Florida Senator Marco Rubio suspends his candidacy. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

BY: John Zogby/Forbes Magazine

The Republican Party, known by its nickname as the Grand Old Party, died on March 15, 2016. It was 162 years old. The party, born in the strife of the 1850s, succumbed to internal strife, sources said.

The GOP had been suffering from hopeless internal divisiveness brought on by multiple sectors internally all claiming to be the “real conservatives” and no one ready to agree on a unifying theme. The party stopped breathing because of demographics that were stacked against it and its inability to adjust to a different America demographically, culturally, and having a worldview that didn’t recognize new global realities.

What accelerated its demise, however, was the consistent victories and accumulation of delegates by real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump. Party sources said that Trump was able to exploit fears of white Americans who could not adjust to a changing America. One Trump supporter told us that “We grew up in an all-white America with Christian values. We look around and see immigrants, Muslims, people who are just not like us.” Others cited Supreme Court decisions that granted gay Americans the right to marry and legislation that expanded healthcare coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans.

Party officials made last ditch efforts to revive the dying party but primary voters granted Trump victories in key states like Florida, Illinois and North Carolina. Given that Trump ran a campaign against party officials, eschewed the services of GOP policy elite advisors, ignored the role of campaign consultants, and—according to many party leaders—most likely did not believe much (if any) of the things he was saying, any effort by GOP establishment to stop Trump was doomed before it really began.

“How do you deny the nomination to someone who actually comes to the party’s convention with the most votes? Are we a party that respects votes or a party that bows to its elites?” said one Trump supporter.

But several of those party elites reiterated that “We just cannot go into this general election with a nominee who attacks Hispanics, Muslims, foreign nations, women and more.” Others noted that they simply cannot support Trump as a Republican candidate. Ironically, sources said, the very group—notably Millennials—who were not necessarily enthusiastic about likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would probably raise their intensity level to vote against Trump.

In short, according to GOP officials, “We had a choice to either accept Trump as our nominee or fight his nomination. Either way we lose.”

The GOP leaves behind millions of supporters identified as “real conservatives,” angry whites who just could not adjust to change.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2016/03/16/rest-in-peace-to-the-republican-party/#656de0616fe3