Whither the GOP post Trump 2020 election loss
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“The best thing going for Donald Trump running for president is that he’s running against [President] Joe Biden, about whom many people also have reservations. And frankly, that]s why people are considering third parties. So it’s a sorry state of affairs,” the senator added.
Despite his criticism of Biden, Cassidy wouldn’t commit to endorsing Trump,
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Honey, We Shrunk the GOP Majority
Democrats are lapping Republicans in this year’s election fund-raising, and could that be because GOP donors are wondering what they get for their money? Donors, both small-dollar and large, helped Republicans retake the House in 2022, and all they’ve received in return is a majority that revels in operating like a functional minority.
Their departures take the GOP majority down to 217-213, which means the party is a heart attack and absences or flipped votes away from putting Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in charge. In some sense Mr. Jeffries already is in charge. Speaker Mike Johnson can’t pass legislation the usual way through the Rules Committee and then onto the floor with a simple majority. Every sensible majority that wants to govern packs the Rules Committee with Speaker loyalists. Not this crowd.
The anti-governing wing of the House GOP insisted on three of their own for Rules as one price of voting for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in January 2023. They refuse to vote for Mr. Johnson’s inevitable compromises with Senate Democrats, so Mr. Johnson has to move legislation via the suspension calendar, which requires a two-thirds vote to pass anything. This means he needs Democratic votes, and a lot of them, because Republicans prefer to make futile gestures of opposition rather than vote to fund the government.
The practical effect is to reduce Republican leverage in a divided government and make it harder to achieve conservative policy victories. But then the same Members who undercut the majority boast on the House floor and social media that they are the only honest conservatives in Washington. They’re posers masquerading as principled, and they’re treating the voters at home like rubes.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion Friday to oust Mr. Johnson as Speaker exposes the deception behind the coup against Mr. McCarthy. After we criticized that October coup as destructive and self-serving, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote us a letter saying that in electing Mr. Johnson the GOP now had a real conservative as leader.
So what’s wrong with Mr. Johnson now? Apparently because he’s not willing to indulge kamikaze acts like shutting down the government, Mr. Johnson is a sellout too.
Conservatives have long had a strong anti-Washington impulse, which is useful given the federal government’s relentless drive to expand its own power. But breaking that drive, and rolling back that power, requires calculation and often incremental gains. All the more so in a divided government.
The posers of the House GOP remind us of a comment by former Sen. Jim DeMint that he’d rather have 30 Senators who agreed with him than a Republican majority. Congratulations to Mr. DeMint. The current House GOP is close to realizing his ambition.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Whither the GOP post Trump 2020 election loss:
Honey, We Shrunk the GOP Majority
Democrats are lapping Republicans in this year’s election fund-raising, and could that be because GOP donors are wondering what they get for their money? Donors, both small-dollar and large, helped Republicans retake the House in 2022, and all they’ve received in return is a majority that revels in operating like a functional minority.
Their departures take the GOP majority down to 217-213, which means the party is a heart attack and absences or flipped votes away from putting Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in charge. In some sense Mr. Jeffries already is in charge. Speaker Mike Johnson can’t pass legislation the usual way through the Rules Committee and then onto the floor with a simple majority. Every sensible majority that wants to govern packs the Rules Committee with Speaker loyalists. Not this crowd.
The anti-governing wing of the House GOP insisted on three of their own for Rules as one price of voting for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in January 2023. They refuse to vote for Mr. Johnson’s inevitable compromises with Senate Democrats, so Mr. Johnson has to move legislation via the suspension calendar, which requires a two-thirds vote to pass anything. This means he needs Democratic votes, and a lot of them, because Republicans prefer to make futile gestures of opposition rather than vote to fund the government.
The practical effect is to reduce Republican leverage in a divided government and make it harder to achieve conservative policy victories. But then the same Members who undercut the majority boast on the House floor and social media that they are the only honest conservatives in Washington. They’re posers masquerading as principled, and they’re treating the voters at home like rubes.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion Friday to oust Mr. Johnson as Speaker exposes the deception behind the coup against Mr. McCarthy. After we criticized that October coup as destructive and self-serving, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote us a letter saying that in electing Mr. Johnson the GOP now had a real conservative as leader.
So what’s wrong with Mr. Johnson now? Apparently because he’s not willing to indulge kamikaze acts like shutting down the government, Mr. Johnson is a sellout too.
Conservatives have long had a strong anti-Washington impulse, which is useful given the federal government’s relentless drive to expand its own power. But breaking that drive, and rolling back that power, requires calculation and often incremental gains. All the more so in a divided government.
The posers of the House GOP remind us of a comment by former Sen. Jim DeMint that he’d rather have 30 Senators who agreed with him than a Republican majority. Congratulations to Mr. DeMint. The current House GOP is close to realizing his ambition.
Johnson probably won't survive, but the rank and file are growing tired of RINOs and idiots. Time for the RINOs to go and for the idiots to shut up.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/03/28/trump-mail-early-voting-republicans/
GOP scrambles to organize early and mail voting despite Trump’s attacks
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In December, Donald Trump called for the end of mail-in voting in presidential elections. In February, he told Michigan voters that “mail-in voting is totally corrupt.” He later told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that “if you have mail-in balloting, you automatically have fraud.”
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“The ballots are a disaster,” he said earlier this month to British TV host Nigel Farage, without offering evidence and despite having voted by mail himself in recent elections. “Any time the mail is involved, you’re going to have cheating. It’s too bad people don’t say it. They don’t want to say it.”
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That message is complicating plans by officials at Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee to orchestrate aggressive efforts in key battleground states to persuade voters to cast their ballots early and by mail. Party officials say the efforts are crucial to win the election.
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Paul Ryan has no interest in giving Donald Trump another chance come November.
The former House speaker told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday that he doesn't plan to vote for the former president, adding he would be writing in a Republican candidate instead.
“Character is too important for me,” Ryan told us at the Milken Institute Global Conference. “[The presidency] is a job that requires the kind of character [Trump] doesn’t have.”
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More "top Republicans" refuse to commit to accepting 2024 election results. These include VP-hopefuls like Scott, Burgum, and Stefanik.
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@George-K said in Whither the GOP post Trump 2020 election loss:
Remember when the Democrats were considered stupid and the Republicans were considered evil?
Despite numerous James Bond movies that would indicate otherwise, evil and stupid are clearly not mutually exclusive.
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Chris Gibbs, a farmer who raises soybeans, corn and cattle, spent much of his adult life as a leader of the Republican Party in Shelby County, Ohio. He rose from vice chair of the local executive committee to party chairman, a role he served in for seven years, until 2015. Last fall he was elected to a far tougher job: chairman of the Democratic Party in Shelby County, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats more than eight to one.
In today’s Republican Party, “You either speak with a Trump voice or you’re vaporized,” Mr. Gibbs told me. … “In the Democratic Party, everybody gets a voice. You don’t always get your way, but you get a voice.”
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) slammed his fellow Republicans for showing up at Donald Trump’s porn star hush money trial this week in fiery comments to CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday.
Raju reported that Romney told him, “I think it’s a little demeaning to show up in front of the courthouse — and particularly one where we’re talking about an allegation of paying a porn star. And it’s really, really very difficult to watch.”
EDIT TO ADD:
read://https_thehill.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fsenate%2F4665313-murkowski-knocks-senate-republicans-trump-trial%2F
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) reportedly went after fellow members of her party who have attended former President Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
“Do we have something to do around here other than watch a stupid porn trial? I mean, this is ridiculous,” the Alaska Republican said Tuesday,
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Wasn't it Bill Maher who said (I think I posted the link) that any time you see the word "shreds" (or "owns," or "destroys") in the headline of a story, stop reading.
And, Romney's complaining about a bimbo eruption - remember that term? - and this case is not about that. If I were Johnson, would I have shown up? Probably not. But to make an issue of it is silly.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Whither the GOP post Trump 2020 election loss:
But to make an issue of it is silly.
He is not the only one. (See my edit above).
Even a recent Chicago Tribune editorial (which I think is somewhat conservative) said the same thing.
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If I were Johnson, would I have shown up? Probably not.
That was my initial knee jerk reaction as well. However after a little reflection, I believe it was an astute move on Johnson’s part.
Trump for good or bad has been supportive of Johnson over the attempts by the GOP trailer trash faction led by MTG to oust him as Speaker. Johnson attending the trial shows Party unity and isolates the reactionaries. In other words, better Johnson there than MTG or a few others.
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@taiwan_girl said in Whither the GOP post Trump 2020 election loss:
Chicago Tribune editorial (which I think is
somewhatused to be conservative)Not to derail, but one of the reasons John Kass left the Trib was because of its leftward drift.
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I mean, come on.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee shuffled its schedule, bumping a hearing to hold Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress so some of its members could instead attend former President Trump’s hush money trial.
The panel was set to meet early Thursday, an hour after a twin resolution censuring Garland would likewise be considered by the House Judiciary Committee. Instead, it will now meet at 8 p.m. so numerous Republicans who sit on the panel — including Freedom Caucus members — could attend the trial.
A source confirmed to The Hill that the last-minute shift was to allow the lawmakers to make the trip to New York
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J.D. Vance wasn’t just some hillbilly after all
His journey from author to Trumpist senator is a fable for the GOP’s devolution.[J. D. Vance's book] “Hillbilly Elegy” was embraced on the right for its indictment of cultural decay and its call to self-reliance; it was lauded on the left because it offered an explanation as to why good people would gravitate toward someone as reprehensible as Trump. That’s not my word, by the way — it was Vance’s, who called himself a Never Trumper at the time and warned Christian voters: “When we apologize for this man, Lord help us.”
... By 2022, when [Vance] ran for the open seat left by retiring Sen. Rob Portman, Vance had gone from Never Trump to Long Live the King; his conversion included a spirited embrace of Trump’s stolen-election nonsense. His financier in that race was billionaire Peter Thiel, who had also bankrolled Trump in 2016.
Now Vance is gunning to be Trump’s running mate, which is why he bravely waded through the leftist filth of Manhattan to show his fealty. ... -
Trump-backed Republican platform tempers language on abortion
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The platform, a basic statement of policy principles, takes Trump’s position that the issue of abortion now is one to be determined by individual states. It makes no mention of a federal ban or protecting a fetus as a person under the U.S. Constitution – tenets that have been included in past platforms and were demanded by a cadre of influential evangelicals.
