It’s only August, but Republicans are already considering what should be unthinkable: abandoning Donald Trump to try to save their party. The New York Times reports on this predictable yet still stunning development:
In the world of Republican “super PACs,” strategists are going even farther: discussing advertisements that would treat Mr. Trump’s defeat as a given and urge voters to send Republicans to Congress as a check on a Hillary Clinton White House. The discussions were described by officials familiar with the deliberations, several of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity about confidential planning.
For now, most vulnerable Republican office-holders are simply trying to desperately distance themselves from The Donald in the hopes that voters don’t associate them with the Cheeto-flavored dumpster fire at the top of their ticket—an ongoing effort we’ve previously outlined here, here, here, here, and here, for starters.
But this approach never works, at least not in this day and age. Red-state Democrats tried the same thing in 2014, putting as much space as possible between themselves and a then-unpopular President Obama, but historic losses still followed. Republicans might tell themselves this approach will save them, but hard-nosed operatives know it won’t, because few voters today split their tickets. That’s why the GOP is considering abandoning Trump entirely—their nuclear option.
But all weapons of mass destruction are tremendously dangerous, and one Republican politico lays out exactly why kicking Trump to the curb might be as risky as bear-hugging him:
“Do we run the risk of depressing our base by repudiating the guy, or do we run the risk of being tarred and feathered by independents for not repudiating him?” asked Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster working on many of this year’s races. “We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”
Exactly. And the fears are so acute that Republicans aren’t merely worrying about the Senate, where they hold just a four-seat majority, but even the House, where Democrats would need to win 30 seats to retake control. At a confab held by the Koch brothers a week ago, none other than Paul Ryan reportedly pleaded with top donors not to ignore the lower chamber, begging them, as the Times put it, “not to assume that the House was impregnable and not to entirely focus their efforts on retaining the Senate.”
It’s ugly out there for the GOP, and not just because of Trump’s hideous spray tan. They know he could cost them everything, and we know it, too. That’s why Daily Kos is backing a slate of House candidates who, if the Trumpocalypse does indeed descend on the Republican Party, can be the majority-makers who return the speaker’s gavel to Nancy Pelosi.
So please, let’s make the most of Trump’s implosion: Give $3 today to each of our six endorsed candidates who can help us take back the House.