Republicans, it's time to leave Trumpism behind.

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Let me stipulate to Trump supporters, what there are still, that I agree with everyone of your assertions about the Left, the Democratic party, and the state of the Union. That's not necessarily true, but I'll stipulate to it for purposes of making an argument.

The nature of politics is to convince the people that you have a better idea, policy, or a better way. The effective political leader is one who either convinces a people of something or he reflects what they already believe. (Nothing is politically accomplished without the American people behind it. Too few people realize that American politics, and the political situation, are as they are because that's the way the American people want them to be. We're not having a debate about a $28 trillion federal debt and its causes because the American people do not want to have one. On the other hand, there's a great appetitive within the American people for blaming our troubles upon immigration and China.)

If you view it as important to resist the Left, then it is now important that you abandon Trumpism. What the election has proven, when taking the American people at their word, and you should always take them at their word revealed in the voting booth, is that the limits of Trump's ability, and thus that of the GOP itself, to convince the American people of his message has been reached.

Democrats are always fond of saying after an election they've lost that the American people either just didn't hear their message or didn't understand it if they did. It is borderline hilarious to observe how they fail to consider the American people heard their message loud and clear, and voted accordingly.

The nation has rejected Trump. That's an indisputable fact. (Take your argument otherwise elsewhere.) The question for Trump supporters is then what they can do to further convince the people of the nation they're correct where Democrats are not? This just in; what you're doing now isn't working. If you cannot win your argument among your fellow citizens, your very neighbors even, then what chance does it have upon the national stage?

My humble suggestion is that it's not as politically bad as it seems out there. A large number of Republicans fell for the argument that Republicans need to, and must, fight like Democrats......and along came Trump, promising to do just that.

The problem with that line of thinking is it rejects political persuasion in favor of raw naked political power. We don't need to review here the Obamacare example of it. Why is political persuasion better when raw power can be achieved? It may not be for Democrats, but it must be for Republicans, because Republicans are not Democrats. One argues for a Republican because he does not demand you be ruled by a 50% +1 mob. You argue for Republicans because they do not exclude the other political party from debating such momentous things as Obamacare within the congress. You argue for Republicans because they're more interested in the debate being resolved within the minds of the American people rather than a solution imposed merely by possessing the presidency or a plus one vote within the congress. I'd add that you argue for Republicans not for a better government, but for less government. There is no better government, there is only more government, the nature of government being immutable. You argue for Republicans because you want a debate upon health care and not just some massive expansion of government within it just because you can force it through, and do nothing but throw more money at it.

Not everyone is a hardcore leftist and, in fact, they're exceedingly rare. Do you really think the debate in the US is over capitalism versus socialism? If you do, you probably do not have a working knowledge of what actually is socialism. Your bleeding heart liberal neighbor is every bit as vested in capitalism as you are, you may trust me. His desire to spend your tax dollars on some feel-good program is not socialism. It's theft, but that's another subject.

What is now abundantly obvious is that the Trump approach for convincing the American people does not work. (What works for Aaron Rodgers does not work for Tom Brady. Trump has become Carson Wentz.) It hasn't worked in governing either, but I'll let that rest without further elaboration. When thousands of Americans go to Washington, DC to protest an election and trash the place, Americans think, typical Democrats. When Republicans do that, people think, what's wrong with them? When Republicans protest they're the group which does not invade the Capitol. They don't assault police officers and do not associate themselves with those who do. People do not associate Republicans with people who start climbing up the outside walls of the Capitol. What's more, they don't associate them with people who show up for a protest over election results there being no evidence of serious or systematic fraud within.

The Republican party has no purpose as just another political party devoted to grievances they blame upon others. Republicans don't engage in zero-sum thinking, where a gain by someone means a loss by someone else. They're the party of rising tides lifting all boats. That's not Trumpism. Trumpism is a temper tantrum asserting we've been done wrong. And it inevitably requires its adherents to believe their neighbors somehow evil. That may work for another party. It won't work for conservatives or Republicans, and they should quit expecting it to do so. There's a Democratic party for that.

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