If you decide to scroll on social media today, you might find a lot of lamentation about the changes happening to political parties, particularly how a party can center itself around one man. Democrats on TikTok are calling the Republican Party the “party of Trump.” He is, in their opinion, the heart of the GOP.
In a lot of ways he is. He has completely reformed the Republican Party into an unrecognizable group. Politico writes the RNC in July showed a group of people appealing to the labor unions and taking hard stances on topics such as nationalism rather than traditional marriages and business practices that the GOP has been known for.
Even abortion stances are changing. A number of Trump’s supporters are pro-life, but Republicans are willing to adopt Trump’s position that abortion access should be decided upon at the state level.
We are witnessing a cultural shift in the GOP. One that the Democratic Party must rise to meet lest this new conservatism overpowers them.
Bernie Sanders’ Nov. 10 op-ed for the Boston Globe addressed the Democrats’ failed attempts to reach the working class and how that amounted to a Trump victory. In his opinion, the conservative movement’s shift towards the middle class gave them the wins needed to take Congress and win the presidency.
“Trump’s fundamental explanation as to why the working class is struggling was that millions of illegal immigrants have invaded and ‘occupied’ America, taken our jobs and benefits and are eating our pets. That explanation is grossly racist, cruel and fallacious. But it is an explanation,” he wrote.
Sanders’ position on the GOP’s success verifies how Trump’s political rise completely changed the party to one that at least pretends to cater to the working class.
Here’s the thing. I don’t think the heart of the GOP has changed, I think that the face has.
Neither political party has done a great job uplifting working-class people in the last eight years. Even though it is within the Democrats’ best interests to do so, everyday Americans and the marginalized are exactly who they claim to represent.
At least Trump’s new party pretends that they are making positive changes for the middle class, even if all they do is blame everything unfairly on migrants.
The truth is, people are struggling. The housing market is atrocious and although inflation has not gone up much since the 2020 COVID-19 recession, prices haven’t gone down.
The economy is not nearly as bad as some economists would have you think. But that does nothing to change the minds of working-class Americans who feel every sting of tuition prices, housing costs and grocery costs.
Trump is the life of the party, both literally and figuratively. His exclusionist rhetoric gives Americans something to blame and offers them what they need, hope. It doesn’t matter if in the long run, he will only help the top 1%. What counts is that he looked the working class in the eye while doing it.
The GOP is doing the same things that it always has but with a brand new twist. For the Democratic Party to survive, they must adapt.
