_Jon Niemuth is a freshman economics major at MU. He is an opinions columnist who writes about politics for The Maneater._
As fascinating — or horrifying — as Donald Trump’s presidency has been, and regardless of how devoted the average conservative may be to his agenda, there’s no denying the simple fact: The Republican Party cannot survive like this for long.
The party’s nativist, protectionist and anti-establishment rhetoric appeals only to perhaps a third of Americans, and the constant harkening back to “the good old days” is a surefire way to isolate minority voters. America is evolving — by 2050 the country will be majority-minority for the first time in its history — and given that the age 65-and-up demographic is the only one currently on Trump’s side, soon enough much of his base will literally die off.
If the Republicans fail to drastically rehabilitate their image before then, it could signal the end of the GOP’s competitiveness.
Texas, the Republican stronghold largely responsible for the victories of Trump and George W. Bush, will have more Hispanic residents than white residents by 2020, and without Texas, it’s fair to assume the right-wing’s chances at the Oval Office will fall dramatically. Hispanic Americans tend to lean overwhelmingly liberal; in a way, their rise seems to make the GOP’s collapse inevitable.
This doesn’t have to happen, and in many ways it comes off as an American tragedy. In the past, the GOP brought us the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, easily some of the finest presidents the U.S. has ever had. Though one could always disagree with their goals, there was little doubting their sincerity or good intentions — and that they truly cared for the people they were elected to serve.
But over the last decade or so, the GOP appears to have jumped the shark and abandoned its basic sense of decency. The days of Eisenhower calling for a smaller army in order to better address the needs of the poor have been replaced by a nonstop wave of militarism. The days of Richard Nixon founding the Environmental Protection Agency have been replaced by an irrational rejection of global warming’s very existence. Whereas Ronald Reagan once preferred amnesty for illegal immigrants, modern Republicans proudly boast of not just deporting DACA recipients, but of limiting the number of Latin-American immigrants we accept in the first place.
This is not a legitimate political ideology. Nationalists, with a solid mix of special interest groups, now run the GOP, to the detriment of its supporters and the United States’ global standing.
The Republicans have to change. If not, future generations will make them pay.