Republicans in retreat

by | Oct 21, 2020 | 2020 elections, Editor's Blog | 2 comments

Republicans have essentially abandoned running on any significant issues. They are resulting to desperate scare tactics, distractions, and voter suppression. Down-ballot Republicans are fleeing Donald Trump, trying desperately to put distance between themselves and a president who is off-the-rails. It might work, but probably not. Most indicators point to a significant blue wave that’s building quickly. 

Lindsey Graham in South Carolina is telling voters that if Democrats win the White House and Congress, they will enact policies that make the country unrecognizable. For many Americans, the country is unrecognizable today because of Trump and the GOP. “Socialism!” is the cry of mainstream conservatives, making them sound like Cold Warriors from the 1950s. On the legislative front, Mitch McConnell is killing any effort to pass COVID relief to make sure that passing bills that help Americans doesn’t get in the way of putting Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. 

In North Carolina, the GOP’s closing argument in the Senate race is that Cal Cunningham had an affair. All of their ads and social media posts are focused on the Democrat’s sex life. Cunningham’s self-inflicted wound may be his undoing but people may also decide that issues like health care, COVID relief, and rising unemployment are more important. It’s difficult to make the case that character matters when your standard bearer is Donald Trump. 

Right now, Republicans are losing court cases across the country that would strip the right to vote from Americans. Still, the fact that one party is desperately trying to limit the right to vote is telling. Republicans clearly know that they are a minority party and their ideas don’t sit well with the American people. The Affordable Care Act is popular. Direct payments to families and businesses suffering from the pandemic is popular. Their massive tax cut for the wealthy is not popular. And the guy in the White House is clearly a drag on the ticket. Now wonder they don’t want people to vote. 

As I’ve said before, the rats are abandoning the ship. This past weekend, Texas Senator John Cornyn said that he “privately” disagreed with Trump on building the wall, tariffs and the like. In other words, he admitted that he’s a political coward and trying to save his own skin in what should be a safe Senate seat. Senator Ben Sasse blasted Trump on phone call constituents, showing that he, too, is a guy too cowardly to take a stand when it mattered. Republicans who have sat silent as Trump brought shame on the office of the presidency are suddenly finding their voices. Too little, too late. 

After four years of Donald Trump, the GOP has little run on. The most pressing concern of voters is the pandemic and they’ve failed to deliver anything. They are now in panic mode trying to scare voters. They warn of left-wing radicals but right-wing militia threaten armed insurrection. They want to focus candidates’ personal failings instead of Republicans’ legislative ones. They are in courts across the country trying to limit access to the polls because too many voters is bad for them. They are a party in retreat.  

2 Comments

  1. cocodog

    Republican have failed to view Trump in his proper perspective. He is a man of many faults and very little very few qualities who has

    learned the art of the con. He covers the trapping of wealth but has extraordinarily little wealth. He owes millions (400 million) according to t

    he New York Times and at least 71 million in back taxes to the United States. Although, he paid a sizable figure from his secret Chinese bank

    account to the Chinese government. He must have wanted something from Chinese government as he usually stiffs everybody he deals

    with like the contractors, supplier, and the guy he hires to install them

    He has been the only person in history who fails to make money from a gambling operation in Atlantic City.

    His only feature is his ability is to redesign the truth, so it sounds that the s telling it as it is. So, to speak.

    He has mishandled the virus problem, profited from your tax money , destroyed any creditability we may have developed with foreign allies.

    Many of which regard him as a fool or clown.

    His personality would be best suited for operation a beer bar at the beach. He is no president material

  2. Rick Gunter

    Every single Republican U.S. senator seeking re-election deserves to be defeated. They failed in the two fundamental duties they they swore to honor: First, they violated their oath to honor and protect the Constituion. That is enough to get every one of their tails thrown out of offiice. But they also broke another oath — the oath to do fair and impartial justice in the Trump impeachment. They violated that oath, too. They would not even hear witnesses. They left / Trump in office, and his presence led to the needless deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

    I spent the last couple of months reading the masterful four-volume set on Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro. One of the four books is titled “Master of the Senate.” Caro, the best biographer on the planet, bar none, spends the first 100 pages of that book writing about the Senate, about its traditions, precedents, rules and purpose. Its purpose comes down to holding a rogue president in check. In the fundamental duty of what once was the world’s most deliberative body, the Republican Senate failed miserably to hold Donald Trump to account.

    These complicit senators need to be thrown from office. Not all of them are up for re-election this year. But as they face the voters, the voters should not forget what these senators have done to turn this country upside down. I hope I live long enough to see every one of them except Romney turned out of office.

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