Patterico's Pontifications

4/9/2021

Republican Candidates: Choose Trump or Cut Ties With Him (ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 11:58 am



[guest post by Dana]

This caught my eye. It’s from a piece about Gov. DeSantis of Florida and the most politically potent path past Trump:

Smart Democrats know their present majority is fragile indeed. Smart Democrats know that the 2020 results were both encouraging (they won, after all) and sobering. The polls promised a greater victory than Biden won, they almost lost the House, and they likely would have lost the Senate but for Trump’s deranged post-election crusade. Smart Democrats know that if Biden stumbles, the GOP’s path to the White House is broad and wide.

At the same time, smart Republicans know that they have their own profound problems. How do you hold an angry base while recapturing suburbanites who were repulsed by the incompetence and corruption of the Trump administration? Perhaps by governing well and fighting hard for a righteous cause. If that’s the playbook, then DeSantis has an early edge—and he’s gained that edge almost entirely on his own, without the meaningful assistance of the GOP leader he may well replace.

Meanwhile, I see that candidates (at least some) are cutting the ties with Trump from the get-go. Michael Wood is running for Congress in a very crowded field for the May 1 special election in Texas. He was just endorsed by the Dallas Morning News, and by Rep. Adam Kinzinger:

I also believe that it’s time for the Republican Party to move past Donald Trump. If we continue to put his interests above our own, we will lose to Democrats for a generation. Like many of you when faced with an increasingly radicalized Democratic Party, I voted for Donald Trump in 2020. However, his actions since election day have forfeited his right to ever lead my party again. We are not the party of conspiracy theories and Q’Anon. We can be again the party of ideas.

And from his campaign website:

The Republican Party has lost its way and now is the time to fight for its renewal. We were once a party of ideas, but we have devolved into a cult of personality. This must end, and Texas must lead the way.

I’m also linking to an interview he did today with an exasperated pro-Trump Mark Davis. Wood, however, held his own rather nicely.

On the flip-side, Marco Rubio was just endorsed by Donald Trump this morning in his reelection bid in Florida:

“It is my honor to give U.S. Senator Marco Rubio my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump said in a statement. “Marco has been a tireless advocate for the people of Florida, fighting to cut taxes, supporting our Second Amendment, our Military and our Vets, a strong national defense, and all of the forgotten men and women of America.”

Both Rubio and Trump are expected to appear at the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., over the weekend.

This is unsurprising for the two peas in a pod:

And as is often the case with the former president, Trump’s support apparently owed in significant part to that Republican having said things about Trump that Trump liked.

After praising Rubio as a champion for his constituents, Trump added, “He also ruled that ‘President Trump was in no way involved with Russia,’ as he presided over the Senate Intelligence Committee on the FAKE Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.”

This is, to put it gently, a highly oversimplified and misleading review of what the Senate Intelligence Committee report actually found. But it is also one that Rubio played into and has now benefited from, with his campaign pushing out Trump’s endorsement statement.

Republicans will be pressed to make a choice as they make their bids for reelection: cut the ties with Trump and move past the cult of personality, or seek his endorsement (signifying his continuing power and influence over the Republican Party) and maintain the status quo.

–Dana

37 Responses to “Republican Candidates: Choose Trump or Cut Ties With Him (ADDED)”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (fd537d)

  2. The immediate way past Trump is to carry much the same message, or at least the rational parts of it, while arguing that Trump was unable to make the system work for him. Particularly useful will be Trump’s upcoming legal problems and possible incarceration. The successful candidate can lament the “political persecution” and wear Trump’s martyrdom like a skin suit.

    The hope is that the candidate will be sane, of course. That in and of itself will be an improvement.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  3. “It is my honor to give U.S. Senator Marco Rubio my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump said in a statement. “Marco has been a tireless advocate for the people of Florida, fighting to cut taxes, supporting our Second Amendment, our Military and our Vets, a strong national defense, and all of the forgotten men and women of America.”

    Yuge praise for Little Marco, eh, Captain?

    Strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight, sir.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  4. Marco will out-Toomey Toomey starting January 3, 2023. A wet cat could beat a D in Florida, but with one of golden boys getting caught robbing cradle and Ivanka not divorcing Jared soon, little other option.

    urbanleftbehind (11ac91)

  5. Donald Trump may cause trouble sooner than you think. One idea being touted, that maybe Trump wants, os to announce that (even eithout running for Congress himself) Trump is the Republican candidate for Speaker of the House. Supposedly to turn out the Trump base. I don’t think this can succeed, (McCarthy isn’t gong anywhere) but maybe it could split the Republican Party.

    Meanwhile. former House Speaker John Boehner has really come out strong against Trump in a newly published book.

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/07/politics/john-boehner-book-takeaways/index.html

    He said he was glad to have left office before Trump was inaugurated in 2017 and said that though they’d played golf together and Trump called him often early in his presidency, the President then stopped talking to Boehner and taking his advice.

    “That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created,” Boehner writes in the memoir.

    Later, he writes: “I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either.”

    The Ohio Republican also offers details on how he saw the presidents and congressional leaders he worked with, characterizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as ruthless and formidable, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as smart and tight-lipped and former President Barack Obama as arrogant — while acknowledging that Obama also faced a raft of conspiracy theories about his birthplace, religion and more from the far right.

    Sammy Finkelman (6975b4)

  6. @5 Trump for Speaker? That’s… a bold strategy. Being Speaker is a lot of work and networking such that I don’t think Trump would be interested in.

    whembly (2e3fb6)

  7. @6, He would do none of the work and pretend that twitter was work.

    Time123 (b4d075)

  8. The thing he was worst at was getting anything done in congress. The thing he was best at was getting weasels in his party to pretend he was a great leader.

    So he has a leg up on living his worst life. Monkey’s paw.

    Dustin (4237e0)

  9. or maybe just support the best candidate

    those that think a trump endorsement is indicative of something right or wrong with a candidate are the problem the party needs to get beyond

    JF (6fcdbe)

  10. Off topic: Pfizer has formally asked for emergency approval to use their vaccine on children aged 12-15. They already have 16 and 17. Moderna’s lower age limit is still 18.

    Sammy Finkelman (6975b4)

  11. Anti-trump shilling by those never trumpers who still can’t believe 74,000,000 voters voted for trump and populism. 10% percent of the party (economic free trade conservatives)has the money ;but not the voters who ignore their influencers. We here the same clap trap every day from the never trumpers and anti-populist plutocracy.

    asset (71f17c)

  12. @6, He would do none of the work and pretend that twitter was work.

    Speaker LePetomaine. “Work, work, work!”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  13. Tom Reed was accused by a partisan Democrat and only after he started calling for Cuomo to resign.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  14. Just the same, though, Reed will not run again and does not wish to debate the charges.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  15. Anti-trump shilling by those never trumpers who still can’t believe 74,000,000 voters voted for trump and populism

    74M voted for the GOP candidate. Only some of them voted for “Trump and populism.” Many voted GOP for other reasons. An equally valid spin would be “74 million voted for the GOP despite misgivings about Trump and populism.”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  16. Trump will be dead, broke and/or in prison by 2024.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  17. You’ve railed against both free market capitalism and economic free trade conservatives, asset. With what, exactly, would you replace them?

    norcal (01e272)

  18. Trump will be dead, broke and/or in prison by 2024.

    How about dying broke in prison?

    norcal (01e272)

  19. Trump will be dead, broke and/or in prison by 2024.

    Democratic Party hurt most.

    nk (1d9030)

  20. No takers? How about this, then? I have little hope that Biden’s DOJ or any Democrat local prosecutors will seriously go after Trump. It would be like the British executing Benedict Arnold.

    nk (1d9030)

  21. No takers because you’re absolutely right.

    norcal (01e272)

  22. I’ve added to the post a link to an interview today with Michael Wood and pro-Trump pundit Mark Davis. It’s worth listening to as the immense rift in the Republican Party is clearly demonstrated.

    Dana (fd537d)

  23. Tom Reed was accused by a partisan Democrat and only after he started calling for Cuomo to resign.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/9/2021 @ 3:03 pm
    Not true. See my post on the weekend open thread.

    Rip Murdock (3e2319)

  24. @18 economic populism. It is what drove the economy for 200 years until uncle milty and reaganomics were foisted on the american people by the multi national corporations. Reagan called himself reaganhood he steals from the poor to give to the rich! The social security so called reform is a glaring example of staling from the poor paying into social security extra money and giving it in tax breaks to the rich.

    asset (5bf692)

  25. asset,

    Do you really think free market capitalism started with Reagan? You cannot be serious. Capitalism has been the order of the day since the U.S. was established. If anything, the U.S. is less capitalist now than it was a hundred years ago.

    norcal (01e272)

  26. @25. Coolidge. Channeled through the Reagan Redux. There be the root of the modern ideological conservatism evil. Boom– hhen a horrific, destructive crash. You can’t kill it nor eat it. But like its communism cousin- and poison ivy- you can control and contain it.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  27. Economic populism, aka: “Give me a dollar.”

    Dave (1bb933)

  28. We are talking about free market capitalism in a global market espoused by uncle milty. We have tried to protect american jobs from globalism until reagan came along. look up populism, protectionism and tariffs in american history.

    asset (f65768)

  29. asset,

    I am all too aware of America’s misguided and counterproductive forays into the realm of thwarting free trade.

    We are better off now than we were prior to Reagan. Trade barriers end up benefitting select groups by dispersing the costs to everyone else.

    It’s not just Uncle Milty who’s in the free trade camp. If there’s one thing that economists agree on, it is the salutary effect of free trade.

    It’s counterintuitive, for sure, but true nonetheless. Hayek said it better than I could:

    The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

    F.A. Hayek

    norcal (01e272)

  30. We are better off now than we were prior to Reagan.

    Except we’re not.

    Xi grinned… as Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  31. I didn’t say “the world”. Plus, the discussion was about the U.S. economy.

    Sure, we could harm China if we stopped trading with them, but we would also hurt ourselves in the process.

    norcal (01e272)

  32. @30. https://thedailybanter.com/2017/08/08/this-chart-shows-how-reaganomics-has-destroyed-the-middle-class/

    Stockman knew it. So did Pappy Bush:

    ‘Voodoo economics.’

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  33. 31. norcal (01e272) — 4/10

    It’s not just Uncle Milty who’s in the free trade camp. If there’s one thing that economists agree on, it is the salutary effect of free trade.

    In the medium term, and in the short run for most people. They also agree that immigration does not cost jobs or lower wages, except insignificantly and for previous immigrants, with possible complications resulting from the welfare state and that the only good predictor of the number of jobs is the number of people looking for them.

    Sammy Finkelman (6975b4)

  34. 25. asset (5bf692) — 4/9/2021 @ 11:32 pm

    The social security so called reform is a glaring example of staling from the poor paying into social security extra money and giving it in tax breaks to the rich.

    That wasn’t the case, but the Bush II proposal for Social Security reform (allowing some Social Security taxes to be invested in the stock market) was – he didn’t realize it – based on using one estimate for economic growth in calculating the amount of money coming into the Social Security “trust fund” and another, higher, estimate for economic growth in calculating the amount of money that would be returned in the long run by investing in the stock market. Stock market returns over the long run reflect economic growth.

    Sammy Finkelman (6975b4)

  35. This schiff hole country will be dead broke and woke before Trump passes away, thanks to you Lincoln projectiles.

    mg (8cbc69)


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