To Destroy Trumpism, All Republicans Need to Lose in November
Republicans need to face the consequences of their extremism.
by Jeremy Novak
A few commentators have promoted the idea that Republicans need to be trounced this fall and beyond in order to purge themselves of the MAGA virus. George Will, Stuart Stevens, and L.A. Times columnist Jackie Calms among a small handful of others.
Many others come close to this sentiment but don’t quite get past thwarting only Trump. Some prominent Republicans are, to their credit, publicly denouncing him in the hopes the party will dump him and start the healing process. But they tend to do so in a way that solely focuses on Trump, as though he is the only thing standing between fascistic chaos and sanity.
Geoff Duncan, former Lt. Gov. of Georgia had this to say at the Democratic Party Convention:
“If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative. It’s chaotic and crazy, and the only thing left to do is dump Trump”
This implies that Trump is the sole cause of the Republican Party’s psychosis, and simply removing him will cause the affliction to disappear. Adam Kintzinger offered similar Trump-centric sentiments in his speech at the same convention, and Politico’s Jonathan Martin published an article featuring Republicans making the same argument.
In order for die-hard conservatives to reconcile voting against Trump, these Republicans suggest voting for down-ballot candidates to stymie the Harris agenda and ensure gridlock. Some anonymous Congressional Republicans even think it is more desirable that Trump wins in 2024 so that the party will finally be rid of him in 2028, since he can’t Constitutionally run again for another term.
Republicans need to lose
One of many dangers of another Trump presidency is that he would enact a far more anti-democratic agenda than in his first presidency — only this time he’d have a team of semi-competent loyalists to support his schemes.
Sensible conservatives are aware of this, so the plan to vote for down-ballot Republicans has become the most prominent one. It’s the most palatable way to persuade skeptical Republicans to vote for Harris, and it keeps her from running roughshod over America with her radical liberal agenda.
But having more gridlock will just encourage more brinksmanship and embolden the MAGA strain of Republicanism.
You want Republicans to behave? They need a good spanking all around. They need a liberal agenda to show them what happens when you engage in dangerous extremism.
Cleaning up the mess
Republicans have put themselves into a long-term quagmire that will require a long-term solution. They could have chosen to convict Trump at either of the Senate impeachment trials. They could have had the balls to do what the Democrats did to Biden, and somehow force him out of the Republican nomination by decree, rule change, or any number of bureaucratic loopholes. But they didn’t. And now Republicans are stuck with him.
And being stuck with him means that he’s being perceived as successful—as a winner—and therefore, imitators abound. Even if Trump does lose, as long as the Republican party is competitive in its current state, it will imitate him and follow his orders in order to attract his throng of voters. All of the insane policies that Republicans would never have dreamed of even ten years ago are now part of the mainstream and will remain there if voters perceive there’s a chance at victory.
It has been largely conceded by pundits that the odds favor another round of shared government, with Democrats winning the Presidency and House, and Republicans winning the Senate. If this happens, we will certainly get gridlock and the ability to halt an ambitious Harris agenda.
But we will also remain stuck with Trump running a shadow government, dictating Republican behavior, and quashing any possible compromise on hot-button issues. It is conceivable that not one Harris-appointed federal judge would get confirmed with a Republican Senate. Trump will continue to loudly claim unfair persecution to rile up his base, which will increase fundraising, and thus handcuff Republicans even tighter to his bidding.
Destroying Trumpism
With a sound defeat of all Republicans, Harris and Congressional Democrats can actually wield power and make Republicans pay for enabling a figure like Trump. Trump can whine all he wants, but it won’t really matter what the Republicans do if they don’t have any majorities.
Republicans with a conscience need to swallow a very bitter pill and allow their party to implode. Then they can work to build something better for the future. It may take two or three elections cycles, but constantly being on the verge of a Trump presidency and MAGA takeover of America is going to result in an increasingly dysfunctional society. Allowing his voice to have influence by giving the current Republican Party more power is going to perpetuate the reasons why many sane Republicans are endorsing Harris in the first place.
It is time for Republicans to feel the pain of decisive electoral defeat. That is the only thing that will push the party towards sanity. It is either that, or generations of one-party rule. And it won’t be their party doing the ruling.
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Coach Walz Was The Sleeper Winner Of The VP Debate
JD Vance chose to betray his country’s values and Tim Walz made him pay for it.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – There’s only one thing anyone remembers from the 1988 vice presidential debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle. We all know the story. After Quayle compared his years of Senate experience to John F. Kennedy’s service in the chamber, Bentsen cooly replied, “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” I remember this line so well I didn’t have to look it up – typed it from memory. Most of us could.
This is all to say the only thing anyone will remember about this week’s debate, for good or bad, was when JD Vance refused to answer Tim Walz’s question: “Did [Donald Trump] lose the 2020 election?” Quoting Lawrence O’Donnell, “It makes him the very first vice presidential candidate in history who doesn’t know who won the last presidential election.” Lawrence was joking, of course, because it really wasn’t about not knowing.
Tim Walz, for the second time in a powerful middle act for the Minnesota governor, cornered Vance with a salient question that he simply refused to answer…
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As I said elsewhere, the current incarnation of the Republican Party is a terrorist organization. In fortunately, this is not the first time that party practiced terrorism writ large over the country. I was a kid in the 1950s but I remember with great clarity the ravages of McCarthyism. Lives ruined, people blacklisted and prevented from working, especially in creative arts such as theater and film. Read “Pentimento,” Lillian Hellman’s autobiography of what she and Dashiell Hammett went through.
Republicans have always had a leaning toward totalitarianism. What I’m saying is that this behavior is not new or original with Trump. In his perverted way, he is the logical outcome of tendencies among Republicans of every decade of this century. What’s astonishing is how a political party founded as a protest to slavery morphed into a proudly capitalist, exploitative, totalitarian party it is today. No oligarch can ever go too far for them. The hell with labor and the working class.
They are awful now but they always were, it’s just out in the open, no holds barred rampant evil now.
We absolutely must have a trifecta. Money should be pouring into Montana, Texas and Florida.