Donald Trump is headed for the exit. But the movement he spawned isn't, Robin Sears writes -- unless Trump refuses to leave the stage:
Political movements and their parties rarely die; they merely go into hibernation for a while.
This rebound is eminently possible for Trumpism, if the GOP codifies its policies and prejudices into a socially acceptable discourse. Americans in every generation have struggled with immigration. Anger at free trade and globalization has a broad and deep resonance in the American electorate. Contempt for all governments has often been widespread in American history. America First isolationism also has deep roots, with the GOP almost successfully blocking American participation in both world wars, the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and the Bretton Woods agreements that created the global economic infrastructure of the post-war years. Trump is merely a cruder version of a long line of conservative champions of these views.
Those positions have defined The Ugly American around the world. Trump was the Ugly American personified.
And television magnified that personification. That's why there's talk of Trump starting his own TV network. It would renew his potency and keep him in the public eye. However, if Trump TV was the only network to cover his outrages, the man and his lunacy would fade.
But Trumpism without Trump would garner lots of supporters:
A Trumpist GOP, without Trump, has another enormous advantage. They have access to hundreds of millions of dollars of support from rich right-wing American PACs, foundations and billionaires. The Koch brothers created and funded the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, think tanks that provided the policy underpinnings to the Reagan revolution. A new generation of politically engaged billionaires from both Wall Street and Silicon Valley will back a new America First GOP agenda with generous support.
So much depends on what Trump does when he's out of office. But whichever path he chooses, his curse will not go away.
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