Will the GOP finally move past Trump?

Former President of the United States Donald Trump was indicted last week on felony charges for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the riot at the U.S. Capitol, the third indictment the former president now faces.
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” said Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, whose office spent months investigating Trump. “It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
The question is, will it matter? Polling shows time and time again that no, it won’t.
It seems the more times Trump is indicted, the more dug-in his supporters become. In some polls, he is still favored with 58 percent of Republican voters to become the party’s nominee. For whatever reason, nothing sticks to Trump, and allegations he broke the law multiple times (and a fourth indictment might be coming in Georgia) only further galvanizes his base. Trump responds to each indictment the way he responds every time he is told he did something wrong—he calls people names, calls it a lie and says everyone is out to get him. Trump is incapable of admitting defeat or that he is ever wrong.
What’s fascinating is his most hardcore supporters’ inability to admit he may have done something wrong. Words and phrases like “deep state,” “witch hunt” and “weaponized FBI, government, etc.” are thrown about, despite the mounting evidence that Trump likely has indeed done many things wrong, and might even be in jail when the next election happens. The problem for Trump supporters is that federal prosecutors have about a 95 to 98 percent conviction rate, depending on the source. The federal government does not bring charges willy-nilly with no evidence to back things up.
In our opinion, it’s time for the Republican Party to move past Donald Trump. The party has a very real chance to beat President Joe Biden in the next election, but more than likely not with Trump as the nominee. We saw how that went in 2020. There is little reason to believe the outcome would be any different in 2024, despite Biden having less-than-stellar success in his first term and being a very vulnerable incubment. Trump is just piling up too much baggage. Yes, he has an ardent base, but moderates and Independent voters are turning away from him more and more.
There are plenty of Republican candidates to choose from who are similar to Trump, minus the multiple indictments. There is Nikki Haley, there is Tim Scott and there is Mike Pence. There is a longshot candidate such as Chris Christie. Heck, there is even the candidate some are calling “Trump Lite,” Ron DeSantis. All are capable of mounting a challenge to Biden. Most of them haven’t turned off so many voters on the fence.
We believe Trump’s time as face of the GOP must be over. Will GOP voters agree with us? Time will tell.