Patterico's Pontifications

1/29/2021

Poll: Most Republicans Want to See a New Trump Party

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



This is going to be a sort of twin post to what Dana is publishing this morning, about the Republican party. The hyper-Trumpy American Greatness reports:

A majority of GOP voters support former President Trump forming a new party, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey.

Breitbart reported a telephone and online survey taken January 21 and 24, 2021, asked 1,000 likely U.S. voters, “Former President Trump has suggested he may start a third party. Is this a good idea or a bad idea?”

“While a plurality of likely voters, or 45 percent, believe it is a bad idea, a majority of GOP voters, or 53 percent, consider it a good idea, as do 41 percent of those surveyed overall. The survey coincides with rumors of the former president considering forging a new political party outside of the current Republican Party — a rumor which Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel has vehemently denied,” Breitbart reported.

There already are two parties. The schism was there in 2008; you were either capable of hoping the new president succeeded or you hoped he failed. Trump has made the schism more and more clear over time. Either you voted Trump in the primaries or you voted for someone else. Either you supported impeachment (the first time) or you didn’t. Either you thought the election had been stolen or you didn’t. Either you support disqualifying Trump or you don’t. Now, either you want to join a new Trump party or you don’t.

This became even more clear to me yesterday watching Matt Gaetz’s speech to a cheering Wyoming crowd.

It was all about how awful Liz Cheney is. The focus wasn’t even primarily on her vote on the second impeachment. If any theme came up again and again, it was that Cheney is for wars and Gaetz isn’t. But what was crystal clear is that Gaetz hates Liz Cheney with the fire of a thousand Fox News camera lights. It sounded like a stump speech by someone running against her in a general election — not even a primary, where punches can sometimes be pulled or common ground sought, but a nasty, personal general election.

These people are not from the same party.

As the poll shows, increasingly there is no room for a Liz Cheney or an Adam Kinzinger or a Justin Amash in the Republican party. Part of me wants to stand in the well of the Senate and address the GOP members and say: fellas. He lost. Maybe you shouldn’t tie your party to him like this.

But the effect of their rhetoric — their steadfast refusal to admit that Trump lost — is that most GOP voters still believe Trump won. Meaning they are going to continue to cling to the loser, and he will continue to be a wedge issue, for as long as they continue to maintain the fiction.

Trump doesn’t need to form a new party. Through the force of the continuing “stolen election” lie, he has only strengthened his hold on this party. If anyone has to form a new party, it’s the people no longer welcome in the old one.

24 Responses to “Poll: Most Republicans Want to See a New Trump Party”

  1. Preference #1: Trump forms his own party.
    Preference #2: A critical mass of sane conservatives form their own party.
    The status quo is untenable for us conservatives who object to Trump to continue as standard-bearer, with Gaetz-Greene as his emissaries. I wish I had a space laser.

    Paul Montagu (77c694)

  2. The Republican Party is the Trump party.

    Time123 (653992)

  3. And the Democrats have no interest in flushing the Republicans’ toilet for them. So no prosecution of Trump and his caporegimes. Just another phony impeachment which will only get Trump more donations, and media stories about this Trumpist nutjob or other to stir the ordure.

    nk (1d9030)

  4. Paul Montagu (77c694) — 1/29/2021 @ 8:47 am

    Preference #2: A critical mass of sane conservatives form their own party.

    Can you get more than 10 in one place at the same time?

    Twitter wisdom:

    Only get one that falls off the back of a truck. Don’t ever pay full price for Space Laser.

    frosty (f27e97)

  5. I could only stand a couple of minutes of listening to Gaetz, with his sycophantic crown in the background whistling, cheering, and chanting “USA.” An obvious Trump wannabe, but he’s hardly alone in that field. I can only hope that a party representing sane conservatism will arise sometime. The main part of the GOP has clearly taken leave of its senses.

    Roger (3eb97d)

  6. with his sycophantic crown in the background whistling, cheering, and chanting “USA.”

    You know that Wyoming is one of only four states where sex with animals is not illegal, right?

    nk (1d9030)

  7. I fully support Trump creating a new party. The Batsh1tcrazy Party should perfectly complement the BeGreenOrDie Party being created in the wreckage of the Democrats.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  8. Part of me wants to stand in the well of the Senate and address the GOP members and say: fellas. He lost. Maybe you shouldn’t tie your party to him like this.

    Like Goldwater?!?!

    Welcome to 1964.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  9. The schism was there in 2008; you were either capable of hoping the new president succeeded or you hoped he failed.

    When a president sets out to transform America into a “Social Democracy”, “I hope he fails” is a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Just like hoping that Trump failed to turn America into a kleptocracy was a reasonable position to hold in 2016.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  10. nk (1d9030) — 1/29/2021 @ 10:01 am

    You know that Wyoming is one of only four states where sex with animals is not illegal, right?

    You do you and I hope that works out for. I don’t care what you do in your spare time, #lovewins, but it’d be nice to keep this space family-friendly.

    frosty (f27e97)

  11. Rather than waiting for Trump to start a new party (and really, why should he?), people should be looking to fill the gaping political gap between the two major parties, which are behaving like extremist parties at remote ends of the spectrum.

    “Cancel culture” is not new. It is the operating feature of a 3rd party, where those who are not extreme enough are ejected from leadership. You are either pure or you are cancelled.

    Now, it is the operating feature of the major parties. For Demcocrats it’s “global warming”, “black lives matter” and post-gender politics that are the new culling cards. There is no one left who opposes abortion or gay marriage. For Republicans is is Trump or NotTrump, which is scary either way.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  12. You do you and I hope that works out for

    There are people who travel with a state by state chart of age-of-consent. This may be worse.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  13. Si tacuises, philosophus mancises. I wondered whose corns I’d be treading on.

    nk (1d9030)

  14. #FurryRights

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  15. nk (1d9030) — 1/29/2021 @ 10:01 am

    You know that Wyoming is one of only four states where sex with animals is not illegal, right?

    You do you and I hope that works out for. I don’t care what you do in your spare time, #lovewins, but it’d be nice to keep this space family-friendly.

    frosty (f27e97) — 1/29/2021 @ 10:27 am

    LMAO

    Time123 (653992)

  16. The population of Wyoming is… 578,759.

    As Wyoming goes, so goes… Wyoming.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  17. Trump doesn’t need to form a new party. Through the force of the continuing “stolen election” lie, he has only strengthened his hold on this party. If anyone has to form a new party, it’s the people no longer welcome in the old one.

    I agree with this. It took a while to wrap my head around the fact that Republicans who saw the election as legitimate and that Biden was rightfully declared the winner, as well as disapproved of Trump’s post-election behavior, are the fringe dwellers in the party while the Trump loyalists are the mainstream. It’s remarkable how quickly the change happened. And with very, very little push back too.

    Dana (a8bb2a)

  18. Trump knows conservatives resist change and he is counting on that instinct. He also knows that conservatives, by and large, will vote for any GOP nominee in the general election as preferable to any Democrat. Further, Trump only has to capture 30-40% in the GOP Primary to control the Party and he has that.

    Trump has outmaneuvered conservatives who remain in the Republican Party but they are too stubborn to see it.

    DRJ (aede82)

  19. You know that Wyoming is one of only four states where sex with animals is not illegal, right?

    nk (1d9030) — 1/29/2021 @ 10:01 am

    Guess that explains why Hollywood leftists have been buying up properties in Jackson for years.

    Factory Working Orphan (f916e7)

  20. Like Goldwater?!?!

    Welcome to 1964.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/29/2021 @ 10:21 am

    Exactly. We’re starting to see the slivers of acceptance that a political realignment is taking place, although contrary to current pretensions, it’s not going to be “the fringes” against “the Great Center.” All you have to do is read American history books covering about 100 years between the Gilded Age and the Nixon resignation to see the same patterns. Democrats during the Cleveland era morphed into Republicans in 1920s, and vice versa. Blue collar Democrats, who were economically liberal but remained highly patriotic culturally, were pushed aside by the upper middle-class, Maoist-leaning New Leftists in the 1970s. Working-class Republicans who defended Dubya and GWOT, and expected the banks to be punished for their fraud in 2008, were left with nothing to defend anymore after TARP, thousands dead in the Middle East with nothing to show for it, and years of retreat actions in the culture war. Meanwhile, the Democratic mainstream fully embraced corporatism after decades of trying to reign in these same institutions.

    Factory Working Orphan (f916e7)

  21. The Republican Party has always been the minority, not to say cachectic, party. They’ve been hanging on by their fingernails and the skin of their teeth first with the Civil War and Reconstruction, and then with the Senate and Electoral College packing of 1889-90 which admitted six states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington, whose populations would have barely made a county in the existing states. Twelve Senators, and eighteen (it was even more something back then) electoral votes.

    I wonder if these Trump-toads even know what harm they’ve done (although I’m pretty sure the self-seeking, short-sighted weasels would not care if they did) to the system that has from time to time given them a chance at power? And for what? I ask you, for what? Trump? A New York sewer rat who became a Republican only when he saw a primary he had a chance of winning?

    nk (1d9030)

  22. nk (1d9030) — 1/30/2021 @ 7:07 am

    I wonder if these Trump-toads even know what harm they’ve done (although I’m pretty sure the self-seeking, short-sighted weasels would not care if they did) to the system that has from time to time given them a chance at power

    I hope they do. This is an odd insult though. What do you think “the system” is full of other than self-seeking, short-sighted weasels? You’re insulting them for missing out on a chance to power a chance to be self-seeking, short-sighted weasels?

    frosty (f27e97)

  23. You’re insulting them for missing out on a chance to power a chance to be self-seeking, short-sighted weasels?

    Is that what I’m doing? I didn’t realize it. I thought I was saying that they were crippling their own party to lessen the risk that they won’t be keeping the phony-baloney jobs that the party made possible for them to have in the first place.

    Relating to to Gaetz and Cheney, I’ll just echo former RNC Chair Michael Steele: Liz Cheney has more Republican bona fides that Gaetz could ever hope to amass.

    nk (1d9030)

  24. Relating it to Gaetz and Cheney, I’ll just echo former RNC Chair Michael Steele: Liz Cheney has more Republican bona fides than Gaetz could ever hope to amass.

    nk (1d9030)


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