US Republican debates: Donald Trump might not be the candidate, but the Republican party is still beyond saving

Donald Trump’s presidency opened the door to more bigots.

There is a strain of thought that politics is simply a debate over the solution, with left and right not representing good and evil, but rather two schools of thought on how to deal with the same problems.

One side may think Scotland will be more prosperous outside the UK, the other thinks we’re stronger together. These two approaches, despite what you see on social media, don’t have to be confrontational. They are just ideas.

Working as a political journalist, where opinion is a taboo subject anyway, I speak to figures from all the parties. I can say there is a genuine belief with the vast majority of them their ideas are simply better. They do not hate their political opponents, they disagree with them.

Former US president Donald Trump might not win the Republican nomination, but is going down swinging.

Watching the first Republican primary debate this week, however, I can tell you these people do not simply have different ideas. They are not principled citizens with whom I disagree. They are hateful, they are intellectually lacking and they are dangerous.

None of these traits are, of course, new to the Republican party, which has long valued guns over the lives of children. But even as far back as the John McCain years, there was a dignity, a compassionate conservatism that wanted to defeat the opponent, not demonise them.

Donald Trump, and his hateful rhetoric normalised by media companies who revelled in his ratings, has let populism not simply infect the fringes of the right, as it has in Britain, but go mainstream.

Consider the candidates. First up we have Vivek Ramaswamy, a self-made billionaire who thinks 9/11 was an inside job, the climate change is a hoax, and who promised to use military force at the border. His very appearance here speaks to the stain Mr Trump has left on America and a failure of capitalism.

Having enough money to garner a platform for hateful views is straight out of the Trump playbook, with a mainstream party happy to hear from a conspiracy theorist who wants Russia to be handed Ukraine.

Then there’s the Trump critics, such as his former bestie turned enemy Mike Pence. The former vice-president opposes abortion, wouldn’t sit alone with a woman who wasn’t his wife and thinks being gay is learned behaviour, and he’s somehow a candidate for president. George Bush might have lied about an illegal war, but at least he was clever enough to know he should lie about bad things.

One favourite was Ron DeSantis, a man who has sued Disney twice.

Even the most critical of Trump are an embarrassment, with Chris Christie taking a stand, something he did in 2016 before dropping out and endorsing the former president. The former New Jersey governor who doesn’t believe in a gay marriage, he looks like a Sopranos character, but is somehow less moral.

These aren’t great statesman, just the sort of people who pay for Twitter to condemn pronouns in expensive suits.

There are no ideas on how to fix the US and its very real problems, nor any interest in doing so.

Trump may still be the candidate, but if not, he can take solace in bringing the party down with him.