When it comes to the 2018 midterms, I’ve been saying it for at least the last 6 weeks now, “Play like you’re ten points down with 2:00 left to go in the game.”The numbers don’t matter, the intensity don’t matter, none of it means jack if you don’t get “souls to the polls.” Rest in the next life, work like hell in this one.
But you know who doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo? Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. Keep rubbing our noses in it boys. There’s a reason why, in sporting events, they wait until the losing team gets a chance to leave the field before they bring the trophy out.
Trump told Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes yesterday that if he hadn’t openly mocked Dr Blasey Ford, they wouldn’t have won. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. His Lowness got cheap laughs from a bunch of y-chromosome mutants who are as callous and heartless as he is, but in return even further enraged sexual assault survivors, women in general, and the men who care about them, even more. And now he’s crowing about how the Kavanaugh debacle has energized the GOP base, and just in time to ride to the rescue, guns blazing, in November.
And Yertl the Turtle is no better. It was only a matter of a few short weeks ago that he was bemoaning the fact that there were multiple Senate races that should be in the bag that were instead “a knife fight in an alley.” Amazing what subverting every rule of Senate protocol and human decency can do for a guy, huh? McConnell actually smiled, instantly evoking mental images of Wednesday Addams, grimacing in Addams Family Values, in a desperate attempt to look cheerful. And he just couldn’t resist twisting the knife, saying from behind the podium, “I’d like to thank the Democrats for doing the one thing the Republicans couldn’t do for themselves, firing up our base.” That admission alone speaks volumes for the power of “conservative” ideology.
Look, even in a normal cycle, with a normal President, 25 days is a lifetime. With a shit hurling Howler Monkey like Trump, those days are in dog years. There is still plenty of time for Trump to switch off those fickle FOP voters as quickly as Kavanaugh turned them on. And the arrogance of Trump and McConnell is not only short sighted, it’s counter productive as well.
The GOP base, as opposed to Trump’s base, was apathetic for a damn good reason. And that’s because pretty much anybody who doesn’t wander aimlessly around in a MAGA hat thinks Trump is an asshole. Playing the male victimhood card, and ranting about Kavanaugh’s unfair treatment worked while the issue was in doubt, but every sports fan can tell you that once you hoist the trophy, it’s all downhill from there. Reminding everybody now about how cruelly Kavanaugh was treated during the process only brings a reply of, “Dude, he won! Shut up about it already!” How dirty the other side played just doesn’t matter so much anymore after you win, but it sure helps keep the losers stoked, doesn’t it?
But the real reason it won’t work is that Trump is stoking up the wrong crowds. Look where he’s going. He’s going to already “safe” GOP districts, where he’s as popular as hell. This may rile the base to help Senate numbers, but it won’t help in suburban districts where GOP House incumbents are most at risk. And Trump can’t go there, because the incumbents will have all suddenly have joined the French foreign legion before Air Force One touches down.
Look at it from the perspective of the average GOP voter. Hell, look at it from the perspective of way too many Hillary voters two years ago. Both Trump and McConnell are trumpeting to the skies that the Kavanaugh debacle has awoken the slumbering giant of the GOP base, the day is saved! Remind anybody of all of those rosy polls in November of 2016? To the average, non jazzed GOP voter that says, “That’s great, then they don’t really need you to go hoofing out to the polls on November 6th, do they?” You really can’t afford the gas anyway, and besides, some of Trump’s Twitter nonsense is really getting on your last nerve.
In life, as in sports, timing is everything, and if you want to win, you gotta peak at the right time. Just ask the ‘69 Cubs about that one. The Kavanaugh confirmation gave the Democrats a wave of outrage to ride for the last 30 days. The GOP is desperately trying to ride that pond ripple themselves, but by arrogantly predicting the fact that it has already put them over the finish line, they’re blowing a jet engine in the face of their wave. Don’t change a thing guys, you’re killing it out there.
