Trump’s Torchbearers
A who’s who
Since 2015, the Trump brand has been focused on winning and “owning the libs.” To Trump supporters who find great appeal in this, the projected image is of nonstop victory over an evil ideology. Micro-triumphs in culture war skirmishes are prioritized over a larger governing vision.
Those jockeying to be his successor will likely have to adopt this approach, if they haven’t already, since the president sets the tone for the rest of the party.
What tone is that?
The man at the head of the GOP is all about domineering and polarizing. The political environment he thrives in is one in which decency is discarded, one where there are almost no limits on the extreme measures used to combat opponents. As he’d put it, it’s all about winning, winning, winning.
But the winning in question is mostly just symbolic chest-thumping and getting people pointlessly upset. His supporters won’t see the losses and the true costs Trumpism imposes on conservatism as a movement until the man himself exits the stage.
Trumpism needs torchbearers after Trump’s moment is over. Only time will tell which aspects of Trumpism they will keep, and which they will discard. When it’s no longer Trump, who will it be?
