The GOP is heading off the cliff with Trump.
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| MILKOS/ABADONIAN/TIM BRADLEY/ EDUARADO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/GETTY |
Election Day 2018 is less than
10 months away. On a national level,
midterms are usually perilous for the party in power as voters have little
other choice but to vent their frustration against those holding offices. This
cycle is shaping up to be a doozey against the GOP fueled by the revulsion
towards President Donald Trump who remains the most unpopular president in
modern times.
Voter surveys have shown a
marked preference for a generic Democratic candidate over a Republican in
Congress. GOP representatives are
retiring at a record pace that now give hope to Democratic candidates to seize
the opportunities presented and re-take the House. While it is true Democrats need a strong
message during this cycle to win over voters and as importantly, stoke the
needed enthusiasm to get out the vote, disdain for Trump will be the party’s
guiding star.
Trump has demonstrated an
inordinate capacity for getting himself in trouble with his tweets and his verbal
comments—the latter exemplified by his reported racially charged
characterization of African nations and Haiti as “shithole countries” in
reference to immigrants. He needs this
controversy like a hole in the head following the publication of mega-seller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
by Michael Wolff where his fitness for office, his mental capacity and
stability are allegedly questioned by those who are around him. #hocopolitics
From Charlottesville to Ghana,
Trump has displayed his inner bigoted self, substantiated by a history of racism from his real estate
development beginnings and birtherism to his anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican rhetoric. Now the “shithole” mess that validates the
charges of racism.
Throughout these episodes,
Republican lawmakers have been tepid concerning Trump’s actions and overt
racist words, the hovering Russia investigation, and the cavalier saber-rattling
handling of the stalemate with North Korea.
While privately they raise their eyebrows and shake their heads with respect
to Trump (even calling him a moron or worse), publicly they are latching on to
him without any fissures of this alliance to this point.
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| Trump with his pardoned pal Sheriff Joe Arpaio |
For GOP electeds who will be
facing a likely prodigious blue wave, it’s not enough to “distance” themselves
from Trump; they need to strongly condemn him when appropriate. This applies to moderate Republican officials—local
and national—who don’t agree with Trump on many if not most instances but
somehow feel obliged to keep silent about him lest they lose Trump’s shrinking
but noisy base. This is a false
calculation because those Trump supporters have nowhere to go but to back a
Republican. Voters in Alabama who
supported Roy Moore preferred a sexual predator of underage girls to a
Democrat.
Picture GOP elected officials in
a line, locked in arms with Trump in the center, heading for a cliff. If they don’t break from that linkage with
Trump, Democrats will remind the voters that Republicans are the party of
Trump, Moore and Sheriff Arpaio, and the Republicans could plunge into the
abyss with him.
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt
has been hammering Trump for his debasement of the office of the
presidency. His tweet below sums up
accurately the challenge facing Republicans.
The corrupted, rotten and complicit Republican majority that is abetting this Presidents damage to our institutions, national security and domestic tranquility must face electoral anhialation. A massive coalition of Democrats, independent and appalled Republicans must come .— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 12, 2018
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