GOP’s Dumpster Fire is Spreading Thick and Fast
Now, it has gotten out of control
During the November 2022 midterms, the GOP and national media cornered President Biden over inflation. The threat of a recession had been blown out of proportion, sinking Biden’s approval rating to historic lows.
Americans’ confidence in the ruling party is reflected in presidential approval. A rating below 45% indicates that Americans were not impressed with the ruling party. Despite disapproval, in state after state, race after race, swing state voters chose Democrats over Republicans.
A highly anticipated red wave blew out into a red blip. Historical data pointed to a brutal knockout for Democrats. However, it didn’t happen. Democrats retained the Senate majority and added one more seat. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives was kept at striking distance.
Thumbs down for the president and thumbs up for local races. The dichotomy is the direct result of Americans rejecting Republican candidates. Independents, women, and Americans who were not interested in closing their nose to favor a political ideology, chose candidates based on their profiles.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell agrees with my view.
“We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party and leadership roles is that they are involved in chaos.. which is why I never predicted a red wave,” — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
The GOP is now overrun by the exact type of candidates who delivered them a defeat in November 2022. It’s likely that Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination in 2024. The GOP primary will throw up a whole bunch of chaos candidates, while 2022 GOP losers are planning reruns in 2024.
As for the Republican party’s future, it will be a glorious election. The GOP establishment’s election denialism after Donald Trump lost the White House in November 2020 is a noose it invented. Chaos candidates hold the noose in one hand, and the GOP’s future in the other. In 2024, they will end the Republican struggle.
Last year, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer won Michigan with a ten-point margin over the Republican party. “Both halves of the legislature flipped from red to blue in Michigan, albeit narrowly, for the first time in decades”.
Due to the candidates nominated by the Republican party in Michigan, voters turned their backs on it. Under these circumstances, one would expect a severe course correction. Party leaders in the state had to get together and analyze what went wrong. Everyone knows what went wrong. If the party wanted to win, it would have corrected its course and asked voters to reconsider their votes in the next election.
But, nope.
This Trumpified GOP does not care about such normalcy shenanigans.
Their answer to rebuke is overload.
Kristina Karamo was elected Michigan state party chair last Saturday after refusing to concede her 14-point loss for secretary of state in 2022.
Kristina Karamo unleashed her chaos profile just two days before the election.
In a Thursday speech to a right-wing “patriot” group in nearby Charlotte, Karamo argued that Christianity belonged at the core of American politics, called evolution “one of the biggest frauds ever perpetuated on society,” and asserted the existence of demons.
“When we start talking about the spiritual reality of the demonic forces, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy, we can’t go there,’” Karamo said. “No. It’s like, did you read the Bible? Didn’t Jesus perform exorcisms? … Scriptures are clear. And so if we’re not operating as though the spirit realities of the world exist, we’re going to fail every time.”
She made it abunduntly clear who she is and the value she has to offer. The MAGA base in Michigan propelled her to take charge of Michigan GOP. These are extremely important positions that will have a huge impact on how the party organizes itself. A candidate with a chaos background will not attract high profile candidates, a must win requirement to flip swing states.
Anyone interested in entering local politics in Michigan would have watched this election result closely. Karamo will attract candidates like her.
Aspiring candidates in Michigan would have read the writing on the wall: If you want to win the GOP primary, you have to embrace the crazy. When Michigan GOP embraced half the crazy in 2022 they were routed. They lost both the legislative chambers for the first time since the 1980s.
Now, Michigan GOP has gone full throttle crazy.
The importance of Michigan in 2024 cannot be understated. Michigan has 16 electoral votes for the 2024 Presidential election. “Donald Trump narrowly flipped the state in 2016, defeating Hillary Clinton by just 0.2%. This was the closest state by popular vote percentage that year. Joe Biden won by 2.8% in 2020, bringing the state back to the Democratic column”.
It is not impossible for the Republican party to close the gap with the Democrats. Any Republican candidate running for President will be eyeing the 16 electoral votes Michigan offers. The state party’s embrace of chaos will make winning in Michigan extremely difficult for the Republicans.
We should not forget that Democrats have full control of the legislative chambers as well as the governorship, so they will push hard to expand voting rights. It is unlikely that any Republican, even a centrist candidate, will be able to win Michigan from here.
If you are thinking Michigan is one state where the GOP has gone off the rails, I am sorry, I have more disturbing news. A long list of GOP candidates who were rejected by Americans are planning to run again. Of course, we can start with Donald Trump. If he runs, why not Kari Lakes, who lost the Arizona governor’s race to Katie Hobbs?
Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is inching closer to deciding to run for Senate, and her expected candidacy has frozen the Republican field in the state as other Senate hopefuls wait for her decision.
Lake, a former local television anchor who falsely claims that she won her 2022 race for Arizona governor, is considered the most formidable opponent in a Republican primary, and at least three Republican candidates also sizing up the race are waiting for her to make a decision before they decide to run, according to three people familiar with the situation who, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the race candidly.
Wow.
The Republican candidates are waiting for Kari Lakes’ decision. The Republican field in Arizona is now led by a loser. It is so hard to beat her in the primary because she is so good. We already know that she is so bad that she cannot win a statewide election in a state with large number of Republicans.
Blake Masters, the Republican candidate who lost the Arizona Senate race in 2022, plans to run again.
Having normalized the practice of denying loss, none of these 2022 losers feel the need to step away. They will follow their leader, Donald Trump, and run again. There is no way to tell how many losers will make a rerun, but I am extremely confident that there will be many.
Basically, they have to run as hard as they possibly can towards the extreme right. Throw in a few crazies, win the primary and then lose to a reasonable democratic candidate in the general election.
Not just that, there will be people who are watching the great embellishment act of Republican Representative George Santos and the way the Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reacted. Kevin McCarthy is desperate for votes in the House, so he won’t ask George Santos to resign. How will the GOP stop such a morally bankrupt candidate from entering the race in 2024, running to the hard right, and making a mess?
You really cant.
Donald Trump started the dumpster fire, and now the GOP has embraced it. The fire is spreading thick and fast inside the GOP.
