Well, both parties have gone bananas. The Democrats have gone over to denigrating the entire corpus of western civilization. They are essentially Marxists in belief with their race/gender hucksterism and eco-central planning. Republicans are in a state of madness, consumed in a cult of Trump. If you are an actual conservative, and not a cult member, expect to be reviled and abused. It happened to Mitt Romney.
At times, I have been no fan of Romney. His decision to march with Black Lives Matter in 2020 was a low point in my esteem for Mitt. In February 2020, he was the lone Republican senator to vote in support of one of the two articles of impeachment. I found both charges to be rank partisan prosecutions, something out of Stalin’s playbook. But at least he had the wherewithal to express loathing for repulsive Trump behavior. Rumors have been rife among Republican congressional members and staff of their disgust for Trump but were paralyzed by fear for their personal and family’s safety if they came out of the closet. They have good reason to fear the cult.
One incident stands out. On January 5, 2021, one day before the January 6th riot, Mitt Romney boarded a plane in Salt Lake City for a flight to Washington, D.C. So, to were others who were flying to D.C. for the Trump rally that devolved into the infamous riot. He was met with boos and chants of “Traitor” and “lowlife” on the plane (see below). Is finding merit in one of the two impeachment charges, or expressing disapproval of Trump’s conduct, “treason”? Is disagreement with Trump a measure of “lowlife”?
Apparently, Romney is more attuned to popular sentiment than the Trumpers on the plane. Polls consistently show Trump’s disapprovals to hover around the mid-fifties. It’s just that at this juncture, Biden has attained a level of repulsiveness equal to or slightly exceeding Trump’s. So, in a contest limited to Biden v. Trump, Trump edges out Biden – and the celebrity pundits on Fox News are in a party mood.
They miss the point. In a contest against a clearly, mentally and physically wobbly opponent, Trump can only eke out a narrow lead within the margin of error. Don’t mistake these results for a suddenly growing and popular embrace of Trump. That would be a big error in judgment.
The most recent NBC News poll (see below), like all the others going back a year or so, show a consistent distaste for Trump and an overriding dislike of Biden to match. In this binary matchup, Trump is ahead by 2 points for the first time in this poll. But lying in the poll’s weeds are some other interesting findings. Any generic Republican facing Biden is 11 points ahead, and any generic Democrat forges 8 points ahead of Trump. A no-name Republican does 9 points better than Trump against Biden; a no-name Democrat enjoys a landslide vis-à-vis Trump.
For the Democrats, the task is simple: remove Biden from the ticket. They may do it. Democrats are nimbler on their feet. Republicans seem to be hellbent on running their Trump Titanic into the iceberg. On the other hand, he could win if Biden is on the ballot, but don’t expect any coattails if the Trump personality is evident down ballot. Trumpism is a personality cult, and a not very endearing one.
RogerG
Read more here:
* “Kornacki: First Time In 16 NBC News Polls Over Four Years Where Donald Trump Leads Joe Biden”, Tim Haines, Real Clear Politics, November 20, 2023, at https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/11/20/kornacki_first_time_in_16_nbc_news_polls_over_four_years_where_donald_trump_leads_joe_biden.html
* Steve Kornacke on X about the NBC News poll at https://twitter.com/RyanGirdusky/status/1726247457414414630
** Also in my Substack feed, The Golden Mean, at https://rogerlgraf.substack.com/