Thread by @tomiahonen

I've told the joke a hundred times here on TW that Trump killed the GOP. In reality there is a civil war inside the party. The lunatics (aka SPD caught Sarah Palin's Disease aka Tea Party aka Maganutters) were a growing mess well before Trump (aka... Sarah Palin..)

GOP is sick..

The lunatics are currently running the party. Boehner quit and Paul Ryan quit when they could not handle the lunatics. And with gerrymandering, the more extremist maganutters gained power. The Republican party is now run by the nutters.

It would be VERY healthy for a split

If a Patriot Party were to split out of GOP, it would take roughly half of current Washington DC GOP with it, more on House side, less on Senate side. Rump GOP would become instantly powerless, DEMs would become dominant party. The (Tea) Patriot Party would be genuine third party

A split in GOP would remove the cancer, allow the rump-GOP to return to 'Reagan' and previous 'traditions' and take moderate positions on 'everything' leaving behind racism, sexism, religious fanaticism (abortion), and science denialism (climate change).

the Patriot Party would be what Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Trey Goudy, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul etc like to preach: science denials, anti-vaccination, destroy the IRS, total American isolationism, and all religious & first amendment nutters, free guns to everybody!

This way, The Patriot Party would split out of GOP, to take the 'Right Wing' of the current Republican party, and very roughly speaking half of the party and its supporters. Its nominal leader now is Trump until the party becomes disgruntled with him as his crimes become revealed

The rump-GOP would technically become America's 'Centrist' party, very close to where moderate GOP is/was, like Colin Powell, Ana Navarro, Morning Joe, Condi Rice, the Bush family, etc. This rump-GOP would instantly become an endangered species, it would have to re-invent itself

The natural way for rump-GOP is to be a vocal 'Never Trump' RINO party, go and strongly join the DEMs in persecuting Trumpists, to show it was Trump who corrupted and 'captured' their party, they are not as crazy as Trumpism. They should 'expel' Trump & ideally the Patriot Party

The political future for the rump-GOP is to APPEAL TO DEMOCRATS. Those who 'split out' to join Patriot Party will be in their alternate universe of fake news and conspiracy theories. Winning them back would be FAR harder, than winning MODERATE Democrats. The obvious two demos..

The obvious 2 demographics where rump-GOP could grow, taking from DEMs (!) is the Hispanic vote and suburban women. Also highly trained professonials might enjoy a third choice between sanity and the maganutters. If Rump-GOP could appeal to moderate DEMS, they become center party

The current 2 party system, would become 3 party system (like happened in UK over past 2-3 decades). That is MORE DEMOCRATIC, when you have 3 genuine choices rather than 2. All 3 would put up a Presidential candidate & all 3 would be seen in debates. All 3 parties would win seats

The most obvious 2024 candidate for Patriot Party is Ted Cruz, finished 2nd against Trump. Or Marco Rubio.

Most obvious 2024 candidate for rump-GOP is Romney who clearly wants to run again. Could be Kasich.

So 2024 election could be Biden vs Romney vs Cruz.

In the Senate and House, the three parties would negotiate on various legislation etc to seek 2 out of 3 to support. Even if Tea Parties yell and scream, the rump-GOP and DEMs could relatively easily come to compromises (even after DEMs initial political dominance would end)

I have been saying the GOP has to cure its SPD Sarah Palin's Disease. They will have to expell the nutters. A split of the Patriot Party would be the best solution for all, but the rump-GOP would have VERY difficult years ahead, trying to build a position as the 'centrist' party