“When you look at some of the audiences cheering for Republicans sometimes, you look out there and you say, ‘Those are the spasms of a dying party,’ ” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on ABC’s “This Week.” “By and large, we’re appealing to older white men, and there are just a limited number of them.”
In 2012, the conventional wisdom amongst the GOP was that Romney had failed to turn out enough white, male voters. Trump managed to max out white men, by appealing to their sense that white men can't have as much fun as they used to, telling off color jokes and grabbing a little tush in the office. I mean, what's a white guy to do if he can't be an asshole?
The problem is that the more Trump appeals to his asshole base, the more he loses those of us white guys who aren't assholes (I narrowly exempt myself), and energizes, well, everyone else.
Flake again:
“If we continue to go down that path, just to drill down on the base, then I think you have a lot of people realize there’s no future for them in this party,” Flake said.
There is also the part where older people tend to...well, they die. And increasingly, people under the age of 40 see no place for themselves in the Party of Trump.
Charlie Dent weighs in - implicitly - on the erosion of democratic norms under Trump.
“Before Donald Trump became president, the litmus test, it was really about the ideological purity and conformity” with Republican ideas, Dent said. “Now the litmus test has changed: It’s loyalty to the man.”
“If I set myself on fire for them, they would complain that the temperature of the flame isn’t hot enough,” the GOP lawmaker said, explaining how Trump was “a factor” in his decision to retire after his term ends next year. “It’s not about ideology anymore, it’s about loyalty to the president.”
If only there was something Dent and Flake could do now to limit Trump's power... If only they held some sort of leadership position in the US Congress...
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