Mediaboss Marketing

With the election year now underway, President Trump is no doubt beatable and yet, its starting to feel more and more like hell get reelected.

The obstacles to Trump winning in 2020 should not be ignored. To start, in 2016, he only beat the highly unpopular Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College by winning three key swing states by less than 1%. In 2018, all three of them, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan turned against Republicans. Trump also has historically low approval ratings and has been consistently trailing Democratic front-runner Joe Biden in general election matchups.

But at the same time, there are several factors that increasingly look to be playing in Trumps favor.

One, the economy. Predictions about the United States being on the brink of a recession have not borne out yet. Instead, unemployment has remained at a 50-year low of 3.5%. Since Trump took office, the unemployment rate has averaged 3.9% lower than any president at a comparable point in office since data started being kept in 1948. Recent data also undermines the Democratic argument that the gains have been limited to the very top. It makes it harder to run a change campaign in the face of such strong economic performance.

Two, foreign policy. Despite Democratic warnings, Trumps decision to kill Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani did not trigger a war with Iran. Instead, when Iran retaliated without causing U.S. casualties, Trump prudently declared victory and avoided further escalation. To this point in his presidency, Trump has militarily intervened less than Barack Obama did. Under Trumps leadership, the U.S. also managed to roll back the Islamic State and kill their leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

Three, impeachment has proven to be largely a bust for Democrats. Regardless of how one feels about the merits of the case itself, politically speaking, months of impeachment news has not significantly moved public opinion. At about 45%, Trumps approval rating is within a point of where it was in September when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched impeachment hearings. Support for removal from office is heavily correlated with peoples underlying feelings about Trump.

Four, Democratic candidates dont seem ready to take on Trump. While Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have taken extreme policy positions that will be a liability in a general election, Biden has been showing signs of his advanced age. This was apparent in the January Democratic debate, which will be remembered for Warren and Sanders stabbing each other. Former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones lamented on CNN after the debate: "I want to say that tonight for me was dispiriting. Democrats have to do better than what we saw tonight. There was nothing I saw tonight that would be able to take Donald Trump out."

Though Biden, on the surface, would have a good chance of beating Trump, recent presidential elections have shown that the candidate with the ability to generate more enthusiasm among their base fares better than a candidate chosen by default. Just think of the failed candidacies of John Kerry, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton. In contrast, Trump enjoys a passionate following and the GOP is more unified around him than when he won the first time around.

Does this mean that Trump is a lock to win? Of course not. Not even close. Hes still never had the approval of a majority of voters and has serious problems in the suburbs, especially among women. His Twitter addiction can derail any messaging. Theres more than enough time for any of the factors mentioned above to change, if not all of them. The economy can falter. There could be a foreign policy disaster. There could be more damning evidence on Ukraine or other malfeasance that the public finds more convincing than what has been presented to date. And Democrats could unite around their eventual nominee, who could rally the base as and attract the many swing voters who cant stand Trump. But if the current trajectory continues, its looking a lot more like voters will give Trump a second term.

Continue reading here:
It's looking more like Trump will be reelected in 2020 - Washington Examiner

Vijaya Gadde, chief legal officer of Twitter., listens during the Wall Street Journal Tech Live global technology conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2019.

Vijaya Gadde, chief legal officer of Twitter., listens during the Wall Street Journal Tech Live global technology conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2019.

Photo: Bloomberg Photo By Martina Albertazzi.

Vijaya Gadde, chief legal officer of Twitter., listens during the Wall Street Journal Tech Live global technology conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2019.

Vijaya Gadde, chief legal officer of Twitter., listens during the Wall Street Journal Tech Live global technology conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2019.

Twitter's top lawyer is final word on blocking tweets-even Donald Trump's

Whenever somebody on Twitter takes issue with the network's rules or content policies, they almost always resort to the same strategy: They send a tweet to @jack.

A quick scan of Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey's mentions show just how often he's called upon to lay down the law for the service he helped create. But what users don't know is that they're imploring the wrong Twitter executive. While Dorsey is the company's public face, and the final word on all things product and strategy, the taxing job of creating and enforcing Twitter's rules don't actually land on the CEO's shoulders. Instead, that falls to Twitter's top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde.

As Twitter's head of legal and policy issues, Gadde has one of the most difficult jobs in technology: Her teams write and enforce the rules for hundreds of millions of internet users. If people break the rules, the offending tweets can be removed, users can be suspended, or in extreme cases booted off Twitter altogether. Dorsey may have to answer for Twitter's decisions, but he's taken a hands-off approach to creating and enforcing its content policies.

"He rarely weighs in on an individual enforcement decision," Gadde said in a recent interview. "I can't even think of a time. I usually go to him and say, 'this is what's going to happen.'"

That leaves Gadde, 45, as the end of the line when it comes to account enforcement -- a delicate position in a world where Twitter's rules are both an affront to free speech and an invitation to racists and bigots, depending on who's tweeting at you. "No matter what we do we've been accused of bias," Gadde said. "Leaving content up, taking content down -- that's become pretty much background noise."

Like most corporate lawyers, Gadde generally operates in the background herself, though her influence has helped shape Twitter for most of the past decade. A graduate of Cornell University and New York University Law School, Gadde spent almost a decade at a Bay Area-based law firm working with tech startups before she joined the social-media company in 2011. Her eight-plus years at Twitter are about equal to the amount of time Dorsey has worked there over the years.

But as Twitter's role in global politics has increased, so has Gadde's visibility. She was in the Oval Office when Dorsey met with President Donald Trump last year, and joined the CEO when he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2018. When Dorsey posted a photo with the Dalai Lama from that trip, Gadde stood between the two men, holding the Dalai Lama's hand. InStyle just put her on "The Badass 50," an annual list of women changing the world. "Vijaya defines the word," tweeted Twitter Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland.

When Gadde first joined Twitter, the internet was a different place. At the time, a lot of politicians were just getting familiar with the platform. Trump primarily used his Twitter to share announcements about his TV appearances (though this would quickly change). The official presidential account, @POTUS, wouldn't even come into existence until 2015, under then-President Barack Obama.

When Gadde took over as general counsel in 2013, the social-media service had an "everything goes" mentality. A year prior, one of Twitter's product managers in the U.K. famously said that Twitter viewed itself as "the free speech wing of the free speech party," a label later repeated by then-CEO Dick Costolo. The company simply "let the tweets flow," said one former employee.

That freedom is part of what drew Gadde to Twitter in the first place. An immigrant from India, Gadde moved to the U.S. as a child and grew up in east Texas, where her dad worked as a chemical engineer on oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, before moving to New Jersey in middle school. "I was the only Indian child most of my education until I went to college," she says now. "You feel voiceless. And I think that that's kind of what drew me to Twitter -- this platform that gives you a voice, and gives you a community and gives you power."

Twitter's commitment to giving everyone a voice, though, has also come with a general reluctance to take it away. Twitter's decisions in recent years to ban certain users, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and far-right media troll Milo Yiannopoulos, were news in part because Twitter's decisions to act were so uncharacteristic. Gadde acknowledges the change, saying that the company has come to realize in recent years the responsibility it has to protect the safety of its users, including when they're not using the product. "I would say that the company has shifted its approach dramatically [since I started]," she said.

Perhaps no user presents a bigger quagmire for Gadde and her team than Trump, the platform's most famous user, whose tweets often push the boundaries of Twitter's rules. The president's habit of blasting messages to his 70.9 million followers has taken on a new vigor thanks to a looming impeachment trial and re-election bid. Following the U.S. drone strike in early January that killed a top Iranian general, Trump threatened Iran with military force in a number of tweets, including the targeting of cultural sites. That prompted many observers, including some former Twitter employees, to ask why he hadn't been suspended -- a cycle that has played out several times following other Trump tirades.

Last month, Trump attacked his Democratic rivals, blasted Congress over impeachment proceedings, and even mocked teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account. According to a USA Today analysis, his tweets contain more negative language than ever. The study looked at whether Trump tweeted words with positive or negative connotations, and found he "is posting fewer tweets with words that convey joy, anticipation and trust, and more that convey anger." Trump sent or retweeted more than 1,050 messages in December, according to Hootsuite -- more than any other month since taking office.

"The way he uses social media is a reflection of just how unusual a candidate, and now a president, Trump is. A big part of that is that he breaks all the rules," said Patrick Egan, a professor of politics and public policy at New York University. "Something that a lot of people really like about him is that he says the kind of things he's not supposed to say, and of course that's exactly the kind of thing that can get you into trouble on social media."

Inside Twitter, Trump's tweets are a frequent topic of conversation among employees, and Gadde's authority also means that she has the unique job of punishing the world's most famous tweeter -- should it ever come to that. "My team has the responsibility to do that with every single individual who uses Twitter, whether it's the president of a country or it's an activist or it's somebody we don't know," she said. "I honestly do my best to treat everyone with that same degree of respect."

Twitter has so far decided that Trump hasn't crossed any lines, but the company is prepared for such a scenario. While it's unlikely that Twitter would ever suspend a well-known politician - the company also has a newsworthiness policy, which means it's less likely to take action on tweets from elected officials -- it's devised another penalty for world leaders: A warning screen unveiled last summer that hides a tweet from public view and limits its distribution, but still allows people to view the tweet with the click of a button. It's a way to publicly acknowledge that a politician has violated Twitter's rules while admitting what they said is too newsworthy to be taken down. "It's preserving a record of what is said in the public interest," Gadde explained.

The process is designed like this: A content moderator, who may be a third-party contractor, reviews a tweet that has been flagged and determines whether it violates Twitter's rules. If they decide that it does, moderators can usually enforce punishment at this stage, but Twitter requires a second layer of review for offenders who are considered public figures -- in this case, a verified politician with more than 100,000 followers, Gadde said.

The tweet is then sent to Twitter's trust and safety team, and if they also agree that the post violates the rules, Twitter convenes a special group of employees from across the company to review it. This group, about a half-dozen people from various teams, is meant to bring in a diverse set of perspectives, Gadde explained. That panel then makes a recommendation to Del Harvey, Twitter's head of trust and safety, and her boss, Gadde, for a final decision.

Barring some kind of emergency, using the label will ultimately be Gadde's call. "Vijaya has a young kid still, so she's very used to being woken up any hour, which is helpful," Harvey joked to a group of reporters last summer.

Gadde won't go so far as to say the new warning label was created with Trump in mind -- "We try to think of these things globally and not just about the United States," she said -- but added that even though the screen, referred to internally as the Public Interest Interstitial, hasn't been used since its debut last June, it will eventually make an appearance. Gadde said Twitter has used the newsworthiness policy a "handful" of times in the past as justification for leaving offending tweets up. But the company didn't have the warning label back then, so the general public didn't know anything had even been discussed behind the scenes, she said. "We know it happens, and that it will happen."

Twitter actually pointed to this policy in September 2017 when answering questions about the decision to leave up a tweet from Trump that appeared to threaten North Korea with nuclear war. Twitter also has a policy against threats of violence. A White House spokesman, Steven Groves, declined to answer questions about Trump's use of Twitter.

Historically, Twitter's rules around free speech have been so lax that a number of celebrities and journalists, including singer Lizzo, actress Millie Bobby Brown and New York Times writer Maggie Haberman, have stepped away from the service -- at least temporarily -- with many citing bullying and harassment. Sen. Kamala Harris, a former Democratic candidate for president, thought Twitter's enforcement weak enough that she implored the company to suspend Trump in a letter in October, saying he uses his account to obstruct justice and intimidate people, including the whistle-blower whose report ultimately led to his impeachment. Twitter responded that Trump's tweets didn't break the rules.

The newsworthiness exemption gives Twitter a lot of wiggle room when it comes to removing high-profile tweets, but Gadde said the point of the warning label, and the company's attempt to explain it, are part of a broader effort to be more transparent about how and why the company makes decisions -- something she admits hasn't always been clear. As Twitter has grown, so has the company's understanding that it can't simply sit by and let people tweet whatever they want, Gadde said. It's one of the many ways her job has evolved over the years.

"We're trying to do so much more of our work in public," she said. "I want people to trust this platform."

- - -

Bloomberg's Jordan Fabian contributed to this report.

Visit link:
Twitter's top lawyer is final word on blocking tweets-even Donald Trump's - Thehour.com

Ronald Reagans younger son lacerated PresidentDonald Trump in a scathing interview with The Daily Beast published Friday, saying his late father would never have voted for Trump.

He would have been embarrassed and ashamed that a president of the United States was as incompetent and traitorous as the man occupying the White House now, said Ron Reagan, 61. Hes a disgrace to the office of the presidency.

Reagan who spoke to the Beast from Italy, where he lives half the year said if his father were alive today, he suspects the popular 40th commander in chief would say something like:Our nation is at a real turning point. Our republic is in danger. Democracy is in danger, and we need to put somebody else in the White House because this man is betraying the country every single day he occupies the Oval Office.

Because of Trump, it is perhaps the most dangerous time for our republic in my lifetime, perhaps since the Civil War, said the younger Reagan. Though his views often clashed with those of his conservative father, the liberal commentator said his dad conducted his presidency with dignity and class.

If there is a second Trump administration, hes going to feel liberated to do whatever he wants to do. Hell try and go for the third, fourth, however long he lasts. He wants to be president for life. It would keep him out of jail, for one thing, Reagan said.

Reagan also lashed out at the Republican Party today, which he said his dad would be ashamed of.

The GOP at this point, for a whole host of reasons to do with Donald Trump, is an entirely illegitimate political party just made up of a bunch of sycophantic traitors mouthing Kremlin propaganda to defend this squalid little man who is occupying the White House, said Reagan.

Reagans powerful2014 ad for the Freedom From Religion Foundationplayed again this past week during the Democratic presidential debate. In it, he calls himself an unabashed atheist who supports the group to keep state and church separate, just like our Founding Fathers intended.

Calling all HuffPost superfans!

Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter

Read the original here:
Ron Reagan Goes Scorched Earth On 'Traitor' Trump: My Dad Wouldn't Have Voted For Him - HuffPost

The College Republicans are worried partially about their Democratic peerson campus but also about other young people who call themselves Republican.

The more moderate among them saythey fear far-right students'antics will corrupt the party. Their counterparts argue the party is too stodgy to capture the attention of undecided voters. In California and Washington, the groups fractured over who should lead them.

Underlying the college conservatives fears: that the Republican Party as a whole is in trouble.

For young Republicans, embracing a conservative identity while enrolled in college is a decision to be an outsider. Many of them say theyfeel ostracized on their campus for their beliefs, whichfosters an us vs. them mentality.

Young voters in 2020: 'I think they will decide the race'

That might partially explain why they host events such as affirmative action bake sales, in which they sell treatsat different prices based on a persons race. These types of events are meant to rile collegecommunities, and they often succeed. Studentsboth broadcast their views againstaffirmative action and generate as much attention as they can.

At the University of Washingtonlast May, a group calling itself College Republicans hosted such a bake sale. The campus conservatives found themselves the subject of national headlines, and the statewide organization of College Republicans denounced what the group did. The state organization instead recognized a different group the Husky College Republicans.The original group declined to speak to USA TODAY unless memberswere offered anonymity. Memberssaid they feared for their safety.

Jack Pickett, the western vice chairman at the College Republican National Committee, was part of the College Republicans at the University of Washington and also led the statewide group.He was involved in the decision tostart over.

The chapter, he said, crossed the line a couple of times, and the bake sale was the final straw. Pickett recalled he was not happy when leaders brought Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right speaker, to campus in 2017. Outside that event, a man protesting was shot by someone who had come to see Yiannopoulos.

Milo Yiannopoulos leads a "Straight Pride" parade in Boston on Aug. 31, 2019. Supporters of President Donald Trump and counterdemonstrators who called them homophobic extremists staged dueling rallies in Boston.(Photo: JOSEPH PREZIOSO, AFP/Getty Images)

Pickettconsiders himself a conservativebutsaidhedidnt initially support Donald Trump's campaign for president. (He now does.)He threwhis supportbehind businesswoman and politician Carly Fiorina in 2016.

He wasn't alone: Trump's 2016 candidacy produced unusual divide in College Republican clubs

His critics have seized upon what he described as a more traditional type of conservatism, calling him a Republican in Name Only. People have attacked him online for his weight and claim he doesnt deserve his position. The old group of college leaders he helped to ouststill meets.

Battling over the identity of a college group is vexing, Pickett said. It distracts from a larger, perhapsmore difficult goal: recruiting new conservatives.

It's very difficult to do that when you have a group who's misusing your nameand working almost intentionally, it often seems, to drive people away with their antics," Pickett said. "That's not something that anyone, even right-leaningstudents,want to be a part of.

The Republican National Committee doesn't appear worried about potential divisions in its youth movement. The party is running an effort to register voters called "Make Campus Great Again."

"When it comes to issues college students care about, like securing a job after graduation, the choice is clear: a booming economy under President Trump or a government takeover of every aspect of their lives under Democrat leadership," RNC spokeswomanMandi Merritt said in an email.

The split between conservative policy wonks and energized activists is one that Amy Binder, a sociologist at the University of California-San Diego, and Jeffrey Kidder, a sociologist at Northern Illinois University, have studied for years.They're writing a book on student activism.

They found individual students straddle those lines. They join the traditional College Republican groups because of the political connections they can build,but they might also join a group such asTurning Point USA. Founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, when he was 18, the conservative group is known for its attention-grabbing tactics at colleges. It started the Professor Watchlist, a project meant to track, expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda. It hosts summits often attended by major figures in the Trump administration, including the president, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

President Donald Trump takes the stage at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in December 2019.(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

Kidder said such groups probably do a better job of appealing to students interested in more than traditional, campaigning-style politics.

Conservative and liberal students tend to organize differently, Binder said. Students on the left may feel more comfortable within the university. Many have student affairs offices directed toward minority students, such as black or LBGTQ cultural centers.Conservative students may be drawn off campus to groups such as Turning Point, which have a lot of money and resources to help them organize.

JoaquinRomero, 21, a junior studying economicsat the University of New Mexico,chairs the New Mexico Federation of College Republicans. He has long been involved in state and city politics. In New Mexico, the state with thelargest percentage of Hispanics in the country,Democrats hold all seats in Congress, the governor's office and both the state House and Senate.

Romero said his goal is to shift the college Republicangroupawayfrom the incendiary approach somehave taken. In 2017, the UNMgroup invited Yiannopoulos to campus, and police intervened to break up protests. Romero said he understands some people appreciate watching things burn, but he sees those efforts as counterproductive.

"Things like the Milo event, where you have someone on stage that says inflammatory things that are in my opinion not even conservative," he said,"it not only drives people away, but it also ignites the wrong kind of people."

The goal, Romero said, should be to recruit people who want to carry on the"conservatism of (Ronald) Reagan." That lasts longer, he argued, thanthe furor generated over provocative speakers.

Infighting among conservative students in California prompted a majority of the state'scollege Republicans to start a new organization altogether. They split off from the California College Republicans about a year ago to create the California Federation of College Republicans. That groups chairman, Matt Ronnau, also headsthe chapter at University of California-Berkeley.

Initially, Ronnau said, the divide among College Republicans was between those eager to embrace President Trump and those who wanted to embrace a more traditional model of conservatism. The split came down to differences in how to run the organization. The new group, the federation, has 30 chapters and is recognized by the College Republican National Committee. The old group, the California College Republicans, didnt return a request for comment.

Ronnau describes himself as a member of the Trumpian camp but said many of the federations members are not. Some have swung far to the right. The San Diego State College Republicans, who belong to the federation, describe themselves as unapologetically Nationalist + America first in the groups Twitter profile. They have retweeted Michelle Malkin, a controversial figure who supports far-right writer NicholasFuentesand VDARE, an anti-immigration website popular among white nationalists.

The Facebook page of the San Diego State College Republicans tries to appeal to the younger generation online.(Photo: screenshot)

OliverKrvaric, president of the San Diego State group, said a split existsbetween establishment Republicans and the next generation.

Krvaric,21, asenior studying international security and conflict resolution, said he'd rather the group focus less on helping conservative students land political jobs, a traditional role for College Republican groups, and instead work to wagethe "culture war." For instance, although he wouldn't say where he stood on issues such as same-sex marriage, he said generally men and women are better suited for different roles. Many group members oppose abortion rights and hold hard-line views on immigration.

Ronnausaid he is unconcerned that the San Diego chapter's views could be seen as reflective of the federation as a whole.

We want to let clubs operate kind of more or less the way they see fit, Ronnau said. San Diego State is much farther to the right than other clubs in our state federation, but we all coexist together.

Ronnau doesnt expect a return to the era of Republicanism that would be familiar to the Mitt Romney- or John McCain-types. He said many young people support the president, and more young people will step up to push the right-wing populist agenda.

Editorial board: Forget Donald Trump, Republicans. Save the GOP for the sake of your party's future

Kirk and his fellow Republicans used to be some of themost vocal conservative voices on college campuses. But some young Republicans view him as too moderate.

Jeremiah Childs, vice president for the College Republican group at the University of Maine, pushes an America first agenda that's unabashedly Trumpian in support of strict immigration policies. The group often posts criticism of Democratic presidential hopefulsand support for gun rights and the military.

College conservatives at the University of Maine came under fire for online posts about Columbus Day and Native Americans.(Photo: Screenshot)

He said groups such asTurning Pointspend too much time talking about economic issues rather than cultural ones, such as the anti-abortion movement.Childs said he worries about the rise of concepts such asnontraditionalgender roles and third-wave feminism.

In October, the group posted a message on Facebook in support of Columbus Day, describing some Native American tribes as corrupted by rampant ritual sacrifice and cannibalism. The post generated backlash. Childs said that the intent was not to rileand thathe didn't think Native Americans in the area cared about the controversy over Columbus Day.

An indigenous student group protested the post, according to Inside Higher Education. Atribal ambassador of the Penobscot Nation told an NBC affiliate she was in favor of stripping Columbus' name from the holiday, calling him a "war criminal."

Childssaid the outrage was the result of "left-wing activists."

The College Republicans at the University of Maine recently also came under fire for their plans to bring in Malkin.The hotel hosting the eventpulled out, but the students found a new venue, Childs said.

The group's adviser resigned afterthe students invited Malkin.DanDemeritt, spokesman for the University of Maine, said the club isn't official without one. Childs said they have candidates lined up.

Malkin supports Nicholas Fuentes, a far-right writer.Though he said he is not a white nationalist, he attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a gathering of white nationalists. Counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed after James Alex Field drovea car into a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators.

Fuentes has joked the Holocaust didnt happen. His fans have coordinated attempts to hecklespeakers from Turning Point USA and another conservative group, the Young America Foundation, according to the Daily Beast.

Childs said his group does not endorse Fuentes and is not associated with him.

The Maine group posted a poll featuring Kirk of Turning Point USA, whom Childs described as a Country Club Republican, and Fuentes.

The major question, the Maine students wrote, seems to be should the Republican Party move towards 'Nationalism/America First,' or towards 'Libertarianism' with a softer approach towards social issues and immigration? In the students poll, Fuentes represented the first option, Kirk the second. Eighty-two percent of the 5,200 who voted went with Fuentes, the rest for Kirk. (These types of internet polls can be easily gamed, especially by young digital natives.)

Childs said he doesnt think conservative critics understand the circumstances of poor and rural Americans. He said they probably come from prosperous backgrounds.

Childs' sentiment reiterates what many of these youngconservativessay abouteach other: Theyjust dont get it.

Education coverage at USA TODAYis made possible in part by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/01/17/college-republicans-crnc-trump-republican-party-gop-turning-point-usa/4476649002/

See the original post:
Nationalist 'antics' or the future of the GOP? College Republicans are at war - USA TODAY

Corey Lewandowski, President Donald Trump's belligerent former campaign manager, recently decided against a US Senate run. That's good news for the civil-minded among us who respect a free press.

Lewandowski was famous for his rhetorical and sometimes literal pugilism, if you watched his chaotic congressional testimony or saw his altercations with a reporter and protesters. His campaign would've been Trump 2.0 but on a smaller scale.

Beyond Lewandowski, there are others in Trump's orbit contemplating higher office, including the president's son Donald Trump Jr., Trump loyalist and cable-TV staple Rep. Matt Gaetz, and even George Papadopoulos the Trump campaign aide who, as part of the Mueller investigation, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

As these Trump-adjacent figures start running, it'll be a test for the future of Republican politics and our country.

Trump rose to power with an unconventional, in-your-face style that works for him but not the country. For most of the 2016 primary campaign, he was ignored, considered a crude celebrity but not a president. As he started to gain traction, Republicans like Mitt Romney, an array of national-security officials, and retired military brass began to challenge his qualifications for office.

But they were too late. Trump had the momentum, and the Republicans ushered in the era of divide at will, lie with abandon, and point the finger at people who don't look like you.

And as the Trump presidency has progressed, the GOP has increasingly taken on the image of the president. Republican voters have stayed fiercely loyal to Trump, leading politicians in the party to mirror his style. Fueled by this positive reinforcement, the most Trump-like figures are now looking to work their way up the ranks of the party.

The resemblance between the man in the Oval and his disciples is striking. Don Jr. has been a true a chip off the old block with his Twitter fights, questionable testimony, and clashes with media. And "attack dog" Matt Gaetz's bullying,hypocrisy, and "alternative facts" often land him in hot water. Sound familiar?

So for everyone saying that a Democratic president will bring us a return to normality, the alternative narrative is this: The current game is just the first inning of increasingly incendiary leadership in America. We're already beginning to see evidence of this. Despite the turmoil engulfing his administration, Trump faces no credible primary challengers. As state GOP parties scrap their primaries and caucuses, Trump's takeover of the party has never been more apparent.

Twenty years from now, Trump will seem run of the mill, as the divide that began during the Clinton years seems now.

The vocal GOP opposition candidate Trump faced has long subsided in the era of President Trump. While Republicans continue to grumble about Trump in private, they're afraid to stand up to him publicly, even on the smallest matters. If Republicans can stop Trump's disciples from winning office, they'll have a chance to rediscover and recommit to their principles.

For the non-Trumpist Republicans, there's still room to survive and thrive. But their opportunity and maneuverability are limited with Trump at the helm. Their best bet will be when they drop Trump and his minions and rally around a normal standard bearer.

Republicans will need to make a choice about whether to stick with the Trump brand or reject it. Just as with impeachment, they'll have an opportunity to put country first. If they don't, eventually it will catch up to them. But the damage to the country will be beyond repair.

View original post here:
The final test of Trump's domination of the GOP will have nothing to do with his reelection - Business Insider