Trump’s Grip on the GOP Gets Stronger As the Party Gets Smaller
Trump’s grip on GOP gets stronger as party gets smaller
It’s been three days since Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., delivered their stinging denunciations against President Trump, and much like Jerry Maguire and Renee Zellweger’s Dorothy — no one followed them out the door of the sports agency. ( “Who’s coming with me?” Answer: No one else.)
There’s a simple reason why politicians like Corker and Flake (who aren’t running for re-election) have exited, and why everyone else (who could face primary challenges) is staying: This is Donald Trump’s party now.
Disagree with Trump’s positions on trade and immigration? Too bad if you’re going to continue to face Republican primary voters.
Have an issue with Trump’s character and Twitter habit? Best to stay silent or turn the conversation back to tax cuts.
Facing a tough election like Ed Gillespie is in Virginia? Run TV ads on immigration and crime just like Trump would.
But there are two consequences of a Trump-led Republican Party that no longer has room for the Bob Corkers and Jeff Flakes. One, it means a smaller party. This isn’t a big-tent GOP that’s adding more converts (though West Virginia’s governor is a clear exception ); rather, it’s shunning the heretics.
Two, as we wrote earlier this week , it could hurt Trump and the GOP with the middle of the electorate, which still matters in American politics. The president’s job-approval rating among independents was already in the 30s and 40s. Do the criticisms that Trump took from his own party members like Corker and Flake make those numbers worse? We’ll find out.
Where’s the money to combat opioids?
“President Donald Trump's announcement of an unprecedented public health emergency Thursday to combat opioid and drug abuse drew both praise and concern from public health advocates. Many said the move, while a positive first step, risked undercutting the enormous financial requirement to launch an effective response,” NBC’s Vivian Salama writes .
“Declaring an emergency under the Public Health Services Act gives the Health and Human Services secretary wide discretion to respond by accessing the Public Health Emergency Fund, which only has about $57,000 left. The secretary can also waive typical Medicare and Medicaid rules temporarily or access the national stockpile of medications. ‘Funds will be critical,’ said Rebecca Haffajee, Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. ‘Congress will need to appropriate more money’ given the shallow resources available under the Public Health Emergency Fund.”
To borrow from another “Jerry Maguire” line: Show me the money.
House passes budget, paving the way for the GOP’s tax plan. Now comes the hard part
The New York Times : “The Republican race to overhaul the tax code broke into a sprint on Thursday, with House members narrowly clearing a budget blueprint that would allow a tax bill to pass Congress without any Democratic votes, and Senate leaders signaling that the bill could be introduced, debated and approved in both chambers by the end of November.”
More: "Those ambitions are already complicated by difficult math, both in terms of tax revenues and vote counts. The budget vote put those competing factors on display, with 20 Republicans defecting and the resolution narrowly passing, 216 to 212, in part over concerns about the possible elimination of a tax break that disproportionately benefits residents of high-tax states. A potential reduction in contribution limits for 401(k) retirement accounts also appears to be stoking an intraparty fight."
Northam leads Gillespie by 7 points, per new poll
A new Wason Center poll has Democrat Ralph Northam leading Republican Ed Gillespie by seven points, 50 percent to 43 percent, in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. Last week, the poll had Northam with a four-point lead, 48 percent to 44 percent — and all the movement is within the margin of error.
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Love the title .. 2 members of the party retiring I suppose does make the party smaller ....
Good news, those of us that sit on the fence looking at /listening to both sides of the aisle are still relevant! ... : )
I think I shared this with you in "another venue". Quite frankly, I think Corker and Flake are pussies whose voices don't resonate with anyone they want them to and they are going to pack up their respective toys and go home. They are just plain anti Mr. Trump and can't believe they don't have more of a following when they speak out. And they are going all baby........you know, that thing that they, and many here, accuse Mr. Trump of.
Good riddance. Go join #RESISTARDS..........it's where you belong.
Wuss is a far better descriptive word : )
#Justsay'n
You are Korrek
Gee, since the Democrats declared the GOP dead after Obama winning, what can POSSIBLY be left of this once-proud, now-decimated party that has only managed to win 1000 elected seats from that other political party over the last 8 years?
Reporters and Democrats are like the old funeral-home director, waiting and praying for someone to die!
It’s been three days since Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., delivered their stinging denunciations against President Trump,
LOL talk about clueless....
corker and flake could not get re-elected by trump voters in their states if their lives depended on it.
this is what draining the swamp looks like .
Aye, yet that does not fit the narrative being placed on their 'heroic words' by some of the Presidents detractors.... Flake and Corker are leaving/retiring 'on principle' because of Trump [and don't you forget it]
Will they reincarnate and run as Democrats? I see Bernie is back to running as an Independent!
Totally off topic ......................................... but ...................... as I have been out wandering around and reading articles, I have become curious about something ......
Remember when it was the 'in' thing for celebrities to go to 'Celebrity rehab' ... is the new 'in' thing being sexually harassed or assaulted?
Seems like it. Hell, now a third woman is "exposing" the fact she too was "groped" by GHWB.
I see the point but I don't get the point. SMH
Guess I better seed the article I was reading ...not sure if we are allowed to wander off topic of the seeded article in NT...
It's your seed. I don't think you have to stay on topic as you are the "Queen" of the discussion.
Very sad. A 93 year old man and he and his wonderful wife are having to deal with this. Somehow, it is just obscene what these women are doing.
Off topic is something I enjoy ... people are already discussing .. so what if the topic wanders...
I did seed the Rose McGowan 'fiery speech' article .. but I am more than happy to chat right here.....
The whole former President Bush thing is what has me wondering if this is some kind of a fad - his hands could not be anymore 'roaming' than former VP Joe Biden [bless his lil heart : )] yet he not being accused ... hmmmm?
Good to see you mag .. it is okay if I call you mag?
Hi...Of course, it is alright....thank you.
It is just sad.
On multiple levels .. this is 2017 hard to believe this discussion is even needed - apparently evolution really does take time!
Anyone find it strange that no liberals/dems are visiting this discussion? Yeah, that's what I thought. Me neither......
Us libs are just enjoying watching the GOP come apart at the seams.
Our Country has problems and it involves both sides and the in-betweens.
This is what I think. Mr. Trump won the presidency against all odds. There is a reason. I don't know that I am smart enough to know the reason why. I could give my opinion, but hell, that is only my opinion.
It's gonna play out for a fact. We ain't seen nothing, yet.
You've been saying that since 2008. Since that time lost over 1,000 federal, state, and local government positions of note (including POTUS to a real estate developer) all the while sitting back sipping your wine and munching your cheese as the electorate passes on your ideas and perception of relevance. It is you now who are falling apart. You boasted to the point that you took your eye off the ball. You basked in the glow of 44 and the historic precedent it supposedly set. A woman was SURE to be next. Not only did you not have the right message, you failed to see how badly you were alienating a large portion of the country with your narcissistic views and dreams of grandeur. Didn't work out too well now did it?
Chin up though, even though you will make very little if any headway in the mid terms, you still have 3 or 4 years to get your shit together. And from what I see, you damned well better hurry up. Cuz it hasn't started yet.
No, it is not
The Republicans didn't win the Presidential election either,
Fake news? Not at all. Just a situation where tangible facts obscure the real facts.
The electorate in the middle is more relevant now than ever before. The Republican establishment was ripe for the plucking and Trump was the hatchet man we needed to behead them. The task continues. The Republican is nothing more than a name, no longer a symbol of forceful ideology.
The Republican banner was a target of convenience not of predetermined choice. Smug and confident that regardless of which one of them won the nomination, the Presidency was theirs they decided to throw a little spice into their primaries with a last man standing competition. Not a single one of them believed for one moment that the only person who could never win the Presidency would be the one to get the Party nomination.
Donald Trump is not the singular head of any singular group. He is a General the electorate has chosen to change the topography of the political battlefield our government has become.
It is not Parties that we target. It is the Establishment that the entrenched leaders of the Parties have formed to protect each other and control our lives.
All of this talk about Republican Party problems. What about the Democrats? Who? Is there really any actual Party left to talk about?
Owlism"
Freedom of thought is often suppressed but it can never be stopped.
Hoot ! Hoot !
Hopefully the GOP will split into the Rockefeller Republicans and the Know Nothing Party. It's always been a poor marriage ever since they merged starting in the 1960s.
Or maybe it's a re-split since the GOP itself was formed when the Whigs and the original Know Nothing Party split, with the GOP retaining the ideology of both.
this doesn't surprise me, it is disappointing that the opposition is giving up the control of the country so easily to this authoritarian style megalomaniac though.
Dictatorship suites trump better anyway. One step closer I'd say.
Divide and conquer but who wins ?
Not the American public, we lose power as trump gains more and more.
Since the GOP has the majority in both houses it seems that the only relevant opposition to Trump would have to come from within the GOP, but it seems they're far more interested in getting his signature on their tax cuts for the rich than concerned about the harm he's doing to the country.
I agree, the haven't done shit to restrict trumps power consolidation or any of his idiotic crap they are just appeasing the master to get their gravy.
Meanwhile we all are losing power over our own futures. The more power trump has the lass power we the people have.
"we the people have more power under trump than we did under obama by far and yes, it is growing daily.
but, the "leftwing people? not so much
The politicians are gaining more control over us daily watch what they do with the opioid crisis, I look for long jail terms and people doing without medications they need to be the main outcome. control.
Watch as trump and the republicans turn their backs on the less fortunate ion our society and then watch the prison roles increase because of it. People have to eat. And one way or another they will.
Not every human in America is able to pull their own weight. Under trump they are now second class citizens, soon to be begging for scraps. Cut revenue and you either have to barrow more or spend less on government programs, which do you see in Americas future. I see more poor people suffering even more as government programs are cut to the bone. While the rich profit and the gap widens. Two Americas.
Trump's grip on the GOP?
Or, a maleficent alliance between the "gawd people" and the money changers?