This is the message the Democratic Party needs to be hammering home everywhere it can. Donald Trump was endorsed by the Republican Party. He was endorsed by all of the leaders of the Republican Party and virtually every single elected republican.*
They all voted for him.
They all told *you* to vote for him.
This does not mean that we should stop fighting his agenda or take our eye off the ball, but if the party is going to be victorious in 2018/2020 and beyond, it needs to start tying the anvil that is Donald Trump around every single person seeking election as a republican.
Donald Trump is an incompetent blow-hard and will be a larger, and more disastrous, failure than the Iraq war. His approval numbers already indicate this. Every thing he tries to do is a failure. While we all know his approval should be in single digits, the reality is that an approval in the 30’s should mean a sweeping electoral success for Democrats — but only if the Republican Party isn’t allowed to distance itself from him.
Politically Trump represents an even greater opportunity than the Iraq war and unpopularity of W. did. The unpopularity of the Iraq war hurt the Bush administration and bolstered the democratic party at the polls. Allowing the party to take the significant majorities it needed in to actually pass legislation from 2008-2010. However, the Iraq was not a purely partisan issue. Very important Democrats had famously authorized the use of force, and made the waters murky.
In 2008 a criticism of Barrack Obama was that he was not experienced enough on foreign affairs. His devastating counter point to both Clinton and McCain was that he was experienced enough to oppose the Iraq war from the beginning. If they were willing to support something so disastrous, what did all that experience really get them or the American people?
Trump represents a similar opportunity in message, and should for years to come. Every democratic party nominee at every level can come with one strong voice when running against every republican:
Is the judgment you bring to being a Senator/congressperson/legislator/governor the same judgment you used when you voted for Donald Trump - when you told all the people of (geographic area) to trust you and vote for Donald Trump?
We want to bury Donald Trump politically, because he is downright dangerous. But he is enabled by an entire political structure, and a political party.
We must not let them distinguish him with the inevitable line of “no one could have known he would be this bad.” and “the problem with Trump is that he wasn’t a real Republican.”
Every appearance on every show and every press release and comment and letter to the editor should remind every voter of this reality.
*Except Mike Lee