Guest AuthorBased on the posts I see daily on social media, I have to wonder who in the world is voting for Donald Trump. I rarely see anyone openly advocating for him.
So I must conclude I have done a wise job gathering my collection of friends, people with distinct and well developed tastes, wise minds and political acumen. For this I am blessed.
However, no matter how much my friends or I rail against the Trump locomotive, it keeps barreling full speed ahead. I take solace in seeing increasing advocates of the #NeverTrump movement, with daily additions of solid conservative elected officials publicly claiming they would never cast a vote for him.
There’s comfort in being associated with the likes of J.C. Watts, Mel Martinez, Christine Whitman, Ben Sasse. The list goes on. They understand the role of the presidency and what it means domestically and internationally. They also understand the political consequences of electing a charlatan huckster with no governing experience, who has a lifetime of examples of how you would never want your children to behave, and expecting that person to be the shining face of our country to the world.
Do people honestly want to spend four years explaining to their children that just because the president talks to or about people that way, does not mean it is OK?
We once had school report cards with subject grades on the right and conduct grades on the left. Trump’s page on the left must have been filled with “unacceptable” checkmarks. Maybe that is why he was sent off to military school, but it seems that even there he never learned respect, decorum, or the art of diplomacy.
Ronald Reagan was a master of congeniality, charm, using deference as a tool to earn respect and cooperation. Think back to how often he brought comfort to a room with a self-deprecating remark.
Do you think Trump has ever uttered anything self-deprecating? We need more of what Reagan exhibited and less of hurling insults and degrading others. Imagine Reagan calling Gorbachev a “choke artist” or a loser? Is that what we expect to be the comportment of our president? Hardly.
Yet, he rolls along, gathering between one third and up to 40 percent of those voting in the Republican primaries and at this point he has secured about 25 percent of the delegates needed for the nomination. More than 60 percent of Republican voters reject him outright, but they need somewhere to go.
The Republican leadership, in my estimation, is earning the disdain of the public supporting Trump. So far, they have been ham-handed in their efforts to derail the Trump train.
Marco Rubio is barely hanging on and needs Florida desperately to continue forward. Ted Cruz is not a one-trick pony, but he doesn’t quite have the talents required to occupy the center ring, and John Kasich has been running with a “Northern strategy” that seems to be as effective as the cavalry arriving after the wagon train has been destroyed. He possesses the talents required, but his campaign has failed.
So what does the GOP do? Does it embrace the inevitability of being led into November with the most flawed Republican candidate in my lifetime? There are serious consequences to learning to dance with someone who thinks he orchestrates all the music and doesn’t mind constantly stepping on your toes.
Here are what the polls say happens if Trump is the Republican nominee:
At serious risk is Republican control of the Senate, and a remote chance of losing the House too. Florida alone could see a serious shift in the congressional delegation, with the loss of the seat held by Rubio, should Trump be at the head of the ticket.
Other Senate seats at high risk are Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nevada, with the possible addition of Ohio.
A worst-case scenario might see Democrats with 55 seats in the Senate. Think back to the Goldwater landslide and the loss of 37 seats in the House. Think back even more recently to when Barack Obama beat John McCain. The Republicans lost 21 seats in the House and eight Senate seats.
In 1994, when Bill Clinton was pushing health care reform, a Republican insurgency captured the House for the first time since 1952. Thirty-four incumbents lost that year, all Democrats.
Such shifts can happen again in our polarized country, only the shift this time will be fully leftward. Is that what this year’s version of voters seeking hope and change want to happen?
Recent primaries have shown low turnout in the Democrat contest with higher turnout on the R-side. I fear we are seeing repeated Pyrrhic victories by Trump, as he is surely the elixir for what ails the Democrats, who seem to have low enthusiasm for now.
But the prospects of huge gains in November could energize them. Elections do have consequences.
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Ed H. Moore resides in Tallahassee, Florida, where he is perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
