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The Logic of a Primary Challenge
I just don’t see it. I know there are those who honestly think that a primary challenge to President Trump before the 2020 election could actually succeed in getting a different Republican elected, but I don’t see any way in which that makes sense.
In 2016, Donald Trump soundly defeated a solid Republican primary field. Since then, the dire predictions of a Trump presidency have failed to materialize. In fact, the most common comment made by Republicans who don’t particularly care for Trump is “he’s doing better than I expected.” Conservatives generally approve of his policies, and many of us are surprised at how well his efforts to deregulate and spur economic growth have succeeded. A large majority of Republicans continue to express their support for the President,
Now, with the completion of the Mueller investigation, the dark cloud looming over the administration has vanished. The Democrats are tripping over each other in a crazed rush to the left, even as the Trump administration has slowly racked up conservative wins — justices, taxes, jobs, wages, Israel — that seem the product of a much more traditionally conservative administration.
President Trump often speaks incautiously, exaggerates, and tends to be thin-skinned and petty. He has found himself in daily opposition to a national press that… speaks incautiously, exaggerates, and tends to be thin-skinned and petty — as well as insufferably self-righteous, arrogant, and biased. After two years, it is hard to argue that the President is taking more of a beating than the press, and this perception that one man stands against the liberal tide is not lost on many of us who were skeptical of candidate Trump but who have come to appreciate the value of his tenacity and pugilistic temperament.
Given all that, and given the absence of a new and powerful candidate on the right, one who holds the promise of being more statesmanlike than Trump while also being at least as conservative, impervious, aggressive, and steadfast as Trump — given the absence of such a figure, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that an effort to defeat President Trump in a primary has any serious chance of succeeding.
I think there’s also good reason to believe that a successful Trump challenger would lose the support of a wide swath of Trump supporters in the general, while picking up only the handful of disgruntled conservatives who, even after years of successful conservative governance, insist that they won’t vote for the man.
In short, it seems like a fantasy, a bit of wishful thinking motivated, I suspect, more by offense and outrage that this vulgar man has found success in our party than by any practical consideration of what’s best for the conservative cause over the next six years.
I think we should work together to play the hand we have, which turns out to be better than most of us expected.
Published in Elections
What if it’s your job?
You should get a better job.
Moderator Note:
The CoC advises you to presume good faith of other members, and avoid personal attacks.Interesting that it was presented here and maintained in several repetitions as “abundant probable cause” with great authority of your favorite hacks. Now it is shrugged off like this. [Redacted.]
Please don’t. Spamming the moderators is not going to help. 😇
The point is that he mocks all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons (just like the rest of us) and didn’t single out the reporter for having a disability.
I agree with you Henry. No good can come from a primary challenge to Trump. The Republican Party would be fractured. If Trump won the challenge, he would be diminished. If he lost it, no way in hell the winner could beat the Dems.
There were a whole lot of Democrats who wanted Comey fired for incompetence, malfeasance, etc… until Trump fired him for incompetence, malfeasance, etc.
Congressman @DevinNunes calls for a second special counsel to investigate the Russiagate fraud. https://audioboom.com/posts/7217898-congressman-devinnunes-calls-for-a-second-special-counsel-to-investigate-the-russiagate-fraud?utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=retweet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter via @batchelorshow
Six minutes.
Thanks, Gary. That encourages me to try to be a bad sport less often, and a bad man less often.
You’ve already noticed that we’ve got lots of good sports and good men and women on Ricochet. But like most people, you probably wonder if you are one yourself. (You are the only person who can’t make an independent judgement on it.)
So you will be glad to know my evaluation, me being one who’s read many of your posts: you are both a good man and an remarkably good sport, based on that admittedly biased data. (The possible distortion is that, like most people, you may be trying to keep your worst qualities secret from us.)
Mark, I have a file cataloguing Gary’s very worst qualities, which I can send to you for a surprisingly modest monetary consideration. (I must warn you that the parts involving yogurt cost a considerable amount more, but are well worth it.)
I Liked this but GR is going to Love it.