Power Vacuum

Politics, like Nature, abhors a vacuum.

"I belong to no organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

   Donald Trump saw a power vacuum in American politics, then combined that with the prejudices and fears of a vocal minority to fill the vacuum with his own brand of leadership.
   Previously a registered Democrat, he saw opportunity in the Republican Party, sensing that it had lost contact with the feelings of a disaffected base. Result: He sold the fearful, disaffected voters a bill of goods, claiming, "Only I can fix it."
   But can he? Judging from his performance of the past nine months, he can't. Moreover, it's likely that he doesn't care, because like the pitchman he has always been, he made the sale.
   It doesn't matter that the Republican Party, like many of his other ventures, is now bankrupt.
   So the question for the remaining members of the GOP is, what do we do now?
   There are three options: Fight, flight, and start fresh.
   Some will stay and fight, trying to regain control of the Republican establishment in the face of increasing dominance by the president.
   Others will drop out, realizing that the odds of their re-election are somewhere between slim and none.
   The third option is to reorganize and form a new political party to continue the fight.
   A danger, however, is that third parties in American politics have often been spoilers, splitting the opposition to the party in power, thus reducing their chances of turning them out.
   Nevertheless, they persist.
   The decision then becomes whether to join the Democrats in opposition to the Party of Trump, forming a united front against them, or to organize a third party.
   Joining with the predominantly liberal Democrats is not likely, since many of the GOP dropouts are long-time conservatives themselves.
   So if they form a new party, what shall this be called?
   Option one: Conservative Party. This would uphold traditional fiscal values of the Republican Party and would invoke the spirit of Barry Goldwater, the founder of modern Republican conservatism, not only the fiscal sense but also reminiscent of conservationists who, like Goldwater, were concerned with preserving Nature, rather than using all of the earth's resources for capitalist profits.
   A problem here, however, would be knee-jerk opposition from liberals.
   Option two: Progressive Party. This points to traditional values of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican who was instrumental in establishing national parks in the name of conservation.
   The danger of a third party is that it would split the vote of opponents as well as traditionalists. In  1912, this meant that the Republican incumbent, William Howard Taft, lost his bid for re-election to Woodrow Wilson, the only Democrat to serve as president between the terms of Grover Cleveland and Franklin Roosevelt.
   An advantage of this name, however, is that it could base its appeal on concern for workers and conservationists, and emphasize its devotion to "progress" rather than opportunism for the wealthy, which they could stress as the main strategy of the Trumpians. Or, put another way, concern for the working class over the greed of the super-rich.
   Another strategy could be to say the Republican Party has become the "Capitalist Party"  controlled by real estate mogul Donald Trump and his corporate allies.
   Other possible labels for the new movement could be Populist Party, but that has negative connotations similar to those used by Trumpians. Socialist Party or Labor Party would be too closely connected to extreme leftist movement, whether the accusations were true or not.
   A reality is that social welfare programs -- read "socialism" -- have been steadily growing in America since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and are not likely to be surrendered easily.
   In addition, the label "Populist Party" is at first vague, and then is used to mask the isolationist "America First" chatter that dates to the 1930s and only led to economic disaster.
   So what, then, is the most likely name for a new political movement to challenge the Party of Trump?
   The vote from here goes to the Progressive Party, since it evokes the spirit of Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater, as well as concern for the middle class, workers, preservation of natural resources and the general idea of progress for everyone.