"Standing with Trump will be an electoral death knell in next November's federal elections"

[Miles Archer]

Political panic is brewing in the Republican Party after the Democratic sweeps on Tuesday
Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet



CNN’s Cillizza, who used to write the Washington Post’s Fix column handicapping candidates, noted Gillespie’s Trump-like messaging completely failed in the party’s wealthier northern Virginia suburbs, which are like many GOP strongholds across America. David Wasserman, the U.S. House editor for the Cook Political Report, noted that Trump’s messaging also failed in Richmond and the suburbs around Hampton Roads, which are conservative and home to nearby military bases. As a result, six of 10 Virginians told exit pollsters they strongly disapproved of the job Trump is doing—that is, his style, his substance and his accomplishments.

“There’s simply no way to explain the demolition of Gillespie in the suburbs and exurbs other than a strong distaste for Trump among those voters,” Cillizza said. “And, for all of the caveats and the don’t-read-too-much-into-one-race-ism by the ‘smart’ political reporters, the simple fact is that every single Republican politician in the halls of Congress will be paying very close attention to what happened in Virginia Tuesday night and wondering what it all means for them.” He continued:

“What it means—at least as of today—is this: Trump remains a potent and powerful force in Republican primaries. But, he is a potentially toxic taint with the broader general electorate. Which puts Republicans—especially those facing potentially serious primary challenges or who sit in swing districts in the general election—in a no-win position. Run away from Trump and risk losing your primary fight. Run with Trump and risk losing the general election. Badly.”

This no-win frame—that standing with Trump will be an electoral death knell in next November’s federal elections—was also seen in results outside Virginia. In New Jersey, where voters were tired of the antics of another GOP bully, outgoing Gov. Chris Christie, Democrats won a complete lock on legislative and executive branch power. In Maine, where another red belligerent is governor, voters said no to dismantling Obamacare and voted to expand Maine’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/political-panic-is-brewing-in-the-republican-party-after-the-democratic-sweeps-on-tuesday/

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Standing with Thump will get some Rethugs re-elected

In the whiter parts of red states. Otherwise, it’ll be dangerous.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Rock And A Hard Place

Don't stand with "it" and you get primaried into oblivion. Stand with "it" and take a very real chance of getting GE'd into oblivion. Tough cookies, R's!

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Smarter Republicans should break with Trump in all but deep red districts

They may lose a primary in 2018 for doing so, but they will lose in the General if they don't. However if they break with Trump now they may live to run again in 2020 after whoever beats them in the primary goes down in flames in the midterms blue wave.

[Perseus]

5. Smarter Democrats need to frame it more braodly than just Trump

They are all complicit, Trump must be shown as what he is, an ignorant man being used as a decoy. He is so ignorant that he doesn't even understand that the whole World is not laughing with him, but laughing at him, and unfortunately because the bad things do seem to trickle down, they are laughing at the USA as well.

The World is laughing at the USA because they cannot believe that its citizens can be so stupid as to elect an ignorant, con man like Trump and to top it off, republican majority in both the congress and senate. In Forrest Gump's words, "Stupid is as stupid does.", well, the USA has done stupid and elected a stupid to its main office.

Democrats need to do what republicans do, continually speak about the barbarities that ALL republicans do on a daily basis, it is not only Trump, he was put there because they needed an idiot who could use a pen, it is the entire republican party that must be unmasked, and if they fall short on that they will have given the republicans a pass they don't deserve.

People are sick and tired of republicans trying to destroy anything that is good for the country, Trump is just the monkey-with-the-pen. If anyone asked Trump to speak about anything he has signed he would not be able to explain it, he is not the one giving the ideas, he has none he is, and I repeat myself, just an idiot with a pen.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. I've been saying for months: tRump will become toxic even to RepubliCon politicians. Then he's done.

[Perseus]

8. Republican politicians are also toxic

Politically, Trump has no idea what he is doing he is just looking for his self interests, he is not there to govern, just to do the dirty work by the power of the pen when the toxic republican politicians give him a bill to sign.

It is very dangerous to frame the problems the USA is facing on Trump alone, HE IS NOT the mastermind behind the corruption that we are all witnessing, it is the rest of the GOP, he is just a tool who will be thrown in jail once he is no longer useful.

Yesterday Rachel Maddow, during her first segment, showed an article written by Ambassador Stephenson, and her concerns with this administration weakening the State Dept., it reminded me of what happened in Venezuela where Chavez did exactly the same and opened the doors for Cuba to infiltrate all facets of government, including the military, eventually taking hold of the entire country, which is what is happening there right now.

If any USA citizen believes that something like that cannot happen here, leaving their guards down then, and I hope I am very wrong, many of us may wake up to a horrible nightmare. The question Ambassador Stephenson asks MUST be answered, and the answer is that Trump, Pence, Ryan, McConnell, etc are not patriotic and their plan may be to give what doesn't belong to them in exchange for money, and this to the Russians and most probably China too.

People need to understand that the criminal mind works in very different ways as the normal mind. A killer will go home to his/her kids and partner after committing a murder, there is no remorse, or feelings of wrongdoing, their mind is wired different. An example is Flynn and his son who were trying to send a man to Turkey for what they must have known was torture and the end of his life, and they were doing it for a pay of $500,000.00, they were selling a human being with no remorse of what they knew would happen to him. If you don't think, after that example, that the criminal mind works different I may need to find more examples, but that is what goes on in the mind of Trump, Kelly, Ryan, Moore, etc., etc. to them it is a "means to an end" without any though of the consequences.

There was a radio program that asked before the elections for people to call and say with one short sentence why Trump should not become president, I wanted to call but I was driving, but my line was the same as it has always been, the reason for Trump to not have been elected is that "he has no concept of consequence", he has never had to deal with consequences, and that is why he cheats, lies, grabs, etc. every day. But this trait is no exclusive to Trump, is is more common than people may think in republicans, and I mean republicans of all walks of life.

[L. Coyote]

6. Trump will be ancient history by next November.

What happens between now and then will determine that election.

[Buns_of_Fire]

7. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Excellent.

Some are gently trying to remove the albatross without their frothing-at-the-mouth "base" noticing. Tricky move, especially when the Democrats should be trying to super-glue the two together.

Trump = republican. republican = Trump.