Purpose, teamwork and communicating ideas have been central to a successful US Republican Party for well over a century, but lately it seems the Grand Old Party’s hopes of retaking the White House have ground to a standstill.

Some political pundits even reckon that the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan may even implode come the US presidential election in November.

Both the Democrat and Republican Parties have long succeeded in facilitating broad political coalitions; like any democratic organisation, sometimes ‘wings’ can grow, opinions can diverge but so long as cohesion reigns a party can credibly go before an electorate that is open to persuasion.

Abraham Lincoln, when running for the Republican nomination said a house divided against itself cannot stand. When he unexpectedly won the party’s nomination and went on to become president he surrounded himself with cabinet members who he had beaten in the GOP race. They have been famously dubbed “a team of rivals”.

Following today’s Republican campaign, the chances of a team of rivals reconciling are at zero. For months Donald Trump has openly insulted his supposed party colleagues to grasp the position of frontrunner for the nomination, so much that the party establishment has been forced to rally behind a candidate they loathe in Ted Cruz.

Whilst Trump’s degrading branding of his opponents might work wonders in an Apprentice-styled television show, where successful and failed contestants need not see, speak to or rely upon each other ever again, politics and political parties are very different.

Good politics is about winning people over, uniting, as opposed to getting one over on others.

The Republican Party’s most revered President of recent times, Ronald Reagan used to deny he was a “great communicator”; he said he just communicated great ideas about the role of government, American values and his nation’s place in the world.

Today, the two favourites for the same party’s nomination have pledged to make America great again without offering much in the way of detail. Instead, they simply take their anger out on others.

Mexico, apparently, is to blame for bringing criminals and rapists to America; China is taking their jobs; and cash-strapped ally members of NATO should no longer rely on America for protection.

At home, they chastise President Barack Obama’s administration without advancing realistic alternatives; just shutting down the government. Reagans they are not.

A party falling out acrimoniously is one thing, and running out of ideas is another. Sponsoring television advertisements warning voters that the likely Democrat Party nominee, Hillary Clinton, is a crook just like their former boss and disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon is outrageous altogether.

The last time a Republican president occupied the White House, George W. Bush infamously declared war on Iraq and oversaw the largest global financial crash in almost a century.

Almost two full terms since, seemingly still incapable of challenging perceptions of being an angry white man’s party, and unable to attract female voters and the support of minorities across America, Republicans are growing increasingly desperate.

Without purpose, unlikely to bridge the divide between personalities, and incapable of setting out a platform other than that intended to take out Hillary Clinton, the Republican Party is paranoid, and seemingly intent on destroying its own fabric, reputation and chances of winning. Just like Richard Nixon destroyed himself.