Kremer’s Corner: Picking up the pieces of the GOP

At one time or another you may have passed the scene of a car accident. 
As you drive by you see possible victims, broken glass, skid marks, metal shards and other types of debris. 
Once the police have left the scene it is up to the on-site workers to clean up the mess. 
The whole occurrence reminds me of what the American political system will look like the day after this year’s election.
The major victim of this year’s ugly national contest will no doubt be the Republican Party. 
After years of running candidates that almost all looked alike and sounded alike, the party this year was stuck with Donald J. Trump, who in no way fits the mold of the party of Lincoln. 
Donald Trump should have never been the party’s candidate if the few remaining money people and so-called leaders, had been awake during the presidential primary process. 
For a long time Donald Trump’s desire to grab the national spotlight was the worst kept secret in politics. 
When Trump launched the “birther” movement attacking the right of President Obama to serve as president, he didn’t do it just to sell more condominiums. 
Trump was carefully analyzing the mood of the public and testing which messages would resonate with the voters. 
Once 16 candidates entered the race, all Trump had to do was make himself the voice of the dissenters and he did it artfully.
Come Election Day the Republican Party will be licking its wounds, but it can’t be healed when there are three separate paramedics giving different medical advice. 
Can you imagine the Trump people, the right wing nut jobs and the mainstream Republicans, all getting together to smoke a peace pipe? 
It just isn’t going to happen that soon, if at all.
How about some other election casualties?  Women! 
For years the Republicans were home to a large number of conservative and moderate women, all of whom were true believers in their party. 
The Trump campaign will have erased all of those gains and if anything, the Trump effect may linger for the next ten years. 
Most of the candidates waiting in the wings for 2020 are people like Marco Rubio,Ted Cruz and Michael Pence, all of who are also a threat to thinking women.
Race relations? You can argue all you want as to whether they got better or worse under President Obama, but the Trump campaign has fired up a large group of racists who will not go silently away after the election is over. 
The hidden groups of haters have found a voice through Trump and even if he disappears, they will have been emboldened.
Immigrants? Donald Trump decided early on to attack the immigrant population as it was a way to build up his base. 
Even though a large majority of his own employees are immigrants or from immigrant families, these often voiceless people were an easy target. 
Trump’s supporters have decided that their lifestyle has been destroyed by “those people” and people of immigrant descent will be targets for many years to come.
The Constitution? 
This is a great country and there is abundant proof that the vast majority of Americans have benefitted from all the opportunities that were available to them. 
Facing a possible wipeout at the polls, Trump continues to spread the myth that the election is “rigged.” 
There is no doubt that in Putin’s Russia the election is rigged, but Trump does America a disservice with his continuous whining about the election process being tainted, unless, of course he wins.
The media? For over 18 months, media outlets of all political sides, treated Donald Trump like some kind of circus act who would never be able to win his party’s nomination. 
It boosted their ratings. Once Trump was the party’s choice, the left and the right went into a state of shock. 
The common Trump complaint now is that the media is stacked against him. 
Just like they made him they decided to break him. It’s time for the national media to do some soul searching and read some history books about the 1930’s. 
Like Colin Powell says, “once you break it you own it.”
There is a lot more damage on the political roadside but that is best saved for another day. 
This year’s election is very much like those messy accidents on your way home. 
There is a lot of broken glass, debris and the cleanup. 
The real cleanup starts on Nov. 9.