Last night, a bunch of principled Republicans in Indiana who stood against Trump's mid-cycle gerrymandering plan went down to defeat in their primaries. As Morris points out, this is at the heart of Republican cowardice in the face of Trump. In fact, a lot of his most vocal critics in the GOP, like Don Bacon or Marjorie Taylor Greene are either planning on retiring or already have. You simply can't get crosswise from Trump and expect to retain your seat. We will see if Massie can hold on to his seat in Kentucky.
This is the fundamental problem with gerrymandering. If you think that the main obstacle to you holding on to your seat is from a primary challenger, because your district is R+10, then you cannot allow any daylight between yourself and party leadership. When your party is lead by a degenerate criminal like Donald Trump, that...well let's just say that causes problems.
The hope at this point is for an Orban-style rebuke of Trump and Republicans this fall. In this case, they will have dummymandered their way into losing seats that were previously safe. If the Blue Wave is large enough, it will not only deliver the House, but it will do so at huge margins, because Republicans took a bunch if R+15 districts and diluted them to create another R+9 district.
Back to Trump, his fundamental managerial style is borrowed from the mafia. If you cross him, you die. Whatever your feelings about loyalty, this isn't that; it's fear. As Trump becomes more and more unpopular, lashing yourself to him will not, I hope, work out for the GOP.
No comments:
Post a Comment