The Trump realignment: How will GOP change, under a leader with different ideas?
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s victory could lead to far-reaching, long-term changes in American politics. He has radically departed from some of the orthodoxies of the Republican party, based for decades in the principles of smaller government, freer trade, and a hawkish military stance.
Every few generations American politics undergoes a realignment — where members start disagreeing with their own party, work across the aisle, and ultimately scatter to new political homes. The last such phenomenon occurred as a result of civil-rights debates.
The GOP now has several major decisions to make about its future, and what it stands for:
Leadership: An early sign of what’s ahead will come in the selection of the next congressional leadership. It seemed only yesterday Paul Ryan was the fair-haired boy. Republicans pleaded with him to accept their vacant House speaker’s post, as the only palatable option to unite the party’s restive factions: the pro-business wing, staunch conservatives, nationalist populists and libertarians. That was then. He now faces a potential mutiny. Ryan’s crime: Being unenthusiastic about Trump, which infuriated the grassroots and some elected members. We’ll soon know whether he, or anyone else, can herd these cats.