Cracks in GOP as Laura Bush backs Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON: Rumors about the demise of the Republican Party are not exaggerated. The party of Lincoln and Grant, Reagan and Bush, is in the throes of such a deep crisis that it has inspired a raft of funereal op-eds, from the New Republic’s ‘The Case for Shutting Down the Republican Party’ to Huffington Post’s ‘The End of GOP’. Even a commentator on Fox News, which is broadly sympathetic to the conservative cause, spoke about the beginning of the end of the Republican Party, lamenting that the Grand Old Party has “become so incestuous it continues to hemorrhage and will die”.


The latest disaster to befall the GOP are reports that former US first lady Laura Bush would rather see Democrat Hillary Clinton as President than the Republican Party’s prospective nominee Donald Trump, cause for much of rupture in the party. The GOP’s fissure over Trump has not been a secret, but Laura Bush’s implicit endorsement of Hillary Clinton, even taking into account the female bonding angle, will constitute the biggest political crossover since Colin Powell backing Barack Obama.

“I want our next president — whoever he or she might be — to be somebody who is interested in women in Afghanistan and who will continue U.S. policies…that we continue to do what we’re committed to do as a country,” Laura Bush said Women’s summit in New York last week that was widely seen as a nod to Hillary and a no-no to Trump. “That’s who I want — or the kind of people that will do that and will pay attention to our history, and know what’s happened before and know specifically how we can continue to do the good things that we do around the world.”

On Sunday, the Boston Globe sank another dagger into the GOP with a mock front page that had a banner headline reading ‘DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN’, imagining life under president Trump. There are riots across America and the market has tanked because of trade wars. US soldiers are mutinying and the press is targeted under new libel laws.

“DONALD J TRUMP’S VISION for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American,” the paper said in an editorial headlined The GOP Must Stop Trump.

But Trump has warned again that denying him the nomination even if he does not get the 1,237 delegates needed for it and is merely first-placed (as it seems likely) will result in a rupture in the party (he has previously indicated riots may follow). Polls over the weekend showed that the GOP would indeed collapse if Trump is denied the chance.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed one-third of Republicans Trump supporters said they would not support the party in the general election if he is blocked from the nomination. They said they would instead vote Democrat, vote third-party or sit out the election. Sixty-six per cent said they would support the GOP’s nominee anyway.

Over the weekend, as Ted Cruz swept up more delegates in Colorado with the help of party supremos, many Trump supporters began burning their party registrations, protesting the shenanigans under the Twitter hashtag #BurnDownTheGOP.” The Colorado GOP meanwhile tweeted a hashtag #Never-Trump before deleting it, presaging an internecine war that is expected to get worse as the jamboree moves to Cleveland, where the party convention is to be held mid-July.