over! President @realDonaldTrump has never stopped fighting for us and were gonna Keep Fighting until every LEGAL vote is counted!

But on Tuesday, even as the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, declared: There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration, Pence simply remained silent when asked by reporters, What evidence is there of widespread voter fraud?, Do you think the election was stolen from the president? and Is it time to concede?

It was also reported that Pence and his family would travel to the Florida island of Sanibel on Tuesday for a holiday, in what might be an attempt to distance himself figuratively and literally from Trumps refusal to concede defeat.

The approach has been a hallmark of Pences vice-presidency: at once both unswervingly loyal to Trump and yet also managing to fade into the background at the most politically damaging moments. Pence is head of the White House coronavirus taskforce, but it is Trump who has shouldered the most blame for Americans disastrous pandemic.

DAntonio said: Pence has done well to stay on the right side of Trump without becoming a snarling and profane apostate. Thats pretty impressive in terms of contorting himself into the one shape that may be acceptable to a majority of the voters.

Last weeks election result did not necessarily deal a death blow to Pences hopes of running for the White House in 2024. A victory for Donald Trump would have left Pence or any other Republican with the historically formidable challenge of securing a third consecutive term for the same party.

Instead Trump and Pences resilient haul of more than 70m votes, a higher total than any incumbent president and vice-president in history, was not the wholesale rebuke that Republicans feared. Unless Trump himself runs again, it gives Pence a potential launchpad.

DAntonio continued: He would hold to his beliefs religiously and politically but offer himself as the kinder, gentler version of Trump and, if that were the case, he might actually win a majority of the votes in a national election where Trump never has. He could run with a woman vice-presidential candidate and be very appealing. Im sure that theyre already gaming this out.

In this years election campaign Pences thunder at the vice-presidential debate was stolen by a fly that nestled in his snowy hair. But as a born-again Christian, he once more proved an effective salesman to white evangelical voters turned off by Trumps unholy behaviour. DAntonio added: Its a tremendous asset: thats probably 30m votes right there.

In the electoral college, I think it pretty well aligns with the red portions of the map and he would do better than Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin because those are pretty heavily evangelical states. We definitely have not seen the last of Mike Pence.

There is only one Republican alive who has been part of an incumbent presidential ticket that lost a re-election campaign: Dan Quayle, also from Indiana, and former vice-president under George HW Bush. After defeat in 1992 he wrote three books, founded and sold an insurance business in Indiana, worked in academia and took a lucrative position at a private equity firm.

But old friends of Pence in Indiana hope that he will remain involved in politics. Charles Hiltunen, who was at law school with him in Indianapolis and last saw him about two weeks ago, suggested he could bring his influence to bear on the Senate, where the balance of power depends on two runoff elections in Georgia in January.

Depending on the makeup, thats where Pence could have a role to play as the mediator or trying to get issues going, he said. I think he and Joe Biden have had a great relationship. It would be a good opportunity for him to be a statesman and show some leadership on key issues.

Hiltunen, a principal at the lobbying firm Sextons Creek, also suggested that Pence might go back to conservative radio. Mike would probably be a good spokesperson there if thats what he wanted to do. Its going to be fascinating to me to see what his next chapter is.

One of the biggest questions is whether Pence, once criticised by columnist George Will for his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, will continue to defend Trump or decide to cut him loose so that he can pursue his own political aspirations.

Moe Vela, a former senior adviser to Al Gore and Joe Biden, said: He and a whole host of people, including possibly Donald Trump, will be back in 2024. The 70m-plus votes that they received is going to give them oxygen, so I dont think youve seen the last of Mike Pence.

It will be fascinating to see whether he waits to see what Trump is going to do or whether he disregards what Trump is going to do and does his own thing. Is he going to be loyal even post-presidency, or is that loyalty going to end now? I personally think hes going to go out and do his own thing and say, I was so loyal to you. I stood by you. Your times up. Its my turn.

This article was amended on 12 November 2020. An earlier version overlooked Walter Mondale in referring to Dan Quayle as the only person alive who has been part of an incumbent presidential ticket that lost a reelection campaign. Quayle is the only such Republican.

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What will Mike Pence do next after Trump's election loss? - The Guardian

After losing the election, President Trump unwittingly joined his most hated group (losers), which include one-term presidents. Trump also bears the stigma of being impeached, which makes him the obvious supreme loser in the history of modern one-termers (Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush).

If Republicans think Trump will go quietly into the night like normal presidents leaving office, he will do just the opposite. The decibel level of his late night and early morning tweets will exceed that of jungle birds during mating season. Additionally, he will blame anyone and everyone for his loss and continue his virus-spreading public rallies of the remaining faithful, to aerate his deflated ego. Hell create a Trumpian bloc within the GOP that will make the Tea Party look like an actual tea party.

He also will continue to rend the once-proud Republican Party to a nadir where recovering their respectability and soul is impossible, because they abdicated both when defending the indefensible.

This defeat came at a most inopportune time for Trumps age, as his hair management team had his hair plugs just starting to artificially grey at the temples, which happens to actual hair on real presidents near the end of their first term and distinguishes them from executives in other professions. I also think its a near-certainty that the New York state judicial system is waiting to prosecute, convict and jail the entire Trump family.

Ron Pizarie

East Allen Township

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Dont expect Trump to go quietly into the night | Letter - lehighvalleylive.com

Several days after his decisive victory, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn tweeted out a TV report noting that his re-election had marked the first time in two decades that a Senate candidate had won more votes than a presidential candidate in Texas.

A Twitter user with a mere 13 followers responded: I didnt vote for Trump, but I voted for you. I know others that could not give their votes to Trump, but cautiously gave votes to you. Represent us. Stop bowing down to Trump, and defend our democracy. PS: The emperor has no clothes!

We couldnt have said it better.

When political leaders make the biggest impacts on their times, more often than not its because two things presented themselves at just the right time: power and opportunity to use it.

Cornyn finds himself standing at just such a juncture, and if he summons the courage and wisdom to use the moment, he could make a lasting contribution to his state and his country.

President Donald Trump continues to lash out at the election results, rallying other voices in the GOP to trash our electoral system. The damage such protestations are doing is profound, ranging from delays in getting the transition process started to more inchoate but lasting harm such as reduced trust in the system by millions of voters.

As weve said before, and others have echoed all weekend, the president has the right to pursue valid legal questions in court.

There is a way to do that, however, without hysterical statements about widespread corruption for which there has yet to be any proof and without Trumps false assertions of triumph despite receiving fewer than the necessary 270 electoral votes and losing the popular vote by 4.2 million votes and counting.

But one necessary ingredient to stop the damage Trump is doing has been sadly lacking. Too few voices among the GOP establishment are willing to say the obvious: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris appear to have won the election. Given that the Trump team has produced no evidence of fraud that, even if proved, would change the outcome of the election, the silence is inexcusable.

Former President George W. Bush of Texas said as much over the weekend. Four senators including Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have spoken up.

But most others havent. That silence has created an opportunity for Cornyn to be especially effective, should he only break his own silence.

Cornyn just won his fourth term in a 10-point landslide. He beat an extraordinarily well-funded Democrat without relying on anyones coattails.

That puts him among the top 20 most senior members of the Senate. Should he finish his fourth term and win another, hell be among the longest-serving senators in modern Texas history.

While South Carolinas Lindsey Graham appears to be groveling in gratitude to Trump for helping him keep his Senate seat, even parroting baseless claims about corruption, Cornyn isnt beholden to Trump.

For the first time, Cornyn appears to be heading to Washington with something even better than a fat war chest: independence. Its a truly rare commodity in the Capitol, and for Cornyn himself.

Eighteen years ago, Cornyn, a respected attorney general who had championed open government and had hoped to do so in Washington, won his first term after leaning heavily on Bush, who was elected president midway through his second term as governor and was riding high. For the next decade, he served largely in the shadow of the more influential Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and then in fear of the tea party movement that put Ted Cruz, his polar opposite, in the Senate.

After winning his third term in 2014, Cornyn was elevated to majority whip as his party took control and for the next four years served loyally as Majority Leader Mitch McConnells chief deputy. He left the leadership post two years ago and ever since has been preparing to win this last election.

All of that is behind him now. In recommending voters replace Cornyn, this editorial board argued that his innate caution had morphed under Trump into near-total acquiescence. We argued that was reason enough to hire a new senator.

Well, the voters disagreed.

Now he returns to Washington not beholden to Trump, unafraid of the tea party and free to chart his own course as a senior member of the Senate who wont have to stand for re-election for six more years.

What better way to signal that new independence than to speak up on behalf of Texas and America to say to Trump: Its time to concede.

Go here to read the rest:
Editorial: Cornyn got more votes than Trump in Texas. He can afford to call Trump out. - Houston Chronicle