McConnell vs. Trump
Well, at least it’s out in the open now.
Although it’s only been for about twenty years that I’ve closely followed the war between the two factions on the right, I’ve been aware of it since childhood, when the “Rockefeller Republicans” went head to head with the Goldwater crew. It’s not exactly the same as today, of course, but it’s another form of something similar. And it’s only gotten more bitter.
I run so hot and cold with Mitch McConnell. I wanted to support him for his good work on judges, but honestly, sometimes . . . .
The most charming thing about the brash, pugnacious Donald is his willingness to come right out and say what many of us have been thinking for some time: the GOP can’t limp along with this many squishy mindless conformists eager to sell out the voters in return for tickets to the fancy parties.
Even so, Mitch did get us a lot of good judges.
Cocaine Mitch (aka the Toxic Turtle) may have been useful in the hearings over conservative judges (although the recent behavior of SCOTUS leaves one in some doubt), but in every other way he has consistently undermined not only DJT, but, more importantly, Trumpism (the “America First” agenda of sound policies for American citizens, fair trade deals, border control, and an end to costly foreign entanglements), which is far more important than Trump himself. His recent comments on the “insurrection” or “attempted coup” on the Capitol were truly disgraceful.
Rockefeller Republicans are RINOs.
I lived in upstate NY while Rockefeller was governor. My dad, an MD researcher, was earning about $10 K/ yr when Rockefeller, at a press conference, asked rhetorically what the average NYS household income was, and answered himself with “Oh, about $50,000”.
The rich are different from you and me.
As to Goldwater, he was right as rain. But the mass media then were few, and were all leftist, as they remain today. We lived in fear of the Soviet Union then: “better Red than dead”.
McConnell might have been OK with judicial nominations and the refusal to proceed with Garland’s nomination to SCOTUS, but that does not make him holy. If one is right part of the time, one is wrong the rest of the time.
I think Trump bribed or seduced McConnell by naming his wife, Elaine Chao, as Sec. of Labor. Nice wealthy Chinese family you married into, Mitch. Reminds me of John Kerry marrying Heinz catsup! and getting a $70 million yacht.
The struggle in the GOP is between the Corporate Globalists vs. the Economic Populists. On social issues they are in broad agreement. They have no interest in abridging individual liberties by and large. The former are what we call GOPe and look at their age difference. I foresee the populist side winning as the energy and organization drive is with them.
The Democrat struggle is between the Techno class vs. the Socialist Totalitarians. They want to run your life as they see fit you unfortunate peasant. Here both strains runs through all age brackets. There will be a struggle for leadership between the two factions after the 2022 election. My bet in on the Techno’s. The Socialist don’t have a true organization outside of social media. When your standard bearers are a grumpy old man and an over educated bartender you have issues.
Seems to me now most Republican apparatchiks are Anti-Trump so suspect they are turned Swamp creatures.
It showed about halfway through DJT’s administration that he had no help out except a very few.
I’ve voted for Mitch his whole career in the Senate. He was a breath of fresh air that gradually staled. Actually voted for his primary opponent in 2014, although in retrospect I’m glad he won the nomination as Matt Bevins went on to be so bad a governor he couldn’t beat the milquetoast Andy Beshear when he ran for reelection. This will be Mitch’s last term for certain and while I’m glad he did some good, that’s clearly no longer his goal.
“while I’m glad he did some good, that’s clearly no longer his goal.”
It’s the Christopher Nolan line from ‘The Dark Knight.’
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
If you want to blow your mind, go check out Christopher Cuomo’s Wiki page. The dude used to be a 100% legit TV journalist. Now he’s like a poorly trained monkey.
Mike
The “conservative judges” is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. Pleases the base and doesn’t interfere with Swamp business. Conservative judges generally “grow in office” and achieve “strange new respect” in most cases anyway.
Here’s something interesting I missed out on at the time: the Washington Post fact checker in June of 2020 defending Mitch McConnell’s fortune from accusations from the Lincoln Project that he made it underhandedly.
Between McConnell, the Lincoln Project, and the WaPo facto checker I really don’t have a dog in this fight so I just place it here for general edification.
(tl; dr Kessler says that McConnell married an heiress and thus came by it honestly. I’m sure all Americans can relate. But married into wealth and connections sounds pretty Swampy to me.)
As the Senate Majority leader, McConnell had an absolute obligation to deeply familiarize himself with the accusations that an unprecedented and massive fraudulent election had occurred. No reasonable examination of those accusations could fail to conclude that such a fraudulent election had occurred.
To support a fraudulent Presidential election is to engage in treason because a fraudulent Presidential election is a direct attack upon the Constitution. At base, treason is an attack upon legitimacy itself and no higher legitimacy exists than a Constitution which rests upon consent of the governed.
For McConnell to repeatedly state that, Trump “seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out,” and that Trump promoted “unhinged falsehoods” is to reveal himself to be a traitor.
He has to know the truth and is therefore lying in support of a treasonous coup, whose claim to legitimacy rests upon a fraudulent election in which widespread obstruction of justice prevents examination of the fraud.
G.B.: “For McConnell to repeatedly state that, Trump “seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out,” and that Trump promoted “unhinged falsehoods” is to reveal himself to be a traitor.”
Or, it could be that he gets his info from the WAPO and NYTs. It’s obvious that Mitch, being a “Corporate Globalist,” (Thanks, I Am Spartatus) doesn’t understand the “Economic Populists.” Nor does he want to. Washington has been going down the road toward bringing China into modern world (with all those potential customers and cheap goods) it has become ingrained in their souls. To think about the economic needs of the middle class has not been a priority. (Let them learnt to code, or build solar panels.) To fight to expose election fraud has not been a priority for the GOPe because it’s a nasty business requiring bulldog tenacity. Trump has it, they don’t.
I wish the GOP would remember what Ronaldo Maximus called the Eleventh Commandment – speak no ill of a fellow Republican in public. Settle the differences in private. The left will delight in and profit from Republicans going after one another. Look at all the lefty money that went to the Lincoln Project.
He’s a treacherous old b*stard, Mitch is. He would have made a pretty good senior mafioso, I think.
I’ve read this: His success with the judges was in the Federal District Courts, but there were a lot of seats left empty at the Federal Appeals courts, seats that have been vacant for years. And of course, as Robert Barnes says, a lot of these judges are Federalist Society types, so…. They’re no doubt better than activist leftist liberals, but not to be mistaken for conservatives, unless it’s conserving the status quo for old money.
“Swampy, How I love ya, How I love ya, myyyy dear old Swampy”
J.J.,
“Or, it could be that he gets his info from the WAPO and NYTs.”
McConnell is far too crafty an old hand at politics, not to have realized very long ago of the MSM’s primary function as the democrat party’s propaganda machine.
Nor can he have failed to grasp the treason to the Constitution that a fraudulent coup in a Presidential election represents.
That he may have rationalized that a coup whose purpose was to get rid of Trump was justified by the threat Trump posed to ‘National Security’ is put to the lie by Trump’s actions as President. He never behaved as a dictator and conducted himself in a strictly legal manner.
But Trump did pose a threat to the globalist elite of whom McConnell is a member in good standing. Trump did pose a threat to the GOPe’s long tradition of betraying their base.
Trump did pose a threat to McConnell’s wife’s family’s close business dealings with the CCP.
McConnell has to know that the charges of electoral fraud have to have some factual basis. He’s far too crafty not to know, that when there’s that much smoke… something’s burning fiercely.
In the end it doesn’t matter what his rationale may be, his actions are in support of a coup and directly attack the one man who stood by far the best chance to save the Constitution.
If that doesn’t qualify as treason, then the word has no meaning.
IMO there really is a major shift in progress and McConnell is part of the losing side. He hoped to see a return to the old GOP which was happy being the opposition. He knew there was fraud that elected Biden and was happy to be rid of Trump. He is a total Swamp person.
The energy that the Trumpians will bring to 2022 could see the Senate return to GOP control, but McConnell will not be the leader.
If we don’t hang together, we’ll all hang separately, or at least live in a progressive dystopia. I think the reason that people hate McConnell is because he’s a practical politician who deals in reality. I think he recognizes that:
– Trump’s style, mannerisms, and transgressions are really off-putting to a significant number of people who are otherwise inclined to vote for conservative policy (or at least against progressive policy). A lot of those people are really, really disgusted that a mob stormed the capital during the electoral count.
– Republicans can’t win a majority without those voters.
– Once votes are counted, the result is not going to change unless there is smoking gun evidence that the number of fraudulent votes was greater than the margin of victory. Pointing out statistically improbable results or a handful of fraudulent votes here and there is just not enough. The time to fight for election integrity is before the election, not after.
– Claiming massive fraud, filing multiple lawsuits, and then failing to produce evidence to back up your claims actually hurts the cause of election integrity by discrediting real concerns.
All of these things are true. The difference between Trump and McConnell is that McConnell behaves as if he knows they are true. Trump does not.
@Dick+Illyes:The energy that the Trumpians will bring to 2022 could see the Senate return to GOP control
I think that’s only because McConnell will be too old. Senators are rarely other than long-marinated swamp creatures. Who are these firebrand populist Senators going to be? And only 1/3 of seats are up every 2 years, so you’ll send in the rare Trumpy Senator into the Swamp dominated by the others. They’ll either be sidelined or coopted.
Look how they treat Ted Cruz…
G,B., I agree that Mitch has betrayed those of a populist bent who think he is going to work for their best interests. But, I also see the schism between the Global Corporatists and the Economic Populists as much more bridgeable than the gulf between left and right. People like Mitch, are more persuadable than someone like Chuck Schumer. McConnell should have made his criticisms of Trump private. Going public was real mistake, but that cat is now out of the bag. And then Trump could have answered him privately. Now, the MSM has a scab to pick at and to stir more division within the Republican ranks.
I wish there weren’t RINOs. But, like the poor, they will always be with us. Rather than try to drive them out of the party, we need the votes they can bring, even if they’re not huge numbers.
I have been playing around with some basic ideas that I think we Republicans need to come back to. What is it we are trying to achieve?
Can’t we all agree that we want:
1. An economy robust enough to offer jobs and careers to all who aspire to them.
2. An educational system that prepares young people to become good citizens with the knowledge and skills to pursue the jobs and careers they aspire to.
3. A military strong enough to protect us from any foreign enemies.
4. A safe environment in all our country, where people sleep soundly at night and walk easily among their fellow citizens knowing that they are protected by competent law enforcement.
5. A society where people can aspire to raise a family, start a business, pursue a career, enjoy their hobbies, worship their God, etc. without intolerance of their choices.
6. A nation with secure borders to keep out drugs, human traffickers, criminal gangs, dangerous diseases, and illegal border jumpers.
7. Good relations with all nations, including free and reciprocal trade with other willing nations.
8. A nation where private property rights are protected by the law and courts.
I think most GOP members would agree on those goals. The problem seems to be in how we achieve them. The left probably doesn’t agree with some of them, but their approach to accomplishing most anything is always to have the government do it Take #1. We know that lower taxation and as little regulation as possible lead to a growing economy. We know it because we have seen it happen under Reagan and Trump. The RINOs know it too. The progressives, on the other hand, want to regulate everything businesses do because they see “inequities” everywhere. We know this approach doesn’t work because we watched the eight years of economic stagnation under Obama. Similar arguments can be made for the other goals.
Instead of seeing the larger goals, the progressives see only inequities and injustices. (At least, those are their claims. Their real intent may just be to divide and conquer.) Their solutions involve only more and more government control, which, in the end, will lead to some sort of tyranny. Our arguments are not so much with the RINOs as they are with the progressives. I hope more Republicans realize that and quit squabbling among themselves.
Claiming massive fraud, filing multiple lawsuits, and then failing to produce evidence to back up your claims actually hurts the cause of election integrity by discrediting real concerns.
Which case actually assessed substantive claims?
All of these things are true.
They aren’t.
Mitch the Turtle leading the GOPextinct one ponderous plodding step after another into total irrelevancy. The GOPextinct seems to believe the media; more interested in protecting their own rice bowls. Don’t worry Mitch; Ben, Lisa, Mitt, and Liz Cheney have your back.
And then Mitch kept the Senate too?
Baxite:
McConnell has not fought for much of the right’s agenda in Congress except in terms of judges, tax reform, and refusal to take up impeachment #1. That’s one difference between him and Trump – the latter has fought for a lot more than that.
You wrote that many people are “disgusted that a mob stormed the capital during the electoral count.” Your point? Everyone on the right condemned that. On the left, though, we have had months and months of mobs not only destroying public property but also hurting state and federal property, as well as previous riots in DC (for example, during Trump’s inauguration) – and little to no condemnation from the left.
I agree with you – and I’ve been writing for quite some time – that election fraud prevention is the only way to go because once it happens (particularly on a large scale) it is impossible to prove it in a timely fashion even if it occurs. But that doesn’t mean people can’t get angry at the fact that fraud may have occurred with no remedy. You write, “Claiming massive fraud, filing multiple lawsuits, and then failing to produce evidence to back up your claims” as though that’s what happened. It is not. There has been a ton of evidence that has never been subjected to a proper hearing. The courts certainly did not hear the evidence – they claimed lack of standing or laches or other legal excuses to not hear it at all.
So if McConnell accepts that idea, he’s accepting an untruth.
In McConnell’s speech, as far as I’m concerned one of the worst things he said was that “there is no question” that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the riot – simply untrue, because people are not responsible for everyone else’s reaction to their words unless their words have directly called for those actions. It is a dangerous theory of global responsibility to espouse – and there’s plenty of question about it, not “no question.” Was Sanders “practically and morally responsible” for the attempted murder of Scalise and others? Of course not – McConnell is not only on a slippery slope there, he has already slid quite far down it.
Another very bad thing McConnell said was this:
Irresponsible and dangerous words egging the left on in terms of prosecuting Trump (in particular, that word “yet”) – and for what? McConnell should know, if he knows anything about law, that Trump is not legally responsible for incitement. The betrayal represented by McConnell’s remarks is profound, and that betrayal is not just of Trump and the right – it’s of the law.
“I think the reason that people hate McConnell is because he’s a practical politician who deals in reality.”
No, people hate him because he’s a whore who services the rich and powerful.
Mike
I wish there weren’t RINOs. But, like the poor, they will always be with us. Rather than try to drive them out of the party, we need the votes they can bring, even if they’re not huge numbers.
Jacob Javits retired 40 years ago. You don’t have any Republicans in Congress with voting records who resemble the median of the Democratic caucus more than they do the median of the Republican caucus. Other than Lincoln Chafee, you had no such characters entering congress de novo after 1987 and you’ve had none at all since he was ejected from office.
None of the people you’re complaining about have liberal voting records and only two of the seven (Murkowski and Collins) might be described as political temporizers. You’ve got seven people willing to swallow the most repulsive Democratic Party talking points either out of stupidity, witless other-directedness, or mendacity concealing spite. The problem isn’t programmatic preferences. It’s character.
Note that Alaska, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Utah are red states w/o qualification. No need for Republicans therein to accept these poseurs playing their petty games. As for Richard Burr, see Prof. KC Johnson’s assessment from 2007 (“zero on the courage meter”); we’re not so bereft of talent we need a poltroon in that job. Republican temporizers may poll better than loyal Republicans in Pennsylvania and in Maine, but neither state is impossible for a vigorous Republican to win.
@ J. J.:I think most GOP members would agree on those goals.
Most Republican voters might agree on what’s in your list, and most of the national GOP figures do not. We know this by their actions.
Our military is given a lot of fancy toys, because that represents pork for districts and corporate clients. They are sent to war, and based in, places where the national interest in question is highly dubious, and we let our allies free-ride.
Our borders are not secure and our immigration and labor laws are ineffective by design, and Republicans offer theater like E-Verify, which is a very fancy and quick to be ineffective. (It is illegal in this country to ask before you hire someone if they are authorized to work and refuse to hire them on that basis. After that person is hired, there is no legal penalty for failing to fire them should they turn out not to be authorized. Look it up.)
Our trade is not reciprocal and not free and hardly anybody actually wants that even if they can agree on what it is. Even our markets are often far from free: hospitals for example are protected from competition and the health care market in general is highly regulated and subsidized.
Both parties conspire to violate property rights at all levels: sometimes to protect an obscure amphibian, sometimes to build a Wal Mart. Both parties conspire to direct tax money to their clients. Both parties allow the proliferation of licensing and other forms of rent-seeking.
I think the reason that people hate McConnell is because he’s a practical politician who deals in reality.
No, people despise him because he’s a skeezy careerist who is in Congress to feed his rent-seeker clientele. He wasn’t ‘dealing in reality’ when he went out of his way to prevent the dissolution of the Export-Import Bank.
By the way, when someone tells you he’s a ‘realist’, it’s a boast and nothing more.
RINOs are not like the poor. The poor are not without character, RINOs on the other hand demonstrate their lack of character all the time.
J.J. @1:34pm
I like your list of goals for a party to espouse, but disagree that the differences between global corporatists and economic populists is bridgeable.
But I would say the struggle is really between global corporatism and national sovereignty.
In a perfect world, the blue collar Joe or Jane would also be shareholders but that is not the case.
Lee Smith in his commentary “The Thirty Tyrants” lays the case that our intellectual betters favor– “…globalism—that is, the freedom to structure commercial relationships and social enterprises without reference to the well-being of the particular society in which they happened to make their livings and raise their children.”
I might be naive, but wasn’t there ever a time when Americans cared about the welfare of other Americans? As we’ve shipped jobs overseas to maximize shareholder value, we see the carnage left in its wake. Of course not all jobs could be saved, but more could have been done.
But the counter of Smith’s condemnation of the globalist agenda should mean nationalism does care about the well being of society, and it’s citizens.
Under the mantra of “free trade”, we’ve ignored that the countries that offer low wage profits often are extremely restrictive to our goods. So after 30 years of ignoring this fact and the chaos of ruined local economies, we’re awakening to appreciate fair and reciprocal trade. I believe the corporatists will give lip service to this position, but will continue business of shipping jobs overseas.
Given what we’ve seen from the corporatist apologists in Congress, there will be no accommodation by them. The beating Trump took just trying to begin forcing China to change its predatory trading practices reinforces that this is a death match with the globalists.
I agree with what Frederick said @ 2:12pm.
Here’s my list of Keep America Great items:
Responsible immigration
Energy independence
Transactional foreign policy
Protect freedom of speech and religion
Hold China accountable– until they reform their policies and demonstrate they will abide by accepted norms
Fair trade policies– Seeking reciprocal trade with countries sharing common goals
Nationalism not globalism- National sovereignty is the core to a nation’s existence
Support American manufacturing where possible
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-thirty-tyrants
Wow! Great comments in response to me by Frederik and Brian E. Both make valid points about the way things are as opposed to what I propose. The realistic side contrasted to my idealism. Yet, if we can’t set clear, understandable goals, how do we know where we’re going? We sure know we aren’t there now.
I thought that the examples of our dependence on China and other countries for basic medical and pharmaceutical supplies during this Covid-19 crisis would have created some alarm among both government and business about how vulnerable we have become. The old chestnut about not needing “dirty industries” when we could be an “information economy” certainly has not proven to be a good idea. At least to many of us.
I like your list Brian E. Short and punchy. Could the GOP adopt such a list of goals for 2022? A bit like the Contract With America – something understandable that people can see is in their best interests. I think by 2022 people are going to be seeing the insanity of open borders, the Green New Deal, men playing women’s sports, critical race theory, fuzzy handling of school re-openings, and more. Some common sense ideas will appeal to the LIV and moderate voters and the MAGA supporters will be all in.
om: “The poor are not without character, RINOs on the other hand demonstrate their lack of character all the time.” 🙂 True.
Neo – Everything McConnell does is about protecting and expanding the GOP Senate caucus. I think that’s why he blocked Garland. The GOP had just flipped 9 Senate seats in 2014 by promising to block Obama’s judges. There’s no way that he could have allowed the legacy of the 114th Congress’s to be the creation of a progressive majority on the Court without undercutting his own caucus. I suspect that is also why he worked so hard to confirm Trump’s nominees. Judges are the Senate GOP’s best issue and he knew that the 115th Congress wasn’t going to give them much else to run on. (Note that his tactics worked in both instances. Ds were favored to take the Senate in 2016, but didn’t. There’s also a good argument that the Supreme Court vacancy elected Trump. In 2018, Senate Rs increased their majority while House Rs got thumped.)
In 2022, Senate Rs have to defend seats in PA, WI, and NC. The prime pick up opportunities are GA and AZ. You can’t win any of those states without carrying the types of suburban voters who are repulsed by Trump, more so now since the capitol riots. I think that’s what is driving McConnell.
Whether one is a “RINO,” a Trumpist or whatever kind of Republican, we all know what’s coming down the pike if Ds gain even one seat in 2022. With those being the stakes, I trust McConnell’s record a heck of a lot more than Trump’s.
Yeah the Turtle’s record in AZ and GA leaves warm fuzzies in all true Republicans, especially those elusive suburban stalwarts. Otay, now execute! Or not at all.
“With those being the stakes, I trust McConnell’s record a heck of a lot more than Trump’s.”
Uh…Republicans gained six seats running with Trump in 2016. And who do you think picked all the losing GOP Senate candidates of the 2018 and 2020? Hint: It wasn’t Trump.
Mike
You can’t win any of those states without carrying the types of suburban voters who are repulsed by Trump, more so now since the capitol riots.
Thanks for the ex cathedra. Always an education.
FWIW, I also don’t think McConnell’s criticism of Trump is dishonest or untrue. I think there were serious problems with the 2020 election. I’m not confident that all of the evidence has been or ever will be considered. That said, there is no shortage of claims by Trump and his representatives that are somewhere between over-the-top and crazy. If you promise the “Kraken” without actually having the evidence to back it up, you discredit yourself and your cause.
Also, I’m not as sure as you that legal responsibility for incitement is completely out of the question. My understanding is that the 1st Amendment requires showing an intent to incite a crime that is imminent and likely. I completely agree that Trump’s words fail to meet that standard. If the court or jury is allowed to consider his actions after the violence started as probative of intent, however, he might be in trouble. The issue of moral culpability is certainly debatable.
My larger point is that there is no sense blowing up our political coalition over Trump. Some of us love him, some of us despise him and the GOP needs both types to win. Otherwise, progressives are going to get to take a shot at creating their utopia.
Things look grim so let’s trust the Turtle to carry the GOPextinct banner into the Senate. He will rally the forces of Ben, Mitt, Lisa, and Susan to vanquish the left! Count on it! (not)
FWIW, I also don’t think McConnell’s criticism of Trump is dishonest or untrue.
There’s a reason people are chuckling at you.
Well if you think the Turtle was being less than a son of a bachelor in trying to shiv Trump on the floor of the Senate, well, you be you.
Disconcerting?
My larger point is that there is no sense blowing up our political coalition over Trump. Some of us love him, some of us despise him and the GOP needs both types to win.
Again, there is no popular NeverTrump dispensation. Trump’s approval ratings among self-identified Republicans matched those of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush and exceeded those of Gerald Ford and George Bush the Elder. Trump has trouble with the small population of swing voters. Republican politicians are also facing trouble with routinized vote fraud. All four Senate seats lost are in states where you have massive and unjustified resort to postal balloting (in addition to all the other failures in elections administration).
Mbunge – The GOP lost 2 seats in 2016. They were supposed to lose a lot more than that, though.
Art+Deco – I would prefer that we all be chuckling in 2022 and especially 2024. I’m afraid we won’t if we keep defending Trump. You need a lot more than self-identified Republicans to win. That small population of swing voters is actually pretty important, and I’m not sure its as small as you think.
Art+Deco – I would prefer that we all be chuckling in 2022 and especially 2024. I’m afraid we won’t if we keep defending Trump. You need a lot more than self-identified Republicans to win.
No, you need a few more. It’s helpful to winning to not disregard and demoralize your base.
Bauxite:
Implying that Trump committed criminal acts and should be prosecuted for them after he leaves office is the single most divisive and vicious thing I’ve ever heard any Republican say about another – and not only that, but if McConnell is actually concerned about gaining seats in the Senate he needs Trump voters more than he needs anything else. His statement was not only uncalled for, but it was very destructive. He alienated a huge number of Trump voters, who will not forget.
@Bauxite:I’m afraid we won’t if we keep defending Trump.
If we don’t, then we will hemorrhage the base, and lose more swing voters who came out for Trump, than we will pick up.
The GOP spent a lot of years pandering to voters who won’t follow them. Trump improved the GOP vote among minorities without pandering.
It seems that aluminum ore hasn’t noticed that Trump got significantly more votes in 2020 than in 2016, or other things about the election that were “odd.” But cling to those swingy voters and the stalwart suburban masses who love their lack of schools and feel comforted by Joe, the Ho, and Circle Back Jen.
Mbunge – The GOP lost 2 seats in 2016.
The losers were
1. Mark Kirk, a chronic temporizer who shivved Trump during the campaign and
2. Kelly Ayotte, who endorsed immigration enforcement when running in 2010 then turned around in 2013 and signed on to upChuck Schumers scamnesty. She also refused to endorse Trump.
Totes impressive, Bauxite.
@neo:if McConnell is actually concerned about gaining seats in the Senate
Big IF. I think for his purposes–directing money to the companies whose boards his wife sits on and who help him out with his voters in Kentucky–that the minority is where he prefers to be and 50-50 is the best he needs to do. Going over involves accountability for governing. Going under the filibuster margin is all he needs to worry about.
Art Deco; Bauxite:
Ayotte of NH lost by a mere 1,017 votes.
but if McConnell is actually concerned about gaining seats in the Senate he needs Trump voters more than he needs anything else.
See Sundance for an interpretation of what McConnell’s game actually is. (Bribe Broker). Don’t know if Sundance is right, but it’s worth considering.
McConnell aside, look at the employment histories of the entire Congressional leadership: Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, Schumer, Durbin, Murray, McCarthy, Scalise, McConnell, Thune. Decades in electoral politics (18-58 years) preceded by bits and pieces of law practice, school teaching, legislative staff jobs, and time as NGO functionaries (Scalise is a possible exception here; he doesn’t indicate in his capsule biographies how he earned a living between 1987 and 1995). And for all their ‘experience’, the legislation they generate is a shambolic mess and they cannot even produce a proper set of appropriations bills.
The GOP can’t win without the Trump voters and it can’t win without the formerly red suburbs that Trump turned blue. That means that unless somebody gives, the GOP can’t win. Hello President Kamala.
Whatever happened to the 11th Commandment? See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleventh_Commandment_(Ronald_Reagan)
Whatever happened to the 11th Commandment? See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleventh_Commandment_(Ronald_Reagan)
Reagan challenged Gerald Ford for the Republican presidential nomination in 1975 and 1976, so he didn’t always adhere to it. Reagan’s disputes with Ford were over substantive policy, of course, and Reagan wasn’t given to recycling Democratic talking points (much less vicious and mendacious talking points).
The GOP can’t win without the Trump voters and it can’t win without the formerly red suburbs that Trump turned blue.
Which suburbs? And how has their change in disposition differed from the backround noise of political life – where party fortunes rise and decline in a particular locale according to a dozen different vectors. While we’re at it, where did you ever get the idea you were Frank Luntz?
Those suburbs called “Atlanta,” “Philadelphia,” “Detroit,” “Milwaukee.” Those typical corrupt Democrat machine run “suburbs.” Now we get it. The GOPextinct has a strategy! 🙂 Don’t tell the left! 🙂
https://data.rgj.com/presidential-election-results-compare-2016-2020/
Art+Deco and om – Click the link and select Dem Overperform to show counties where the Democratic candidate gained 3% or more between 2016 and 2020. Most of those counties are red. Philadelphia County is the only swing state city center. Check out all the red suburban counties around Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
If Trump hadn’t underperformed in the suburbs, he would have won, even with the other shenanigans that went on.
If you want a look at the future, check out the red suburban counties in safe (for now) red states where Biden gained 3% or more relative to Hillary: Cincinnati, Raleigh, Columbia SC, Charleston WV, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, etc.
What changed between 2016 and 2020? Mail in voting, no effective vote security/integrity? Voting after election day? Nothing to see, it’s all Orange Man Bad, to be followed by DeSantis (or whomever) is Satan in the future.
Follow the Turtle, GOPextinct. Go team Turtle!
Who knew a Turtle could sulk?
“McConnell has not spoken with Trump since Dec. 14 — the day McConnell acknowledged President Biden won the November election — and he does not plan to ever speak with him again, people close to him say,” the Washington Post reported. “Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal details. Even the back channel the two men once had — between McConnell’s former top aide Josh Holmes and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner — is now cold.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mcconnell-speaking-trump-again
Check out all the red suburban counties around Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
1. The closest thing to a ‘suburban county’ around Milwaukee is Waukesha County. Biden did do better there than Clinton did, but that could have a half-dozen different explanations, starting with how the Gary Johnson vote sorted out.
2. Harrisburg has no ‘suburban counties’. The tract development begins at the intersection of Cumberland and Dauphin Counties and spreads outward. The same observation applies as that to Milwaukee.
3. The suburban counties around Pittsburgh are Beaver and Westmoreland. Biden added about 2-3% in these counties. Same observation.
Art+Deco – You’re nitpicking. The trend is nationwide. The counties where Trump did considerably worse are mostly red and mostly suburban. That holds generally across swing states and red states. In most of those counties, Trump’s percentage went down, so the effect is unlikely to be caused by Gary Johnson voters switching to Biden. Even if you can attribute some of it to Johnson, you can’t count on a strong libertarian candidate every year. (Also, FWIW, it would surprise most folks in Butler County PA to learn that they aren’t living in a suburban county around Pittsburgh.)
om – Are you suggesting that mail-in voting/integrity problems made a difference in red suburban counties but not in deep blue urban areas or red rural areas? I can’t rule that out, but it sounds pretty far fetched to me.