The Plum Line Opinion
It's still very possible that Donald Trump won’t win the GOP nomination. His GOP rivals — particularly Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — will obviously fight him to the bitter end. If a clear establishment alternative — such as Rubio — emerges, senior Republicans will unite behind him, particularly if Trump continues to roll along.
But last night’s GOP debate suggests that in one important way, Republicans have already surrendered to Trump: they have mostly given up on trying to resist the terms of the debate as he has set them, and have mostly accepted that the battle will be fought on his turf.
This is not what was supposed to happen. For months, the chatter in media and political circles held that at some point, one or more of Trump’s rivals would rise up and confront his simplistic xenophobia and demagoguery with the force of a real argument, which would remind everyone that Trumpism is not what the GOP is really about. This just hasn’t happened in any meaningful sense. And there is no sign that it is going to. As Jonathan Chait puts it, a strange defeatism about Trumpism has taken hold among Republicans.
It's still very possible that Donald Trump won’t win the GOP nomination. His GOP rivals — particularly Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — will obviously fight him to the bitter end. If a clear establishment alternative — such as Rubio — emerges, senior Republicans will unite behind him, particularly if Trump continues to roll along.
But last night’s GOP debate suggests that in one important way, Republicans have already surrendered to Trump: they have mostly given up on trying to resist the terms of the debate as he has set them, and have mostly accepted that the battle will be fought on his turf.
This is not what was supposed to happen. For months, the chatter in media and political circles held that at some point, one or more of Trump’s rivals would rise up and confront his simplistic xenophobia and demagoguery with the force of a real argument, which would remind everyone that Trumpism is not what the GOP is really about. This just hasn’t happened in any meaningful sense. And there is no sign that it is going to. As Jonathan Chait puts it, a strange defeatism about Trumpism has taken hold among Republicans.
