I’ve been a Republican for almost the entirety of my adult life. As a conservative, where else is one to go?
Now, my party has a love-struck teenage fixation on Donald Trump. Regardless of the reason for the infatuation, he stands head and shoulders above the rest in the Republican 2024 field, according to polls. But that’s a sampling within a minority of the total electorate. While Trump is dearly loved among a majority of that minority, he is thoroughly detested in the general electorate. Nominating Trump will make the Democrats’ task so much easier.
The fact of broad disgust toward Trump is only one part of the bad political calculus for the GOP. The majority of a minority seems intent on making Trump the face of the party at a time when he faces multiple criminal investigations across many fronts – namely Atlanta and Special Counsel Jack Smith – some of them more serious than others. The majority of the minority callously sweeps aside these legal threats as if they were Russia Collusion all over again. That would be a mistake. Expect these existential threats to more fully hit the fan after he secures the nomination. For the three months of the 2024 election season, the party will be saddled with a criminal defendant at trial and quite possibly a perp-walk post-election, whether he wins or loses the election.
As for his down-ticket pull – remember the results of 2018, 2020, and 2022? – a criminal defendant to lead the charge only worsens the party prospects across the board, state and federal. An improbable win on election day would mean immediate impeachment and removal from office, with criminal sentencing later, by a decidedly hostile Congress. Thinking beyond the momentary thrill of the political lust, a GOP trainwreck looms.
The guy is abhorred in the general voting public, and that isn’t just an opinion. FiveThirtyEight lays out the evidence. In eight polls from June 27 to July 11, Trump’s unfavorables outrank his favorables by no fewer than 12 points. By July 18, the level of detestation ballooned to 16.1 points. He’s no more likeable than Biden (see below). For Democrats, if you’re saddled with political dead weight (Biden or any of the other substitute lightweights), bring your opponent down to your level, and that means assisting the Republicans in seppuku (suicide) – nominating Trump. A bad hand quickly becomes a winnable one.
At this moment, Republicans are choosing seppuku while the Democrats face their own existential threat from No-Labels. The group has a greater potential of siphoning off votes from Democrats uneasy about adolescent genital mutilation (gender-affirming care) without parental consent or knowledge, abortion at any time prior to the exit from the womb (maybe after), boys in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, kowtowing to the CCP, the crime, the crime, and more crime.
No doubt, though, the Republican base is intent on making it possible for the Democrats to escape their vicious wrongdoing. The Democrats have to live down their noxiousness, but the great leveler is Donald Trump. Look at the numbers. They haven’t changed much and will only get worse for the GOP as we proceed to election day 2024.
Yep, Donald Trump is the Democrats’ best friend . . . and maybe their only hope.
RogerG
Read more here:
* “Latest Polls”, FiveThirtyEight, July 18, 2023, at https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/donald-trump/