Here’s what changed last week. It is not so much that Donald Trump is now guaranteed to be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee; the fact now is that Donald Trump is the GOP and it is up to Republicans to deal with that.
Donald Trump is the GOP brand.
As Trump closed in on his party’s nomination and opponents fell by the wayside, observers noted that the party of Lincoln was now the party of Trump. For Republicans who think Trump is neither qualified nor capable, the concern is that as he crumbles, so does the GOP.
The New York Times quoted Henry Olsen, an elections analyst with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank saying “I’m watching a 160-year-old political party commit suicide.”
Last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN he was not ready to endorse Trump, adding, “I think what a lot of Republicans want to see is that we have a standard bearer that bears our standards.”
It is not known if Trump, who shows more talent as the “Insulter-in-Chief” instead of a consensus-building GOP leader, will settle for being second-guessed by a mere speaker of the House.
For Hawaii Republicans, however, Trump’s position now as the presumed GOP nominee means that they will have to fit themselves into that Trump brand.
Willes Lee, the former Hawaii GOP chairman, now heads the local Ted Cruz for President campaign and will go the the national convention as a Cruz delegate, even though his candidate has put his campaign on hold. Lee admits the GOP campaign to elect Trump will be difficult, adding that the Democrats also will have trouble winning with Hillary Clinton.
“The likely contest between Trump and Clinton features candidates with the highest intra-party and national unfavorable ratings in the history of history,” Lee said in an interview.
Despite Trump’s near-constant media access, his vague promises to “win, win so much you will get sick of winning,” do nothing to tell voters where he stands, so there is a mistrust even among Republicans.
“He must convince conservatives that he will govern using conservative principles, and convince other sensible people he is not the ‘insert whatever you want’ that he has ‘played’ during the primary,” Lee said.
The GOP House leader, Rep. Beth Fukumoto Chang, said she doesn’t think Trump is a good candidate and doesn’t represent the values of the GOP.
“It is impossible to forget or ignore what he said about Japanese-Americans, Muslims and women,” Fukumoto Chang said in an interview.
She added that she thinks the party should reexamine whether Trump “at the end of the day will be our leader.”
By including Trump in the call for GOP unity, the GOP’s name is being hurt, Fukumoto Chang said.
“I think the only way we can combat what he is doing to our reputation is to openly voice our opposition,” she said. “We have to stand up and say in Hawaii we stand for something different.”
When the path to victory includes repudiating what the presumptive leader stands for means, neither unity nor success is close.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
