3 GOP senators are now retiring in 2022. I’d like to think they are just destroying the Republican party, but I fear instead they are pushing them hard right.
“Among all voters, Hawley’s approval rating dropped from 42 percent to just 36 percent, while Cruz’s went from 48 percent to 45 percent.”
"In Missouri, 63 percent of Republican voters said they approve of Hawley’s performance, down from 72 percent in the survey that was conducted before the Capitol siege. In Texas, Cruz has a 76 percent approval rating among GOP constituents, down from 81 percent.
Portman (R-OH) seems pretty darned Conservative, going along with the Trump stances (not calling Biden the President-Elect, for example) of the 2020 Election. This after claiming to write in Pence for President in 2016.
Trumpism is still very popular around the country, and around the world for that matter. If they can find a populist candidate who is less of a train wreck than Trump, combined with a less than stellar Democratic candidate and some new creative way to suppress urban votes, then we’ll see a significant Trump presence in the Republican party.
It isn’t Trumpism worldwide as much as Rupert Murdoch ism. Murdoch and others like him usually keeps themselves in the background as they twist the very nature of news using lies and divisive attacks on the “dark other” to generate fear.
I’m afraid that Trumpism will simply take over the former Republican party. They will be in favor of “law and order”, tax cuts, fossil fuels, right-to-life, and Christian fundamentalism. They will be against “socialism”, “censure culture”, “globalism”, and “Democrats who hate America”.
Rs who don’t particularly like Trump will still vote for the Trump-backed candidates in the general election.
45 R senators just went on record as saying that “Yeah, he may have sent a mob into our chambers to “arrest” some Ds and hang Mike Pence, to prevent us from certifying an election he lost, but that’s just Trump being Trump. Gotta move on.”
That’s because those people all won elections during Trump time. When they go back out to face the public in 2022 they are going to find a completely different public. By that time Trumpism is going to be frowned upon by the center. Those policies may be winners at the state and local level, but they will be huge losers at the national level. If the Republicans want to turn into a party that only 30% of the country identifies with then continuing on the Trump train is what they should do. If they want broad based support then they will have to moderate.
I’m worried that Rs will need Trump’s support to win R primaries, the Senate vote on impeachment demonstrates that.
In the general election, a majority of voters in certain states/districts will vote for the R candidate because they like the “law and order” etc. R message. So reps who owe their nomination to Trump will have a majority of Senate and possibly House seats.
I think that particular vote shows that they don’t want to waste time on a (near) meaningless activity.
What is gained by the theatrics of the trial? Conviction of the impeachment results in . . . nothing new. At best, a follow up vote to bar Trump from holding elected office.
I know that many would say that this is a “great idea” . . . but is one person worth all of that effort when there are bigger issues that require the attention of the Senate?
The Ds might use that reasoning, but not the Rs. They are perfectly happy slowing down the D agenda as much as possible.
And, a conviction in the impeachment trial would likely lead to a lifetime ban on Trump holding federal office, (and would result in him losing his federal pension and post-presidency office expenses).
Mostly, it would be a message that even popular wannabe dictators shouldn’t intimidate Congress into overturning elections that the wannabe dictators lost.
Personally I’d definitely say so. It’s like asking if we should really bother trying the 9/11 bombers after we finally catch them, shouldn’t we focus on rebuilding?
The principle is important, lest any future wanna be American fascist comes along.
There’s value to making senators officially say “I don’t think what he did was wrong” instead of letting them off with a “I didn’t want to waste the senate’s time”.
And the deterrent effect Dan mentioned. That’s probably the better reason.
That’s pretty much been the Republican platform over the past several decades, the big difference is globalism and they are amping up the pro-life/Christian fundamentalism.
Priceless. We are talking about a party that objected to accepting the electoral college votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania. Where all it did was add debate time. Never a chance in hell it would alter the result.
So now you think they had some sort of revelation about precious time? I think it’s time to stop trying to make Republican motives appear noble.
They are here. A few of them voted to not have the impeachment vote. This is more of the same republican tactic of ignoring trump’s abuse and “moving forward” thus normalizing the abuse. What is so urgent Covid? They’ve ignored it under Trump.
The republicans plan to keep their core base strung along and fired up on more lies without pushing the moderate republicans out. As long as their is denial to be had by moderate trump voters they will feed it.