RINOs are the swing voters who will determine the 2024 election outcome.
There is a growing number of them.
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| Karl Rove. Trump tweeted to Fox: "GET RID OF KARL ROVE!!!!!" |
A Republican is either with Donald Trump or is a RINO, a Republican in Name Only. It did not have to be that way, but Trump insists. He has remade the GOP.
Trump has declared to be RINOs the old guard of Republican officeholders who resist being part of the MAGA tribe. Trump could try to fold RINOs back into his coalition. That would be normal behavior for a party leader. He could say nice things about Nikki Haley and her voters. Trump could praise NATO, at least a little. He could pull back from his statement telling Putin to take whatever the hell he wants. Trump could say that his keeping documents was a misunderstanding and of course he intended to return them. Trump could say the January 6 attack on the Capitol was unintended and that bad apples took over. He isn't doing any of that.
Here is the text of what Karl Rove said said.
For the worst part, they [the Trump campaign] take January 6th and go hard at it. And they would say he wants to pardon those people who attacked our Capitol.
I worked in that building as a young man. To me the Congress of the United States is one of the great examples of the strength of our democracy and a jewel of the Constitution. And what those people did when they violently attacked the Capitol in order to stop the Constitutionally mandated meeting of the Congress to accept the results of the Electoral College is a stain on our history and every one of those sons of ------ who did that we ought to find them, try 'em, and send them to jail.
One of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said 'I'm going to pardon those people because they're hostages.' No they're not. They are thugs. They are people -- some of them had automatic weapons in a hotel in Virginia hoping to be called up. We had people saying 'Where is Nancy Pelosi.' We had people who are taking desks, sitting at the desk of the Speaker of the House and attempting to find people in order to bring them to justice, yelling at the police saying 'kill them, kill them all.'
And so why Trump has done this is beyond me. If he had said, 'You know what. I trust our jury system, I trust our law enforcement. Anyone who assaulted the Capitol ought to be -- he said it once or twice -- but now he's got, he's appearing in a video with people who assaulted police officers with an attempt to take the Capitol by force. So, you know, look. I'm a Republican. I don't want to have a Democrat to be president. I want a Republican president. But we're facing as a country a decision --everyone has to make it -- as to what kind of leadership we're going to have. And to me it is a mistake on the part of the Trump campaign to allow the president's impulses to identify himself with people who assaulted the Capitol rather than people who stand for law and order.
Rove did not say he was going to vote for Biden and I don't expect him to do so. He's a Republican. He has Republican friends. Being a Republican is his career. Announcing a vote for Biden would destroy that career.
But I predict he will announce that he won't vote for Trump either. There is a split in the GOP from the era of Reagan-Bush-Romney into the era of Trump. Rove is left behind. Trump isn't creating a bridge. He burned it and is still doing so. Trump is negotiating a deal with fellow Republicans. Do it his way or the highway.
There is a delicate middle ground for Republican voters who want to stay in their Republican home but aren't part of the MAGA revolution, and I suspect a great many Republicans will take it. Trump demands so much from sane Republican voters, that they accept it all. the manic crazy tweets, his lawlessness, and January 6. Voters will be coached, I predict, by at least a few GOP spokespeople who say they will leave the presidential line on their ballot blank. If Trump loses in battleground states, I predict it will be the undervote that defeats him.
Trump is a Republican, yes. But he is dangerous and some segment of Republican voters see that.
10 comments:
It’s quite simple. “RINOs” may find Trump despicable, but: follow the money. As long as so many of them feel that Trump will keep their taxes low and won’t regulate the firms whose securities they own, too many of them will hold their noses and vote for Trump. Wealthy people have always found ways to get the health care they need, to escape from the results of disinvestment in critical infrastructure and get their daughters abortions. Don’t count on their principles to overcome their pocketbooks.
The Lincoln Project, founded by notable, anti-tRump Republicans, has been leading on this issue for years. They have a Facebook page and a website.
What does it even mean to be Republican anymore? As Peter says, Trump has re-made the GOP and he is the party, as we can see by the behavior of Republican senators and representatives. Republican state legislatures are busy putting election deniers in charge of elections. A willingness to reject reality and deny facts is now key to being a member in good standing in the GOP. “Rational Republican” has become an oxymoron.
The true RINO in this election, and over the last decade, is Donald Trump himself. He arrived in the party and supposedly embraced conservative principles, but only opportunistically, or situationally, because his personal bete noire (pun intended) was a popular progressive, Barack Obama. He caught lightning in a bottle, passed it around, and is still drinking from it. It's almost empty. The lees are more concentrated, to be sure. Fortified, even. Yet the bottom is visible.
There are many many different subsets of swing voters who might be the ones to throw the election one way or the other:
* RINOs
* progressives
* antivaxxers
* ethnic Arabs
* ethnic Jews
* working class blacks
* working class Latinos
And probably a number of others that I didn’t think of off the top of my head.
However this coming election goes, they will be analyzing it for years and coming to many different and mutually contradictory conclusions.
We are living on a giant Ouija board with hundreds of millions of hands on the slider. Democracy is ann attempt to extract high-quality decisions from large numbers of variable (often low) quality components. Chaos Theory tells us there is no way to predict the results of a situation this complex, or even necessarily to understand those results.
I agree with Michael.
I get tired of hearing stiff like "left-handed kazoo players are key to this election." It's lazy.
There is no reason for anyone to be undecided at this point, unless they are lying to get media attention.
Both President Biden and the other guy have their bases locked up. NVAs and Independents, which make up about 1/3 of voters will make the difference IN SWING STATES.
No mention that Rove got us the 2nd worst POTUS in history, who started two needless wars?
And no mention of Rove's role in the precursor to tue January 6 attack on the Capitol which happened in Florida in 2000?
I WILL NEVER FORGET.
Rove has been part of the problem that got us here.
Shame on you, Peter, for giving Rove any appearance of credibility.
Mc is right – there’s no reason for anyone to be undecided at this point. The choice couldn’t be clearer: a malicious criminal and compulsive liar vs. an honorable statesman with a long history of public service. Trump describes the U.S. as “a failing nation.” That so many would choose him over Biden gives some credence to the comment. It boggles the mind.
Certainly equating supporters with Portland is more damaging than calling them pedophiles. “Why, I heard that if you vote for these measures, your dog will go rabid and your d**k will fall off!”
Thank you, Kevin, for your reasoned analysis. (I’m never going to write a guest post for Peter for fear that he may post a picture of a naked lady eating a burger with it).
Next, how about an investigative post showing that the biggest supporters of this PAC have been the beneficiaries of the County’s tendency to build Taj Mahals, like Adroit Construction? Can you say ‘Good Ol’ Boy’ network?
I will be happy to write a guest post for Peter if he promises to include in it a full length picture of the naked burger lady. 😀
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