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Primary Concerns Episode 26: Can the GOP Avoid Another Trump

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The more insurmountable Donald Trump’s challenges become, the more conservatives contemplate the consequences and recriminations of this election. Who’s to blame for his rise? And how can the Party stop the Trump phenomenon from repeating itself?

Stuart Stevens was Mitt Romney’s senior strategist during the 2012 presidential campaign; Sean Trende is Senior Elections Analyst at Real Clear Politics, where he first hypothesized that Republican struggles might stem from the political indifference of disaffected or “missing” white voters. Together they contemplate the difficulty Republicans will have turning the page on the Trump era.

Further Reading:

  • Sean Trende examines the case of the missing white voters in Real Clear Politics.
  • Before Trump’s campaign even began, Stuart Stevens wrote a fictional account of a right-wing populist taking over the Republican Party called The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear.
  • In the New Republic, Brian Beutler argues that the right’s most recent effort to blame liberals for Trump’s rise is extremely flimsy.