The GOP Rode The Trump
Train, And Now It's Derailing
The Republican senator from Maine, who positions herself as a pro-abortion rights moderate, signaled early support of Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. According to a HuffPost source, Collins allegedly green lit Trump’s nominee before the president even chose Kavanaugh, though she strenuously denies this. The senator now faces activists who have so far raised $1.3 million and counting via crowdfunding for any opponent to run against her in 2020.
A rattled Collins has resorted to calling this “bribery” in an “exclusive statement” to right-wing website Newsmax, which tells us exactly which audience she’s attempting to shore up and gain sympathy from.
This claim is just plain silly since no one is planning on actually paying her the money. She should look up Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission for a definition of bribery, a ruling handed down by several justices for whom she voted, and a ruling which she’s benefited from in the form of corporate donations.
Collins has also complained about “vulgar” phone calls to her
office from people opposed to Kavanaugh, the least popular Supreme Court nominee in decades, who, in opinion polls,
is doing slightly worse or even with the ill-fated Harriet Miers and
Robert Bork. (Of course, for a definition of “vulgar,” Collins really should
just look up “Donald Trump.”)
Perhaps Collins, who seems to have lived in that cocoon in which senators
who’ve been in office for decades often find themselves, is suddenly realizing
that we’re in a different time and that she’s sealed her fate. Who knows
what Trump may have promised Collins or what she’s afraid he might do to her if
she were now to go back on any assurances she may have given on Kavanaugh.
Perhaps Collins is worried about a primary challenge from the right in 2020. I
would be.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), meanwhile, is begging for
help from the same GOP leaders he’s attacked in
the past (like Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.), whom Cruz called a “liar” a few years back) as he tries to
fend off a serious
challenge from Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who
is galvanizing support across Texas and coming up even with Cruz in polls. It
appears grassroots fundraising has slowed for Cruz and exploded
for O’Rourke.
Perhaps Collins is worried about a primary challenge from the right in 2020. I would be.
Ironically, Cruz is also turning to the same man who helped turn the GOP
radioactive: Trump, who announced he’s heading to Texas to stump for Cruz next month. The same Cruz whom Trump called “Lyin’ Ted.” The same Trump whom Cruz called a “sniveling coward” and
“serial philanderer.”
And now McConnell is openly fretting about losing Republican control of the
Senate.
While the House has been in play for Democrats for months, their chances
only grow by the day to take control of the chamber, as new polls show further momentum. But control of the Senate, seen as a long shot just weeks
ago, is also now a realistic,
less-daunting possibility. McConnell even told
reporters this week, “I hope when the smoke clears, we’ll still have a
majority.”
GOP leaders mused in the recent past about taking seats from Democrats in
Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan ― all states Trump won. But those
efforts have largely evaporated. Now McConnell and GOP leaders are diverting
precious time and money to states where McConnell sees a “knife
fight in an alley” to retain or take seats:
Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, West
Virginia and Florida.
Fighting to keep Senate seats in Texas and Tennessee was never in the GOP’s
game plan (nor in anyone else’s wildest imagination).
Republicans can only blame themselves for this state of affairs. After
first occasionally standing up to Trump post-election, they’ve completely
thrown their lot in with him, fearful of their shrinking
party’s Trump-loving base. (The GOP now represents
only about
one-fourth of voters, according to recent surveys,
declining since the 2016 election.)
Now, Trump is all they’ve got. Their tax law, benefiting the wealthy and
corporations, went nowhere in galvanizing voters for the midterms (many having
likely seen it for the scam that it is). According to a recent Fox
News poll, it’s now more unpopular (40
percent) than Obamacare (51 percent). Vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric, always a
desperate last resort, only hurt the
GOP in Virginia’s 2017 gubernatorial and legislative races and in special
elections across the country.
But that hasn’t
stopped Republicans from deploying
racist attacks this election season in full
force. As Frank Sharry of the immigration group America’s Voice notes, we can expect “an ugly midterm election strategy: smear immigrants as
criminals and attack Democrats for defending them.”
For McConnell and GOP Senate candidates, at least, the plan, from a while
back, has been to grab onto Trump and back all of
his ugly, racist rhetoric, hoping he’ll keep them
afloat.
Fighting to keep Senate seats in Texas and Tennessee was never in the GOP’s game plan (nor in anyone else’s wildest imagination).
But Trump’s approval is quite suddenly sinking into the mid-30s in a slew of
new polls ― tanking among independents and in the
Midwest ― while, in that same
recent Fox News poll, special counsel Robert
Mueller, leading the Russia investigation, has a soaring 59 percent approval
rating.
There are now few states the GOP can send Trump ― who, on his own, is
deciding where he wants to go anyway ― because even if he may help in a
statewide race, he will hurt GOP House candidates in suburban districts in that
same state who are running as far away from him as they can. As has been said
many times, anything Trump touches, he destroys.
None of this, of course, is certain, underscoring why progressives
must double down their energy. With voter suppression, possible Russian
electorial interference and the usual GOP arsenal of dirty tricks, Republicans
may be able to cling to power in both chambers. Gerrymandering has helped to
rig the system, too.
And even if Republicans are hurt by embracing Trump, much of it is cold
comfort for progressives and all who care about the future of America. Collins
may pay a price in 2020 for voting to confirm Kavanaugh, but we’ll still be
stuck with Kavanaugh and a radical shift of the Supreme Court for decades. The
country will experience profound change, from the gutting of
Roe v. Wade and threatening
LGBTQ rights to an expansion of
presidential power and further assaults on the environment.
A lot of the damage that Trump has caused unilaterally or with the help of
the GOP Congress will be difficult or even impossible to undo, even if
Democrats were to take both the Senate and the House, keep control of each
chamber for several years, and even win the presidency in 2020.
But we must start somewhere at turning things around as we face the most
devastating and harrowing political reality of our lifetimes. That’s only going
to happen when the GOP hits rock bottom as progressive momentum surges. And
it’s appearing that may happen this November.
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