Democrats will be confronted with a huge problem even if Biden wins in a landslide: op-ed

Writing in The New York Times this Tuesday, Adam Jentleson writes that for Democrats, beating President Trump in 2020 is just the beginning. "If Mr. Biden wins and if Mr. Trump leaves office peacefully — two big ifs — Democrats will be confronted with a more intractable problem: The Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump, and it is not likely to change," he writes.

In the event of a Biden win, Jentleson contends that there will the temptation to say that "Trump was the problem" with the GOP. But this, according to Jentleson, is a "big lie."

"...today’s Republican Party won’t moderate itself, because Trumpism is its natural state. Democrats should avoid the temptation to expect Republican cooperation in governing this country."

When Trump won the presidency in 2016, he didn't change the GOP -- the GOP had been getting ready for him for years. "This is not a party poised to pivot toward moderation — even in the face of an electoral landslide loss,"Jentleson writes. "The inevitable calls for reform (like the party’s abandoned 'autopsy' report after the 2012 election) will yield to the inescapable gravitational pull of the party’s own voters and the larger forces dominating our politics."

Jentleson writes that the only way forward for the GOP is for them to face the reality of what they've become and to "prioritize delivering results for the American people over gauzy, pundit-pleasing fantasies."

Read the full op-ed over at The New York Times.