The Republican nominee

American democracy is facing a year of reckoning. A farce has become reality, as billionaire real-estate mogul Donald Trump becomes the presidential candidate for the Republican Party. After another thorny weekend between Trump and his main rival, Ted Cruz, Cruz announced the surprise decision of pulling out of the presidential race after another Trump victory. A day later, the only remaining Republican contender John Kasich announced he was ceding the race to Trump. Many an obituary of the Republican Party has been written since by analysts but it may be too soon to discount the serious challenge Trump may pose to any Democratic presidential nominee. The Republican presidential race has left a severely divided party and the two-party system of America has begun to show signs of falling into disarray. The entire field of Republican candidates for the 2016 election presented a motley crew in which each candidate attempted to outdo the other in making provocative, fascistic proclamations. In a field of equals, Trump stood out for being the one with the most provocative and empty rhetoric.

But the provocative rhetoric of the reality TV star has clearly struck a chord with the Republican voter base despite desperate late attempts by the Republican establishment to prevent ‘Trump for President’ from becoming a reality. The party is now in a state of political paralysis with many in the party actively vowing to oppose the party’s presidential candidate. A party divided by Trump’s comments on Muslims, Latinos, women and immigrants will now attempt to muster some sort of challenge to a Democratic Party that is showing much more substance. While Hilary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders is showing no signs of letting up, the two candidates are only managing to make the other look better. Bizarrely, the Republican vote base has gone against the stated preferences of their elected representatives who have questioned Trump’s grasp over politics, the constitution – and even reality. Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the Congress, has refused to support Trump. President Obama has warned Trump that the presidential election was not a ‘reality TV show.’ It is even more bizarre than there seems to be no mechanism in place in America to disqualify a candidate that many have noted to be veering very close to fascism. The crisis in the Republican Party did not start with Trump. The party had been also unable to put up a strong, moderate candidate to contest Obama. Does this mean that Trump will definitely lose the US presidential election? When Trump announced his candidacy, it was deemed a publicity stunt. The stunt has outlasted the expectations of all serious political commentators. There is then a very real – and terrifying – possibility that Trump may still end up becoming the United States of America’s next president.