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2020 Senate Races

Ha.

Pubs in the minority are simply going to go back to dishonestly demonizing whatever Dems do, even if very good and needed things. And emphasizing their preferred mythologies of the magic of lower taxes, less “regulation”, “smaller government”, white/conservative grievance, bootstrap economic “reforms”, etc.

Sadly, this strategy has worked and may again.

Anyhow, I agree it’s unlikely they’ll want to stick with Trump. But what he’ll do and if they can successfully get away from him remains to be seen. Regardless, I wish they’d change for the (otherwise) better but that seems doubtful. I mean, their preferred formula for success is what paved the way for Trump’s takeover in the first place.

This is a good point. And this is why Democrats need to embrace progressive politics (actually having a plan and putting it into action) and younger leaders who understand the GOP is full of it.
 

Like I said, stuff like this won't stop even if Trump loses the election. He'll continue tweeting and attacking any Republican who goes against him, and it will still have an effect. But some Republicans will continue to believe that this isn't what their party has become, and will remain, for a good while.
 
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Yep.

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president," - Mitch McConnell, 2010

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Biden to be a one-term president," - Mitch McConnell, 2020 (likely one of his first statements following a potential Biden win)

I've read some articles that said that one reason McConnell and Congressional Republicans won't support a new stimulus package (other than their hatred of spending money on "giveaway welfare" programs) is that they privately think Trump is going to lose, and they're already planning to pivot to attacking any new stimulus package under Biden as a "budget busting" bill, and painting themselves as trying to cut the deficit and save taxpayer money. It's all bullshit of course, given that Trump drove up the deficit with his tax cuts and that recent Republican presidents have run up record deficits in their time, but no doubt their base would buy that hook, line, and sinker.
 
Can’t disagree with him. Sasse seems like one of those people who just doesn’t know much about the world aside from what he learns in church or from people just like him. But he thinks he has the world figured out.
 
There are two things people are hesitant to accept about Republicans.

Conservative policies are very unpopular. And to make them more palatable, conservatives sugar coat them with plenty of racism.

This marriage between wealthy elites who want to protect their business interests and poorly educated white people goes back to the Civil War. The partnership has been sustainable because the elites boarded enough capital and had enough influence and white voters made up a dominate portion of the electorate due to demographics and denying voting rights.

Trump was the id of this approach. Old money with an entertainment background who bought into conservative media and could foment white grievance.

That partnership does not seem sustainable if Trump is roundly defeated. The problem for Republicans is that if they just shift to conservatism and purge white grievance politics, all they have are unpopular policies that have failed dramatically for the last 40 years. If they go all in for white grievance politics, there just aren’t enough white people for that to work especially if Democrats pass needs voting rights laws to make it harder to deny voting rights.

This is correct. DeacsPop, read Tim Alberta's book "American Carnage." It's all about the rise of the tea baggers and Trump. Both Boehner and Ryan thought they could control the base and the tea baggers but were wrong, and both had to leave. The evangelical and redneck base loved them some Sarah Palin but not Mitt Romney. Come 2016, all the experts thought Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio would get the nomination. But that establishment faction hadn't realized it had become a minority in the party. Trump still enjoys 85-90% popularity of self described Pubs, and that ain't going away if and when he loses. Think back to the lessons of 2012 and the party realizing it needed to broaden itself. But Pub voters didn't agree with that message and instead retrenched into white identity and grievance politics. Losing 1 national election ain't gonna change the minds of that 85-90%. You think Hannity, Carlson, Limbaugh and Fox and Friends come 2021 are all going to be talking about broadening the Pub base, being pro immigration reform (like the conservative Chamber of Commerce is), opting out of tariff wars with our allies and foes and being pro free trade, abandoning the wall, resuming our place as leader of the free world...? I do not. Will, Frum and Brooks might talk about such things, but they are voices in the wilderness.
 
Good post. One interesting trend among disaffected Republicans is a realization that they are political orphans for the foreseeable future. They’re at different levels of realizing that the Republican Party has always been this way but they just didn’t see it.
 
I've read some articles that said that one reason McConnell and Congressional Republicans won't support a new stimulus package (other than their hatred of spending money on "giveaway welfare" programs) is that they privately think Trump is going to lose, and they're already planning to pivot to attacking any new stimulus package under Biden as a "budget busting" bill, and painting themselves as trying to cut the deficit and save taxpayer money. It's all bullshit of course, given that Trump drove up the deficit with his tax cuts and that recent Republican presidents have run up record deficits in their time, but no doubt their base would buy that hook, line, and sinker.


Sounds sadly quite probable. Damn the actual problems and solutions...it’s all about gaining or regaining power.
 
Well they could gain power by responding to this crisis. They refuse to do so because of anti-government dogma and the desire to funnel more money to the wealthy.
 
Yep

The anti-government or small/less government/regulations stupidity is one of them thar corners into which they’ve painted themselves.
 
Good posts. Losing one election will just prove their grievances to them.
 
Sounds sadly quite probable. Damn the actual problems and solutions...it’s all about gaining or regaining power.

So Ms. Pelosi really truly does want a credible package passed pre-election. Wow, I had somehow missed that.
 
So Ms. Pelosi really truly does want a credible package passed pre-election. Wow, I had somehow missed that.


Yep

Her house passed a 3 trillion dollar relief bill in May and a 2.2 trillion dollar one in early October.

What’s “credible”? 1.8 but NOT 2.2?

And who’s not serious about this? Senate Republicans, that’s who.
 
This is correct. DeacsPop, read Tim Alberta's book "American Carnage." It's all about the rise of the tea baggers and Trump. Both Boehner and Ryan thought they could control the base and the tea baggers but were wrong, and both had to leave. The evangelical and redneck base loved them some Sarah Palin but not Mitt Romney. Come 2016, all the experts thought Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio would get the nomination. But that establishment faction hadn't realized it had become a minority in the party. Trump still enjoys 85-90% popularity of self described Pubs, and that ain't going away if and when he loses. Think back to the lessons of 2012 and the party realizing it needed to broaden itself. But Pub voters didn't agree with that message and instead retrenched into white identity and grievance politics. Losing 1 national election ain't gonna change the minds of that 85-90%. You think Hannity, Carlson, Limbaugh and Fox and Friends come 2021 are all going to be talking about broadening the Pub base, being pro immigration reform (like the conservative Chamber of Commerce is), opting out of tariff wars with our allies and foes and being pro free trade, abandoning the wall, resuming our place as leader of the free world...? I do not. Will, Frum and Brooks might talk about such things, but they are voices in the wilderness.

The notion that even a crushing defeat will be enough to convince the GOP base to change its ways is disproven by looking at California. Currently the California GOP is pretty much an ineffective minority in state politics, but the party's still mostly-white base has refused to seriously work at expanding their party to include more Latinos and other minorities. They'd rather remain a minority party than dilute their control. No doubt the GOP Establishment types would love to work on expanding the party, but I seriously doubt that the base will go along.
 
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