Collapse of the Republican Party (Socialist America)

The Collapse of the Republican Party, was the process of internal disintegration of the Republican Party of the United States, which began in 2020 and ended in 2042 when the party itself officially ceased to exist. The beginning of the collapse is usually dated as 2020 when Donald Trump lost reelection and Democrats took the senate while retaining control of the house.
== Background ==
Numerous factors played a role in the collapse of the Republican Party, some subtler than others. The most obvious factor in the collapse was the Republican Party's reliance on white voters without college degrees. This demographic made up 65% of the electorate in 1980 but had shrunk to 42% in 2018, as America became educated and more diverse. By the end of the 2010's White Christians no longer constituted a majority of voters. 
Another factor in the collapse of the Republican Party was it's reliance on older voters (Boomers in particular) and difficulty winning over younger voters (especially millennials and zoomers). The Republican party's commitment to shrinking the welfare state was complicated by the fact that their core voters were the welfare state's primary beneficiaries. This trade-off of younger voters for older voters was unsustainable in the long-run anyway because in the long-run the Boomers would be dead. This conflict between the Republican party's commitment to ever-lower taxes and reliance on ever-older voters was easy to manage when there was a bipartisan consensus that "entitlements should be trimmed" but by the late 2010''s that was no longer the case.
For decades the weaknesses in the Republican party were counterbalanced by equally dire weaknesses in the Democratic Party. The Republican Party also had a number of structural advantages such as the electoral college and gerrymandered districts which enabled them to remain viable even as demographics shifted against them. In 2016 many pundits and commentators predicted a "GOP Civil War" would happen after Trump lost the election but these fears were put on hold after Trump's surprise victory.
Donald Trump entered office in 2020 with his party in control of both houses of the legislature. In 2018 Democrats turned the mid-term election into a referendum on the GOP's plans for repealing the ACA and that November, Seniors over 65 split their votes almost evenly between the two parties. In 2020 Donald Trump not only lost reelection but lost control of the senate. This marked the first time since the great depression that a major party lost control of both houses of the legislature and the presidency in a single term. 
The 2020 United States redistricting cycle also ended up unexpectedly favoring the Democrats and undoing a lot of gerrymandering from both Republicans and Democrat (this problem was not completely fixed of course).
== History ==
Despite the decisive defeat most Republican Leaders were convinced they could recover during the Biden Presidency just as they had during the Obama Presidency. The GOP largely failed to translate the unpopularity of Biden into support for GOP candidates. The GOP just barely won control of the House during the 2022 election. The 2024 election was a disaster for Republicans. Donald Trump failed to unseat Joe Biden and Democrats retook the house and retained power in the Senate. Democrat's hold on power was still tenuous and GOP leaders still expected to retake power of one or both chambers in 2026.
In 2026 Donald Trump died of a heart attack and his death was major blow to the moral of the Republican Party. Trump died without designating a clear successor so once he was gone, the party returned to the factionalism that characterized the party prior to his takeover. This coincided with a power struggle within the Democratic Party between Centrists/Liberals and Democratic Socialists. In 2026, Republicans failed to retake either chamber.
After the 2030 redistricting cycle, Republicans would never again take control of the House of Representatives.
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