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Where Do Republicans Go From Here? [1]

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Date: 2022-07-23

I have a question I’d like to ask of you all: how do the Republicans get out of the bind that they’re in? They’ve made a pact with the devil. They locked in the votes of a significant bloc of voters by convincing them that a spoiled, dull-minded rich boy, a con artist and sexual predator, is a patriotic Christian hero of the honest working man, and for no more reason than that he can blather their kind of belligerence. But as Trump is increasingly eclipsed, the Republican voters are more and more divided: the MAGA types idolizing Trump, taking ivermectin, and waiting for JFK Jr to rise from the dead, and the amalgamation of never-Trumpers and never-again-Trumpers who once voted for him but now are fed up.

The party held these opposing forces together in the 2016 election because while some liked Trump and some didn’t, they had not yet seen him in action. How bad could he be? At least he wasn’t a Democrat. Then they saw how bad he could be and still the party almost held in 2020. But that was before Jan 6 changed more minds. As the committee is demonstrating in the hearings, there are loyal Republicans saying, “That was just wrong.”

Democrats had a similar problem in the 2016 primary with Clinton and Sanders each holding a loyal voter base. It hurt the party even though they put their differences aside after the primary. Sanders generously supported Clinton’s candidacy and urged his people to vote for her. The Republicans have a much bigger problem. Can you imagine Trump being as professional as Sanders if, say, DeSantis won the primary? Or vice versa?

How can Republicans get free of Trump without losing the MAGA voters? Or can they keep Trump and still hang onto the never Trumpers? How would you play it if you ran the Republican party?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/23/2112214/-Where-Do-Republicans-Go-From-Here

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