The former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney “hopes to be able to rebuild” the Republican party after Donald Trump leaves the political stage. Mitt Romney, the retiring Utah senator and former presidential nominee, reportedly hopes so too.

Among other prominent Republicans who refuse to bow the knee, the former Maryland governor Larry Hogan is running for a US Senate seat in a party led by Trump but insists he can be part of a post-Trump GOP.

Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee chair turned MSNBC host, advocated more dramatic action: “We have to blow this crazy-ass party up and have it regain its senses, or something else will be born out of it. There are only two options here. Hogan will be a key player in whatever happens. Liz Cheney, [former congressmen] Adam Kinzinger and Joe Walsh – all of us who have been pushed aside and fortunately were not infected with Maga, we will have something to say about what happens on 6 November.”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    88
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    28 days ago

    If Trump loses, I don’t know that there will be a Republican party. The top people all hate each other and the only thing that unites them is brown-nosing Trump. They will tear the party apart all trying to replace him.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        28 days ago

        I’m trying really hard to not be a pessimist right now for what I think are obvious reasons. It’s not easy.

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          28 days ago

          Realistically, I’m jazzed to learn that my post-2024-election predictions from 2015 are already coming true… we might actually get the good future where the Democrats are the right-wing bad guys.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      I have to think there’s something going on behind the scenes to organize a schism in the GOP, no matter what happens in this election. I think it’s unlikely that Liz Cheney and people like her will be able to wrest control of the current Republican party away from the fart sniffers, so they’re going to have to split and make a new party.

      The outstanding question is “Why haven’t they done this already?” Maybe there’s just not enough solid support to pull it off ahead of the election, surely because there are a lot of people who are sniffing the farts out of fear, and they don’t want to burn that bridge yet.

      Pay real close attention after this election. Lindsey Graham is going to show his other face again, and a whole bunch of other politicians will, too. Yes, there needs to be a path to redemption, but that path is going to have to include resignation for the likes of Graham, Vance, McConnell, anyone who supported Trump, then very much didn’t, and then supported him again. Such people cannot be entrusted with elected office.

      • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        27 days ago

        so they’re going to have to split and make a new party.

        They know if they split off, they will lose the party forever. Voters will never switch, they need the Republican brand. This isn’t about 4 years later, this is about long term.

        Trump brings out the crazies to the primaries like no one else. This is why the old school just keeps their head down, they’re just waiting for Trump to bow out and hopefully the crazies eventually stop showing up to the primary.

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      edit-2
      28 days ago

      The Democratic party will become the new right wing party. The question is whether the Republican party will survive in a new hyper fascist mode, or a real left wing party will pick up the pieces.

      My hope is for the latter, but realistically it’ll be the former.

    • assembly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      The entire Republican base will just vote red all the way down no matter who is in the ballot so I don’t think there is a scenario where the Republican Party ever dissolves. They could run a monkey for state senate in red districts and it would win office.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        28 days ago

        We don’t have to have a two-party system. There’s no law requiring the Republican party to stay together. It’s just in their best interest to do so. I don’t know that they’ll care about what’s in their best interest after Trump. They’ll be too busy tearing each other apart, something they’ve wanted to do since 2015.

        • Logi@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          27 days ago

          The two party system is an inevitable consequence of the FPTP election system. Replace that, and you can have multiple parties. Otherwise, you might get a short period of chaos with multiple parties which then settles down to the two winners.

      • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        27 days ago

        You say that but how do you unite extremist and moderate views? You don’t, it’s unsustainable. So no the party won’t fail to exist but if it fractures enough, it will take time to reform. A pretty long time.

    • Username02@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      28 days ago

      I used to see it that way but now? I doubt it will be that simple. So what if Trump is gone and no other republican leader can fit his shoes? Do they even have to?

      Maybe it can be even more beneficial for the republicans to have a dead Trump. They can finally have complete control over his thoughts, his brand, image, his idealogy. With ai technology they can insert a nostalgic idealized version of Trump that he never was. More charismatic, more cohesive, malleable, and eternal. A figure like Jesus, like Mlk, like founding fathers. Who cares the real trump is dead? You can do anything with a base that is so hopelessly lost.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        28 days ago

        Somehow no other Repub is that shameless or that willing to behave like a schoolyard bully. The secret sauce is a guy who will say bigoted dictator shit out loud while doing an endless and uninterrupted parade of scandals.

        I don’t know why they are unable to reproduce it since the party is full of shamelessly corrupt bigots who should in theory be willing to try. I guess looking like a complete dipshit hurts their pride, whereas Donald is an actual dipshit so it comes naturally.

    • capital_sniff@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      27 days ago

      As long as there is a large concentration of a anti-education, anti-intellectual, and nationalistic brained people in easily gerrymandered areas there will probably always be a conservative party. The GOP has been playing their hateful scared brains like a fiddle for a good four plus decades, and they won’t go quietly into the night.

      Maybe if we didn’t have a poorly planned two party system they’d have far less actual power.

        • capital_sniff@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          27 days ago

          I could see your scenario being scary if the “reasonable” GOP members and funders split off and started sucking all the “conservative” liberal groups that normally vote Democratic but could be swayed to embrace even more neo-liberal policies.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      27 days ago

      It really won’t be hard. Both sides (the trumpet and the old school) know they need the Republican brand to win. They’ll have a primary and then they’ll do what they do best: fall in line.