The 2016 election will be remembered as the year the Republican Party ceased to exist as a viable national political organization.
This is the year that an insurgent candidate, Donald Trump, captured the nomination despite the opposition of 16 establishment candidates, their operatives, party leaders, consultants, special interests, major donors and the majority of the “conservative” media.
For a while, there was partial unity as most of the defeated candidates and their supporters endorsed Trump, even Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Yet, after the revelation of a 2005 ‘hot mic” recording of Trump engaging in crude “locker room” sexual banter with Billy Bush, an entertainment reporter, many of these party leaders have abandoned their nominee.