Donald Trump has long had a habit of saying the quiet part out loud. And he's done it again. Greg Sargent writes:
Donald Trump has long harbored a tendency to confess to his sins in public. Now he’s done it again, revealing a large truth about today’s Republican Party in the process: He declared that his lies about the 2020 election are instrumentally useful in motivating GOP base voters.
Trump raised this in a call with Blake Masters, the Republican nominee in the Arizona Senate race, that was captured in a new Fox News documentary. Trump faulted Masters for saying at a debate that he didn’t see evidence of a rigged 2020 election, and urged Masters to be “stronger” on that point.
“You’re going to lose that base,” Trump told Masters, citing Kari Lake, the GOP candidate who might win the state’s governor’s race: “Kari’s winning with very little money. And if they say, ‘How is your family?’ she says the election was rigged and stolen.”
The conventional wisdom is that Trump can't think strategically. While it's true that he's not a good strategist, it's clear that simple strategy -- and repeating it -- is his strong suit:
It is unavoidably clear that many Republican elites have decided that adhering to or merely humoring Trump’s 2020 lies is essential to feeding that anger — and that they view these lies as a critical mobilizing tool in the midterm elections.
In Trump’s own telling, GOP base voters must be told that when they lose, they’ve been robbed — the outcome is illegitimate by definition. Scores of other GOP candidates are running for positions of control over elections — while essentially vowing to treat future elections as subject to nullification — which makes Trump’s point harder to deny.
Trump has supplied a plausible answer: Planting yourself squarely on the wrong side of Trump’s lies about 2020 might risk demobilizing or alienating the base, which could have imperiled McCarthy’s hopes of winning the House. What’s required instead is treating Jan. 6’s underlying cause as in some sense just.
The fate of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) illustrates the point. Cheney demanded that Republicans as a party unequivocally renounce Trump’s insurrectionism, even if it costs them Trump voters. This is precisely what required her purging from the party.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been very clear on exactly this point. In a telling moment last year, Graham said of Cheney: “She’s made a determination that the Republican Party can’t grow with President Trump. I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”
Now Trump has said the same thing in his own way: The GOP needs his voters to succeed; keeping his voters in the fold requires telling them that when they lose elections, it doesn’t count.
All of this points to a country that is not only in decline but is also on the point of oblivion.
Image: Politico
6 comments:
We’re clearly experiencing that Reality in Canada, currently !
The EA Inquiry is revealing the cold hard facts of the ‘Freedom’ Convoy
& subsequent Occupation of the Parliamentary Precinct
Yet approx 70% of Canadian Mainstream Media, mainly PostMedia
and an unknown % of Social Media is Aiding & Abetting
Canada’s Official Opposition trying to make it “a problem for the PM”
(as if a Problem for Canada’s Government ain’t a Problem for Canadians)
Looked at another way it’s plainly Divisive Politics & Divisive Media
Its not about Governance, it’s about creating a Power Grab or Void
- Modern Partisan Coup D'état & it’s Management & Nourishment
It’s my view this is a Disaster ‘being wired’ to explode Canadian Democracy
It’s also my view, the same tactics are underway re Covid & Vaccines
“Flood The Zone With Shit” - Steve Bannon - Actually Works !
Much to the joy of ‘Public Servants’ MP Candice Bergen
& MP Pierre Poilivre.. not a shred of actual ‘Integrity’
or ‘Character’ can be found between them
The ‘Monetization Of Hate’ is just another tool in their toolkit
Trump et al Inc is living proof of that, so is Alex Jones
‘Lie Baby Lie’
It's all about the monetization of hate, sal. And it knows no borders.
Thank you Sal, for clearly expressing my feelings to a "T" and I could not have put it in better words. I cannot find a way to tolerate this us vs them attitude that so many politicians are pushing these days simply because they criticize without a cogent alternative or detailed explanation of what they might do that would be better or more acceptable.
That's the "chicken shite route" approach in order to avoid accountability or responsibility if they do happen to get elected.
I want these birds to tell me how, in specific ways, they intend to make my life better, when at present, I feel my life is just fine thank you very much.
Rather than telling you how they'll make your life better, Lulymay, the only song they sing is "My Life Is In The Toilet -- And I'm Not Responsible."
I like that Sal hijacked the thread to the Big Lie in Canada. (Frankly I am bored by tRump and terrified by the war-mongers now in charge of the USA.)
"It’s my view this is a Disaster ‘being wired’ to explode Canadian Democracy
It’s also my view, the same tactics are underway re Covid & Vaccines"
Yup - part of that 70% Sal mentions is the smug Paul Wells. He lost his perch in the mainstream and his latest (substack) spiel is more insidious nonsense about the EA.
All these somber senior cops saying they were about to fix it all w/o the EA. Ya think?
They had their own convoy-aligned agendas and they sat on the hands (yes very much like the Pentagon did on Jan. 6) until a higher authority made them act.
Here's hoping that Justice Paul Rouleau can see through the hype.
We need an honest accounting of what happened, PoV.
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