Is the GOP's Version of Unity a Winning Formula?

Democrats have thrived politically over the last eight years by uniting against one person. That unity has defined the party. It’s dominated legacy media cycles, it’s been showcased in campaigns national and local, and it’s front-of-mind for most liberals. But this version of unity likely can’t prevail much longer. It can’t compete with the Republicans’ newfound unification around a more positive idea: that of America itself.

The Democrats’ mission, by contrast, is to defeat Donald Trump. That mission lacks purpose and vision. It’s a tough vision to get behind. People want to know what you’re for and where you’re headed, not merely whom you oppose. It’s also a petty message, and for the party that’s supposed to be the place for the intellectually superior, it’s surprising that such an elemental frame of mind drives the political conversation.

Democrats historically have done “unity” better. They’re generally better at looking past intra-party differences for the good of their common ideology – it’s what makes many of them group thinkers. As a proud Republican myself, I would never trade my party’s taste for independent thinking for anything. I’m guilty of breaking rank with the GOP sometimes, not because I’m a rebel but because my party is secondary to my convictions. But this tendency, which has sometimes blocked unity in the Republican Party, is now acting to solidify it, around the conviction that America should return to its proper place of liberty, prosperity, and security. That’s worth uniting for.

And this unity recently received a major boost. To say that Trump’s response to an assassination attempt in the battleground state of Pennsylvania was iconic is an understatement. It will serve as a rallying call for Republicans, Independents, and even many Democrats. Trump was shot; he could easily have been killed and in fact missed death by centimeters. He rose from the ground with clenched fist and implored those gathered in Butler, Pennsylvania to “fight, fight, fight.” Leaders do things like that. Trump knows, as do millions of Americans, that we are in a fight for the future of our country. It’s easy to unify around that.

This brand of unity, which transcends partisan politics, will prove to be insurmountable for Democrats this election. No amount of media coverups, lies, half-truths, red herrings, or other tactics can obfuscate or derail this American coalition. The legacy media, the authors of much of the division and partisanship we endure, have lost their grip on America’s soul. No one trusts them anymore, and rightly so. Being anti-Trump, we’ll soon see, is not as powerful as being pro-America.

More than two-thirds of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track, and the majority of Americans believe that Democratic policies have hurt them directly and that life was better under Trump. We’re at a national tipping point. Our country craves strong leadership and unity, and the “anti-party” cannot deliver it. A political outsider, whom the media loves to hate, who survived an attempt at his life, offers a unifying message: let’s make America great again, together.

Joe D’Orsie represents the 47th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.