When it comes to who is running the GOP, the general consensus in Washington, D.C. is that former President Donald Trump is still the head of the party.
“This is the party of Donald Trump. If you think otherwise, you’re in for a rude awakening,” Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) told Fox News in July.
“I’d be shocked if somebody said right now there’s a leader in the Republican party more influential than Donald Trump –and I think it’s good that he’s in charge,” Florida State Representative Sabatini said. (View Sabatini’s full interview with Straight Arrow News here.)
Former Republicans, like former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, are echoing that sentiment.
It’s Trump’s party,” Walsh said. “If he runs, and I think he will, nobody will challenge him for the nomination. Nobody.”
Democratic leaders agree.
“We have a Republican Party that is now an autocratic cult around Donald Trump,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced on CBS’ Face the Nation in October.
Polling from the Pew Research Center found that two-thirds of Republicans want Trump to retain major political control and almost half want him to run in 2024.
Walsh, who ran for president as a Republican in 2020, said this is why he decided to leave the party.
I think the party is screwed,” Walsh said. “I think this party’s done. And I think the sooner that it formally dies, the better. And for those of us who were Republicans because we believed in free markets and limited government and opportunity for all, we’re not going to find that with this Republican party.”
Walsh doesn’t believe the GOP can recover from Trump’s campaign and presidency.
“They created this monster called Donald Trump for the past six years,” Walsh said. “They’ve never held him accountable. They’ve enabled him and they’ve assisted him as he has gone about destroying this democracy.”
Walsh is one of a handful of traditional Republicans who believe it’s time to start a new ‘center-right’ party.
“I’m tired of people sitting around, standing around, twiddling their thumbs, talking about what we need to do,” Walsh said. “Quit talking. Go out and do something. We are at a unique moment in American history, where one of our two major political parties is imploding before our very eyes. If this isn’t the time to start a new political party, then I don’t know when is.”
Third parties have rarely been successful in American history, but Walsh thinks there is an appetite for one now.
“The Democratic Party, I respect the Democrats a lot, but they’re not where most Americans are, and I think the energy in the Democratic Party is on the progressive wing,” he said. “Most Americans, and you know, are right here in the middle. ‘Let’s get stuff done.’ I think a party that was centered around that has an audience.”
Walsh hopes a new party will address some of the issues he thinks the GOP ignored.
“The reason we got Trump is because the Republican base had been crying out for years. They had some concerns and some fears and the party establishment ignored them,” Walsh explained. “The party establishment was very elitist and out of touch, and because they ignored their base for years, along came a demagogue like Donald Trump and he grabbed them. So I don’t think we’re ever going back to that beautiful think tank, free market, Reagan kind of Republican party.”
Not everybody agrees with Walsh about the future of the GOP. A Morning Consult poll found that if the Republican primary was held today, 47 percent of people would vote for Trump.
