The fallout from the tape published by The Washington Post - in which Trump bragged in obscene language about forcing himself on women sexually - threatens to endanger the party’s hold on both houses of Congress in addition to the White House, which many Republicans now fear is lost. The episode also comes ahead of Sunday’s second presidential debate in St. Louis, which was already a crucial moment but could determine how widely the damage spreads.
When it comes to Trump, the Republicans have nowhere to go but down.
They can't force Trump off the ticket. For one thing, the voting has already started with some states, and with absentee ballots already being shipped. Their calls for him to step down will never happen: Trump's entire existence has been defending his name (tm), and doing that would admit failure. Any attempt to block him on the ballot will be a useless gesture. Rumors of trying to get his Veep candidate Pence to quit the ticket in shame can easily backfire on everybody but Trump...
In that regards, the party's stuck. Any move now against Trump - the GOP is risking even this just by chastising Trump for his sexist behavior - would piss off the 40 percent of the Far Right voting base supporting Trump no matter what, and they'll take their revenge by voting JUST for Trump and then no other Republican candidates on the other races. Even just a two percent drop in Republican turnout in certain states can ruin the GOP chances of retaining the Senate. ANY attempt to alienate, isolate, quarantine, or deny Trump is going to hurt the down-ballot races... even though the party can still suffer in those down-ballot races just by the association to Trump. In this regards the party is dreading the congressional and state-level results: they're either going to lose their mainstream voters who will refuse to show up for Trump, or their going to lose their wingnut voters who will only show up for Trump.
They can't stop Trump from campaigning. This is a guy who lives for the cameras and the mobs and the attention. And like it or not, he is going to speak his mind, whatever twisted thoughts are going to bounce around that self-indulging brain of his. The possibility of Trump uttering more offensive statements is high: the likelihood he's going to attack Hillary by way of attacking Bill's infidelities is close to 100 percent now. And the Republican party has to know that Hillary is waiting for that attack: it's been building since the 1990s, and she's bound to have mastered the response since 2008 during her first attempted run at the Presidency. Any attack Trump thinks he can pull off is going to turn out badly, because Hillary (and Bill, and the Dems) have a way of coming out of that scandal more popular than before...
All the Republicans have left right now is taking their lumps from the beat-down they know is coming: Women voters across ethnic lines have to be refusing any support for Trump and the GOP right about now. And never forget this bit: Women voters turn up in greater numbers than men. It's a voting bloc you're NOT supposed to insult or deny. And yet the Republicans keep doing that over (Akin's attitude towards rape) and over (Limbaugh slut-shaming Sandra Fluke over birth control), and Trump is just the latest nightmare for women.
Yet I wouldn't be surprised if the Republican elites - within the party and within their chummy circle of friends of the Beltway media - are going to tell themselves this election cycle was just an aberration, that Trump ruined what was supposed to be a "change" election, that all they have to do is regroup for 2018 midterms like they've done in 2010 and 2014, that they can find a savior candidate for 2020...
Just keep digging that hole, Republicans. Just keep ignoring the fact that your party base only wants assholes - racist and sexist - for candidates, and that your candidates are more than obliging to fit that role. Just keep ignoring the fact that it's not 1985 anymore and your tax-cut trickle-down bullshit doesn't sell, that your anti-abortion anti-birth control anti-women's health outrage is too extreme for most Americans, that your hopes for another Reagan to rise from the ashes of your disasters are foolish and futile.
1 comment:
"Make America grope again" just doesn't have that same hollow ring that resonates in the place where the brain should be that "make America great again" does. I see there is renewed talk of a wave election, but I'll not hold my breath on that one.
-Doug in Oakland
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