This is getting more and more interesting by the second. And it’s also veering into uncharted territory. We’re still more than 22 months away from the 2024 election, and already the battle for the GOP soul of the Senate is being joined.
Let’s be clear. GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is SO over one Donald John Trump. He has been distancing himself from Trump since the 2018 midterm debacle, but quietly. In the runup to the 2022 midterms, McConnell publicly complained about candidate quality being the main reason that the GOP was unlikely to regain the Senate. Meaning Trumptard candidates. But don’t read too much into it. McConnell is a true political coward. If Trump manages a sudden resurgence in GOP popularity, McConnell would be in Mar-A-Lago on Christmas Day, kissing his orangutan ass.
But since there is no indication that that is happening anytime soon, McConnell is on the offensive. In an interview today, McConnell said that in 2024 the GOP is going back to the good old fashioned way of attracting and recruiting qualified Senate candidates. Read; McConnell and his new NRSC head to personally recruit the candidates.
There’s just one simple problem. Traitor Tot is already on the ballot for 2024, and he has no intention of giving up his grip on the candidate slate in either chamber. FrankenTrump has already made it clear that he will be backing a loyal slate of candidates in 2024. Which actually opens up a whole new can of worms for McConnell and the GOP.
In 2024, exactly what is Trump’s candidate criteria? In 2022 it was clear and right out front. The Mango Messiah recruited and backed a whole cadre of 2020 Election deniers. And they all fought each other, especially in the primaries, and then refusing to moderate in the general election as to who was the most rabid election denier.
And it crashed and burned like The Hindenburg. In almost every. competitive. race., the Trump election deniers got trounced. And worse yet for Hair Furor, they turned out to be craven, cowardly charlatans in defeat. With the sole exception of Kari Lake in Arizona, once the actual votes were counted, and the results announced, almost every man-jackin’-one of them acknowledged the defeat, with most of them refusing to concede the election. Trump’s own acolytes didn’t really believe in the stolen election theory. And in reluctant acceptance, even His Lowness has largely stopped spouting the Big Steal kind of bullshit.
Which is going to drive McConnell insane for the next 10 months or so. Trump is of course going to anoint acolytes devoted to his cause, but what line of insane Trump bullshit is The Cheeto Prophet going to expect them to adhere to? Clearly even Trump knows that continuing with The Big Lie is a losing political proposition, and Trump will likely have at least 1 primary challenger in 2024. But Trump’s entire political persona is based on there outrageous and obnoxious. And with his popularity plummeting even in the GOP, what insane new hool does he come up with to once again inflame his mentally retarded base?
McConnell has no way of knowing, but whatever it is, it’s going to be his worst nightmare. Because whatever hare brained, racist, secist scheme Der Gropinfuror comes up with next, it will be the benchmark he will use in deciding his support for down ballot candidates. Which is toxic poison for McConnell. Because even if Trump doesn’t become the 2024 nominee, if he stays on the primary ballot long enough, he’ll scare away all of the qualified candidates McConnell wants to put on the ticket, few if any of whom will want their name on the same ballot with that loser mega turd.
Man! This is going to be fun to watch. Trump isn’t going anywhere. The presidency is his sole hope of escaping criminal liability. But the increasing use of the loser label, and his dropping GOP base support has him in a box. And he knows that he’s going to have to come up with something really extreme to motivate his base. And whatever it is, that will become Trump’s benchmark for down ballot support. Please make sure your seatbelt is secure, and keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times.
Yeah and don’t forget studies have confirmed his criminal actions concerning covid killed over a million people, more in the red counties and states. I doubt they’ll run to get shots anytime soon. They’re entrenched in his cult and believe God is up their collective ass. Covid is under control thanks to Biden and all these vaccines,( I’ve gotten 4 shots myself), but it’s still out there along with new variants. When was it decided its a good idea to kill off your voting base, especially since many are in my age group? Stoopid!! Hell we already know if you are a senior citizen you’re more likely to be gone everytime an election rolls around.
Wait until whatever the current epidemic sweeping across China throws up. There is the possibility of hundreds of variants and while many will be relatively benign, the chances of a much more infectious AND deadly strain emerging have never been higher.
Will trump be able to get a security clearance is he does manage to win? I would think not. How could that work out?
Strange as it may seem Presidents (and VP’s for that matter) don’t have to qualify for the highest level of security clearance the way every other person does. (and worse, as Trump uniquely demonstrated even when it comes to the “everyone else” a President can overrule the process and grant a clearance to someone who failed to qualify via the process established to determine who qualifies – or not – for a given level of clearance) The assumption is that the voters, including the Electoral College (which wasn’t created only to ensure slave states could maintain slavery) would step in and prevent someone EXACTLY like Trump from becoming President!) wouldn’t pick someone who couldn’t be trusted with our most sensitive secrets.
Personally, I believe anyone who formally runs for the office, who files the paperwork should have to qualify for a Top Secret Clearance. There would be plenty of time to do the background investigation before the Party conventions including a chance for them to appeal a denial. (Yes, there’s a process for that) It would sure as hell cut down on the number of nutjobs that clutter up the political process.
It would require a Constitutional Amendment. In the Founders’ day there was no such thing as a security clearance, and they wanted to avoid people being disqualified for things like religious denomination, so they specified that the qualifiers they named were to be the only ones. But it would cetainly be worth doing – and worth extending to the Senate and the House a well.
This is exactly why the current right wing of the supreme court is SOOO wrong about originalism. The founders knew they could not anticipate every future development, but they paved the way by guarantee-ing those liberties which the British parliament deprived them of as colonists. They did quite a good job except for being just a bit too vague in the second amendment. And maybe by not clarifying how they defined “the people.”
We already know what Trump will do if he is not the 2024 Republican nominee. He’s stated it out loud on several occasions. If McConnell and the GOP block Trump and his chosen picks, Trump will take his 30% nut job portion of the GOP and leave the party. And he will tell his followers not to vote for any Republican, including the down ballots. And they will obey. He will run as an independent specifically to tank the GOP as revenge. This would be great news for Democrats. We would not just win the White House easily, but both chambers of Congress, and with possibly large majorities.
They are afraid of him for a variety of reasons, that being one. All the personal attacks on Nancy resulted in an assault. Nothing to stop him going after them. If he sticks with it some lone wolf nut job certainly would seek fame or just to go out in a blaze of evil glory. Desperate people do desperate things. We already know it’s the party of craven cowards. Run Hawley run.