Tom Rinaldo
Tom Rinaldo's JournalThe National Republicans virtually have no Party left without Trump's hardcore base
They've spent two decades purging moderates from their ranks by marching relentlessly to the right, courting social conservatives. With U.S. changing demographics they realized that, outside of the South, they could not remain competitive nationally with a coalition hobbled together from gun nuts, the Christian Right, and Establishment Wall Street corporate Republicans. Hispanics were not breaking toward them in the numbers they were hoping for after George W. Bush left office. Gay baiting was breaking against them. And they were falling further behind with younger voters. Increasingly the Republican path to power relied on consolidating their Southern stronghold, ever increased voter suppression, and gerrymandering, Future prospects looked grim, and so they rolled the dice.
After eight years of a Democratic presidency the American political pendulum has a natural tendency to swing back somewhat toward the Right, but the Republicans doubled down on extremism and way overshot the centrist mark.They boxed themselves in. The right wing media empire that propelled Republicans for 20 years depends on conspiracy, sensationalism and division for high ratings and book sales. The Drudge Report has a least ten times the overall influence of the National Review among the voters that matter most to Republicans now. Establishment Republicans thought they could tame the crazed beast that they fed fresh red meat to, but it has hunted them toward extinction instead. They've created a constituency of the unhinged; weaned from facts and fed on feral fables.
I used to think that the Paul Ryan/ Mike Pence types in Washington were just using Trump to get their agenda through Congress and into law - and that they would gladly cut Trump loose once his overall approval numbers sank low enough. Now I realize that they are literally nowhere without him. Their type would sink faster without Trump than with him, no matter how distasteful Trump becomes to most Americans. They are joined at the hip. However incongruent a team they may make it is way too late for a divorce.
Responsible Republicans now must choose between Country or their personal careers. With just a small handful of exceptions (Republicans like John Kasich who refused to attend the Republican Convention that nominated Trump even though it was held in the State that he was Governor of) they are all too thoroughly soiled by Trump to come clean of him now. They can either cling to the rapidly shrinking chance that Trump's core base can provide them with the votes they will need to win reelection if they remain loyal to Trump now, or they can toss in the towel and do what is right for their nation. In the current political climate they are politically damned if they do or don't support Trump, but damned more deeply if they don't. We will soon know whether there are any profiles in courage left among them. I'm not counting on there being many.
Regarding Russian Voting system hacking
Our systems are so vulnerable that one disgruntled, corrupt or otherwise bought off staffer can compromise an election in any key county. Consider:
"Election supervisors in Hillsborough, Pasco, Citrus and Clay counties separately told the Times/Herald their offices got the emails, which contained attachments that could have taken over their computers. But all four said their staffers did not open them. Volusia County said it opened one of the infected emails, but not the attachment that could have compromised its systems."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/at-least-2-florida-counties-targeted-by-russian-hacking-attempt/2326339
The implicit assumption is that all staffers at all election offices are attempting to avoid opening infected emails that can compromise their systems. What if any choose to do so intentionally? What if one or more know in advance when such an email will arrive with the intent to immediately open it? The email can then be deleted. If caught they can easily plead innocence: a simple careless thoughtless moment when they got caught off guard.
No one needs an FBI clearance to be a staffer at one of those offices. And if one of our political parties wants to collude with a foreign power to swing an election, this would be a good way to do it.
Donald Trump has some interesting theories
By lecturing, ridiculing, betraying and offending virtually all of our closest geopolitical allies, while simultaneously throwing endless red meat to the propagandists of our most viscous mortal enemies - he claims to be making America safer in this world. By destabilizing our most critical historic alliances, such as NATO, while emboldening our strongest geopolitical rivals, such as Russia and China (via assorted acts of acquiescence, and unprecedented retreats from world leadership in areas like climate change), he claims he is making America first. By fanning the flames of divisiveness here at home, he claims he is making America great.
And by spouting gibberish on Twitter that exposes all of his hired lackeys as liars for stating what he told them to say in the first place, he claims to be making sense.
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