It’s time for todays episode of “As the Stomach Turns”, America’s shortest running political soap opera. Periodic reporting has told that even with Trump’s massive unpopularity, HOP fundraising has outpaced Democratic fundraising so far this year. It will be interesting to see if this continues going forward, but the GOP had better pray to God that it does.
This is shaping up to be an extremely expensive midterm election cycle for the GOP, for several reasons. But there are already rumblings that the GOP may not have the smoothest of glide slopes for trying to bring this flying circus in for a smooth landing.’
First of all is the Bannon factor. Bannon is threatening to primary every GOP incumbent Senator other than Calgary Teddy ruz in 2018, and he’s talking about expanding into select House races as well. Why should anybody listen to a neo Nazi nutjob like Bannon? Well, maybe because he has a thriving, far right wing propaganda machine already at his disposal to get the word out? And how about cCuz Bob-boy Mercer says so. By the looks of it, Bannon is going to have cold, hard cash to support his army of Trump acolytes. And if Mercer is bankrolling Bannon, that means that he won’t be bankrolling the RNC or individual GOP incumbents.
Second, it’s starting to look like Mercer may not be the only rotten apple in the GOP donor barrel. Reporting is getting more frequent of a possible brewing revolt in the GOP big donor base. They are not at all happy with the dearth of business friendly legislation coming out of the current administration. There’s only so much Trump can do by using Executive Orders to undo onerous Obama regulations, and it takes time for those to go into effect. They need actual legislation to unshackle the beast, and it’s not even on the fim horizon. Screw the stock market, that’s puny spuds, they want their tax breaks, and they want them now! And if they don’t get them pronto, there’s grumbling that they may turn off the donation funski valve for 2018.
And third, there is Trump’s blatant, and now public greed. Trump already has a 2020 reelection campaign fund site up and running, and it’s raking in cash. But the suckers who are shelling out shekels for MAGA hats and “Proud to be a moron” t-shirts think they’re donating to get Trump reelected. It was just reported that in the last 3 months, the Trump campaign and the RNC shelled out over $1 million to fund the legal defense of Trump and Trump reduz, including almost $450,000 from the RNC alone. The campaign boodle is for a campaign that Trump may not even run, it’s his, but do you think that the GOP might not like to have that $450,000 to use for contested primaries next spring? And it’s only going to get worse. Not only are the legal bills for the Boobsy Twins going to go up as Mueller and the congressional committees increase pressure and demands, but if you think that Ivanka is going to stand idly by, watching her hubby open his checkbook every month while baby bro gets a free pass on his mouthpiece, you’re crazy. Look for Jared to get on the billionaire legal aid gravy train shortly.
The GOP is = already going to have a cash flow problem for a simple reason. Incumbents, especially in the House, are already starting to drop like flies. Parties lubs dem some incumbents, because they already have a campaign structure and donor base locked in. For each dropout, the GOP is going to have to cull through the herd of hopefuls to pick their favorite, and then they’re not only going to have to support them with campaign cash to replace the donor base, they’re going to have to pay for support like staffing and offices.
The GOP is looking at a potential perfect storm where cash flow is concerned. Retiring incumbents are going to force them to spend money and resources in places they didn’t expect to have to. Bannon is going to force them to dpend money to help incumbents defend seats that they shouldn’t have to get involved in. And wherever Bannonites are successful, they’ll have to make a decision as to whether or not to support distasteful candidates not loyal to them, or risk losing the seat altogether. Mainstream everyday Republicans who may have donated to the held their noses and donated to the RNC for congressional races may well decide not to if their money is going to go to defend the Trump Klan. And if they don’t get their tax cuts, the fat wallet GOP donors may cut off the RNC’s allowance, especially if Bannon has some success, choosing instead to donate only in states and districts where they have vested interests and known quantity candidates to choose from.
As if this wasn’t already going to be an interesting and entertaining cycle to watch just for all of the inecitable hair pulling and eye gouging of a fractured Republican party, it is also going to be interesting and informative to see exactly how the donor wars in the GOP shake out. After all, money makes the world go round.
‘