"Making a list
Checking it twice
Gonna' find out who's naughty and nice"
Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, 1933, popularized by Eddie Cantor and hundreds more.
Donald Trump is coming to town.
On Tuesday morning I wrote "Every Republican is Trump unless they say to the contrary. And they don't."
Tuesday evening proved me right, alas.
It's Trump's GOP.
By now I presume most readers know what happened in Indiana. Eight Indiana legislators refused to go along with Trump's demand that Indiana reconfigure congressional districts to squeeze two more seats from the current 7-2 split, making it a 9-0 delegation. The senators said that the overwhelming opinion of their constituents was to keep their current districts and they would stand with that opinion.
Trump vowed retribution for their disobedience. He urged they be voted out in the primary election held on Tuesday. He wrote on Truth Social on election eve:
Good luck to those Great Indiana Senate Candidates who are running against people who couldn’t care less about our Country, or about keeping the Majority in Congress. There are eight Great Patriots running against long seated RINOS — Let’s see how those RINOS do tonight! President DONALD J. TRUMP.
It worked. Six Republican Trump-endorsed challengers defeated incumbents; another won an open-seat primary. Only one of the eight survived.
After the election the defeated incumbents said they followed the wishes and interests of their constituents and lost because of it. State Senator Jim Buck, a 30-year member said, “My district told me overwhelmingly to vote no, and that’s what I did.” State Senator Linda Rogers said, “I don’t regret it. I followed the wishes of my district.”
My Tuesday blog post was more partisan than I like to be. I warned readers that state and local candidates are not independent agents. Candidates for Oregon governor Christine Drazan and Chris Dudley, incumbent congressman Cliff Bentz, and local state senate candidate Brad Hicks are not individual, independent voices, with their own roots, histories, and points of view. They may want to be such, but Trump has blasted through the normal barriers of a federal system. Trump has a national agenda, and he reaches down into state legislative districts. He has access to a giant fundraising apparatus and he puts it to work. Notwithstanding all the problems in the country, he retains personal appeal with his MAGA base.
Oregon's 2nd District U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz has good reason to fear Trump. Bentz holds office at Trump's pleasure. He holds committee seats at the pleasure of House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Johnson holds power because of Trump. Bentz is on a string that leads to Trump's finger.
Oregon faces issues that come to Trump's attention: ICE raids in Portland and at farm sites; timber harvest levels; funding rural hospitals; vote-by-mail; and, if the Oregon vote is anywhere close for the office of governor, a U.S. Senator, or a Member of Congress, then the outcome of that election. Trump reaches into local issues and demands a result "at all costs." Forget local constituents and local interests. All politics is national, and it needs to serve Trump's agenda.
If a Republican officeholder tries to be independent of Trump, they aren't independent for long. Even a weakened, unpopular Trump has political power and he knows how to use it. We saw that in Indiana. They may not look like Trump, but do not forget that when it is something Trump cares about, Christine Drazan is Trump; Chris Dudley is Trump; Cliff Bentz is Trump; Brad Hicks is Trump.
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2 comments:
The U.S. has always had more than its share of despicable characters – people who were pro-slavery, who thought the only good Indian was a dead Indian, who were pro-Hitler, neo-Nazis, white-wing militias, etc. Now we have Trumplicans.
The only thing that will save the Republican Party from the Trump cancer is a resounding defeat in elections, plural. People such as your congressman need the consequence of being a Trump Puppet. Criminals need jail to consider changing, politicians need defeat apparently, which includes democrats.
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