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Actually, no — it's not good for the Republican Party. Love him or hate him (and it's clear that a lot of establishment Republicans don't love him), Trump's candidacy and presidency have exposed the deceit of the American press, the corruption in our government and the true political intentions of the American left.
Millions voted for Trump in 2016, having watched Republicans like John McCain, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan do a dainty dance around a hostile and aggressive left. Worse, after having given the GOP control of the House (in 2010) and Senate (in 2014), conservative voters watched as it did nothing.
Trump came in as a non-politician and knocked down 16 other Republican presidential candidates like they were bowling pins. Too many Republicans didn't "get it" then, and they obviously don't "get it" now.
Republicans complaining about Trump's demeanor apparently think, "If we just run someone who's dignified, the press will be nice — or at least fair — to him." How blind can they be? Romney — as dignified and respectable a politician as ever existed — is one of the leading Republican voices critical of Trump. He seems to have forgotten that the press destroyed his candidacy with lies. The same was true for John McCain, who was evil incarnate when running as the Republican nominee for president in 2008 and only became the left's personification of "senior statesman" after he lost.
The left has been screaming "impeachment" since Inauguration Day and has shown itself willing to go to the most elaborate lengths in an effort to undo the election and remove Trump from office.
First there were the false claims of "collusion" with Russia. The left knew these accusations were specious. And yet the nation was dragged through a pointless two-year investigation that only revealed that the person purportedly in charge of the investigation — Robert Mueller — had little to no idea what was going on, and that operatives in the FBI and the Justice Department had manipulated the laws and legal process in an effort to spy on Trump's campaign and administration, and frame him for misconduct.
Then, when the "collusion" narrative fell apart, the story became "obstruction of justice," despite Trump's never having interfered with Mueller's investigation and having provided all the documentation he was asked for.
Now the tack has shifted again, to a recent conversation Trump had with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump discussed the possibility that then-Vice President Joe Biden threatened to cut off U.S. financial support to Ukraine unless a particular Ukrainian prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, was fired. Biden was captured on tape saying: "I looked at them and said, 'I'm leaving in six hours, If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' Well, son of a bitch. He got fired."
Biden's people claim that the U.S. government wanted Shokin out because he wasn't rooting out corruption. But that story is complicated by the fact that Biden's son Hunter Biden had managed to obtain a seat on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company under investigation for corruption. Hunter Biden was being paid as much as $50,000 a month, despite zero experience in the natural gas or energy industries.
Democrats argue that Trump's conversation with the Ukrainian president amounts to requesting foreign interference in a presidential election, since Joe Biden is now a front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. They claim not one but two "whistleblowers" have come forward to reveal the conversation. The second whistleblower characterized the conversation between Trump and Zelensky as "crazy" and "frightening." But the White House released the transcript of the phone call, and neither claims of threats and pressure nor "frightening" tactics are substantiated by it. (In fact, rabidly pro-impeachment Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff have tacitly admitted as much, characterizing Trump's bland language on the call as "code" and a "classic Mafia-like shakedown.")
It isn't just President Trump who is on the receiving end of Democrats' machinations. They continue to try to unseat Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation was nearly destroyed by 36-year-old uncorroborated accusations of sexual assault at a high school party. The Kavanaugh debacle revealed that the left is willing to abandon due process, the rule of law and the presumption of innocence — and even threaten witnesses — to get what it wants.
Trump, Kavanaugh and other enemies of the left have been subjected to a barrage of lies, threats, baseless accusations and manipulation of the law. The left threatens our most basic constitutional rights and disparages constitutional protections against majoritarian abuse, like the Electoral College. In the face of this, Republicans are whispering about what to do "after Trump"?
For years, Republican politicians were such easy targets for the left. They pulled their punches and tucked their tails between their legs every time the political left and their lapdogs in the national media called them a nasty name, or attacked their proposed policies as "racist" or "bigoted" or displays of hatred for the poor. In Trump the left now has a political opponent who punches back — hard. For that, the left hates him.
The question isn't how the Republican Party will survive Trump; it's how — and whether — it will survive without him.
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Laura Hirschfeld Hollis is on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses in business law and entrepreneurship. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, research, community service and contributions to entrepreneurship education.