Mar 16, 2016 By Bryce Connors 4 min read

Almost 200 years ago, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” was first published. The classic tells the story of Victor Frankenstein’s created monster. When the monster makes demands, demands that are not met by Victor, the monster promises revenge.

The GOP, much like Victor Frankenstein, has lost any control over the monster it has created. That monster, of course, is the GOP base electorate. A decade after the tea party movement that was fed a steady diet of misinformation, propaganda, and distortion – the base is still hungry and it has a taste for plain crazy.

The same tea party candidates that started campaigns to fight and destroy the establishment are now a part of the establishment – and they might just get their wish. They added as much sludge as they could to the already sloth like pace of government. The monster wanted more. They filibustered the Senate on anything the Democrats tried to pass. The monster wasn’t satisfied. They delivered a federal government shutdown. The monster still wasn’t full.

Last week, GOP leadership sent Mitt Romney to the pulpit to serve as a stop gap. However, the attempt was just like pouring gasoline into the dumpster fire that is the Donald Trump campaign. At this point, it appears that Trump is the only person who truly understands the monster. It wants crazy, and Trump has an all-you-can-eat buffet of crazy. Eloquence, intelligence, candor – you know, the qualities that most people would like to see in a presidential candidate are history. Name-calling, vulgarity, and xenophobia are much more the monster’s speed.

I never thought I would live in a country where a presidential candidate encourages security to “rough up” protesters. I never thought I would see candidates discuss hand size on a nationally televised debate. I never thought I would hear a candidate endorse committing a war crime during an interview. No matter how low the bar gets, Trump finds a way to limbo under it. The monster is most pleased.

This election, if nothing else, is proof that common ground doesn’t mean much in presidential politics anymore. Donald Trump has never put on a pair of work boots. He doesn’t have a clue what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. He has spent exactly zero days living as a middle-class citizen. Despite having nothing in common whatsoever with the monster, he speaks its language.

I imagine that the GOP leadership is wondering the same thing I am: how can Trump habitually and brazenly get away with answering questions by just saying, “we’re going to make America great again?” It has essentially become Trump’s way of pleading the fifth. When asked for details on his proposed replacement plan for Obamacare, Trump had nothing substantive to say. When pushed for how he would save Social Security, Trump had nothing. He was the only person in the world who witnessed Muslims celebrating on rooftops in New Jersey during 9/11. He is the only person, in rooms of 30,000 people, who witnesses protesters starting violence at his campaign events. When confronted about all of the aforementioned, Trump claims the moderators are just distracting voters from the real issues that he has no answer for. Lucky for Trump, the monster doesn’t much have an appetite for facts or real solutions.

There is no debating that the same monster that delivered gains in both the House and Senate has turned on its creator. What is the GOP’s next move? Your guess is as good as mine. They can hope to take their fight to the convention floor. That certainly would be the cherry on top of the GOP primary season sundae.

Will Rubio and Cruz be able to suck up their pride enough to throw their support behind Trump? In the event that the candidates themselves do support Trump, I’m not entirely convinced that their supporters will follow suit. The Trump candidacy has been polarizing to say the least and making up any ground with moderates in a general election isn’t likely, regardless of the running mate. The GOP has put itself in quite the predicament and they only have themselves to blame.

Bryce Connors

New Salem