Here lies the Republican Party! Born in the abolitionist’s days of  1854 and we may now lay the party to rest in the year of our Lord, 2016. The early days of the Republican Party were filled with the passionate cause of ending the institution of slavery. It’s death is due to the failure to articulate a positive vision for the future of America. They are better known for what they were against rather than what they were for.

The Party of No, had the nails of it’s own coffin sealed do to its failure to stand for any principle worth saving. In better times you could count on the Republicans to stand for a smaller government not to no government at all. They were a political party that stood for spending money wisely and not refusing to spend money for infrastructure or for the victims of disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes or for the people poisoned by bad water in Flint, Michigan.

Donald Trump did not have any support from the Republican establishment. He started his campaign with 1% and ended his campaign having defeated the candidacies of 16 opponents.

It is remarkable indeed that the Republican Party could not field a candidate that could gain the support of enough Americans to deny Donald Trump the nomination of the Republican Party. Donald Trump is not a great speaker, he does not have charisma. Charisma is an important factor in choosing a candidate. But for in spite of what he lacked he was able to harness the anger of many Americans.

Perhaps the voters realized that the Republican Party has held Congress for 2 years and despite that fact they have been unable to do anything. The opinion of many Americans is that Congress is the problem with the numbers of support for Congress being in the toilet. The support for the President is around 50% but for Congress it is around 8%.

The past has shown that formerly Republicans could come up with an idea or two to reform what is wrong, but no longer.

The emergence of the Tea Party did not help matters. With the Liberty caucus exerting a tremendous amount of influence Congress became dysfunctional. Compromise became the enemy.

The real problem is that the party has not listened to the voters. There is a disconnect. If you listen to those who are or have been elected Republicans it is obvious that they have no clue what has happened to them. You hear the same tired phrases where the establishment wants to blame President Obama. Sorry, but they have brought their problem upon themselves. They are the ones who have maintained and encouraged the Southern strategy. They are the ones to ignore the current change in the national demographics.

Trump continues to garner huge crowds while his opponents could not get a pulse. Economic populism gained in popularity while the party establishment were absent and tone deaf to the fact that a lot of Americans feel as if they have the deck stacked against them financially. The Republican Party must listen to their own if they are to re-emerge as a Party. The question that we will eagerly await to find out is whether the Republican Party can survive the nomination of Donald Trump. Will the personality of Donald Trump define this campaign? Can the Republican Party re-emerge with an identity worth saving? No matter what we in this country need a strong two party system. The future awaits !!!