Politics - News Analysis

GOP Senators Plotting Their Escape from Possible Trump Landslide Loss, ‘The Trump Ship is Sinking Fast’

We have reported on several tipping points we seem to have past this week. First and foremost, the protests against police violence and racial inequality are gaining steam even as Trump promises “domination” of the streets. Trump has more than “stumbled” in his response, he retreated to a bunker, then gassed and beat peaceful protesters, he has tweeted more than at any point in his tenure (200 in one day early in the wee) and he hasn’t once offered to attend any services for any of the victims or met with any protesters.

In response, more national figures are coming out against Trump, just this week we saw Mattis, Bush, Carter, Powell, and even some Republican senators like Murkowski and Sasse all – to varying degrees – moving away from Trump and his disastrous 2020.

Now there is fear among Republicans that a landslide is coming to bury them. Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast writes about the change in the air, he notes that the ship is sinking fast, but wonders whether the rats will really jump.

It’s finally hitting Republicans that there will be life after Trump. And if they want to hang on to their careers and reputations, they better paddle faster. This raises questions about the vulnerable Republicans who are on the ballot in November. Do any of them begin distancing from Trump?” “It’s possible that one or two incumbent Republicans might ultimately conclude that sticking with Trump and getting re-elected are mutually exclusive, and that would make things interesting. Maine’s Susan Collins, who has an independent brand that predates Trump’s political rise, is one such example,”

“It’s conceivable she will, at some point, conclude that her best chance to win is to distance from Trump and try and localize the election. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner is the other possible defection. This is probably the kind of last-ditch maneuver you see after Labor Day.

Trump, the man, will not go quietly into that good night. But a landslide loss would cast this one-term president in the role of a ‘loser,’ more akin to Jimmy Carter than Richard Nixon,” he added before concluding, “Trumpism. One day, it’s a miracle, it will disappear.”

People like Ben Sasse, Corey Gardner, Lisa Murkowsi, and Susan Collins are not so much “principled people” who are starting to say “enough!” so much as they are canaries in the coal mine recognizing that the country may well have hit “peak Trump” and the man who has never once expanded his “base,” will do nothing but erode from here on out. For a man who lost the popular vote, and won through a near-miraculous combination of electoral luck through the mid-west, erosion of any kind is fatal. Additionally, if Trump finds himself amidst a wave countering him, his ploys to avoid a loss – voter suppression, voting “games” by some of his allies, and sympathetic Republican secretary of states simply cannot overcome such a thundering majority will.

He is down somewhere between 8-11 points to Biden in any reputable poll, but even more importantly, what little bit of authority he might have once had as an outsider will dissolve as the country cries out for an insider who knows how to make the trains run on time, and cares about people.

Sometimes things move so fast it is hard to recognize paradigm shifts, yet it seems like we’re entering one right now – not a moment too soon.

****

Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

Comments

Comments are currently closed.