Bound to No Party, Trump Upends 150 Years of Two-Party Rule
- 7 years ago
Bound to No Party, Trump Upends 150 Years of Two-Party Rule
Although elected as a Republican last year, Mr. Trump has shown in the nearly eight months in office
that he is, in many ways, the first independent to hold the presidency since the advent of the current two-party system around the time of the Civil War.
“The truth is that he is a political independent, and he obviously won the nomination and the presidency by disrupting a lot of norms
that Republicans had assumed about their own party and their own voters,” said Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, a conservative website.
“This week was the first time he struck out and did something completely at odds with what the Republican leadership
and establishment would want him to do in this position.”
None of which means that Mr. Trump has suddenly transformed himself into a center-hugging moderate.
While some conservatives complained about the apostasy of cutting deals with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York
and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, others applauded his assault on establishment Republican leaders like Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
At a conference in Washington this past week featuring prominent political veterans from both
parties, Republicans often expressed harsher assessments of Mr. Trump than Democrats did.
Would he run as an independent?”
The more immediate question is whether he will continue to seek agreements with Democrats.
Although elected as a Republican last year, Mr. Trump has shown in the nearly eight months in office
that he is, in many ways, the first independent to hold the presidency since the advent of the current two-party system around the time of the Civil War.
“The truth is that he is a political independent, and he obviously won the nomination and the presidency by disrupting a lot of norms
that Republicans had assumed about their own party and their own voters,” said Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, a conservative website.
“This week was the first time he struck out and did something completely at odds with what the Republican leadership
and establishment would want him to do in this position.”
None of which means that Mr. Trump has suddenly transformed himself into a center-hugging moderate.
While some conservatives complained about the apostasy of cutting deals with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York
and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, others applauded his assault on establishment Republican leaders like Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
At a conference in Washington this past week featuring prominent political veterans from both
parties, Republicans often expressed harsher assessments of Mr. Trump than Democrats did.
Would he run as an independent?”
The more immediate question is whether he will continue to seek agreements with Democrats.