Even Before The Primaries, The GOP Tactics Have Been Weird

I’m sorry, but this isn’t the way this should be going, even at this early stage. The way the GOP is moving forward into these primaries is nothing short of bizarre. Just a quick recap so that we all start out at the same place.

Following the Covid palsied census of 2020, the general consensus of everybody from 538.com to The Cook Report, to Politico, the GOP was going to pick up anywhere from 8-10 GOP House seats following gerrymandered redistricting, enough to actually give them the House unless the Democrats could flip some seats.

But as I like to say, A funny thing happened on the way to the quorum. Rather than pick up the 8-10 seats that would pretty much ensure the GOP of the House majority for at least the next 6 years, at very best they fought to a draw.
And for a very good reason, the GOP is weak. Demographics and population migration are killing them. And as a result, rather than redrawing the maps to enrich their seat take, they instead redrew the maps to shore up districts that had become vulnerable in the last decade. While the Democrats aggressively redistricted to gain enough seats to at least offset the GOP gains. The House is a toss up.

That being said and accepted, over the last couple of days, there have been a couple of developments from the United Soviet Trump Republics that kind of defy logic. Let’s take a peekie-see.

Ursula Faw just posted an article that brought tears to my eyes. Apparently the North Carolina legislature just released their newly redrawn map, And Trump and Putin acolyte and all purpose scumbag Madison Cawthorne is now out of a job. The redistricting took his district and absorbed it into neighboring districts instead. Which means that Cawthorne now has to determine the district he lives in, get signature petitions for the primary and file them, if the filing date hasn’t already passed.

There are only two reasons for the GOP North Carolina legislature to take this step. Either Cawthorne’s district had become too much of a swing district for their liking, maybe because Cawthorne was in it, and folded it in to make stronger districts. The other was that one or more of the neighboring districts had become fragile, requiring them to shore it/them up.

But being the nasty, cynical old Mick bastard I am, I can’t help but wonder if there wasn’t an underlying reason. North Carolina GOP legislative members have to run for office every 2 years too. And on a national level, Madison Cawthorne has become a toxic figure. And it’s slopping over into North Carolina. I can’t help but wonder if maybe the GOP state members redrew Cawthorne’s district out of existence just to get rid of him. Enquiring minds want to know.

Now for the 2nd anomaly, and one even weirder. Alabama US representative Mo Brooks is vacating his seat to run for the US Senate in Alabama. Brooks is a Trump man to his toes. He spoke at the January 6th rally that incited an insurrection, and Trump almost immediately endorsed him. The problem is that Brooks is running in a primary field the size of Pimlico, and he’s a distant third.

But suddenly, starting yesterday, Brooks talked to reporter Vaughn Hillyard from MSNBC, and started throwing shit all over Trump. He told Hillyard that after Labor Day of 2021, Trump contacted him wanting his help to get the US House to rescind the 2020 election, and force a new election that would return him to power. Since when does the stable boy start throwing shit at his master?

Here’s why. I am not going to relitigate the past here, but I’ve said multiple times before that when it comes to electoral politics, Trump has the coattails of a vest. He’s backing Brooks, who’s running a distant 3rd. He’s backing Hillbilly Elegy moron JD Vance, who is currently swimming at the bottom with the carp. And Trump backed a Senate candidate in Pennsylvania to replace , who then Pat Toomey had to abandon the race when his family laid out domestic abuse charges already levied against him.

This is something to watch for going forward into the primaries. Trump’s entire hold over the GOP is his dictatorial control over his base. But the evidence keeps showing that that magic only works for Trump. It will be interesting to see if and when some of these Trump endorsed primary candidates start gently trying to put distance between themselves and Traitor Tot. Because Ukraine changed everything. And Trump and FUX News and their minions are on the wrong side of public sentiment. Don’t touch that dial.