Bring on the lunatic nominees
Back in the old days, when a lot of Republican politicians were merely corrupt puppets of the wealthy with outdated views and no vision for America, it made sense to root for the least bad Republican candidate to win the nomination. That way, if the Democratic candidate did lose, at least the nation would merely be stuck with someone who sucks, not someone psychotic.
But I’m not so sure that logic applies anymore. This past week Mitt Romney voted against women’s most basic rights, and then blamed the Democrats for the COVID death toll – and he’s probably the best Republican in the Senate. Over in the House, there are a grand total of two Republicans who have been willing to stand up against Donald Trump’s treason. That’s right, two. And once you get past Romney, Cheney, and Kinzinger (who’s quitting), everyone else in the Republican Party is either psychotic, or firmly stands with the ones who are psychotic.
In other words, there basically are no decent Republicans in the House or Senate anymore. Literally 99% of them are anti-American extremist trash. So when it comes to any given race, or at least any competitive race, there’s really no reason to root for the Republicans to nominate the least awful candidate. Even the least awful Republican candidate is going to be a complete disaster if they win the general election – and the least awful Republican candidate is usually the one who would have the best odds of winning the general election.
Take the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, for instance. Three candidates are in the running for the Republican nomination. Oz and Barnette are complete lunatics. McCormick is supposed to be the “sane” one. But in reality, McCormick would likely vote with the Republicans 100% of the time, just as Oz and Barnette would. McCormick would also likely spread just as many lies while in office as Oz and Barnette would; McCormick’s lies would likely just be toned down a bit (and thus believed by more people).
So what would we gain if McCormick became a Senator, instead of Oz or Barnette? Arguably not much. And because McCormick would probably appeal more to voters in the middle than brazen lunatics like Oz and Barnette would, McCormick might have a better chance of winning the general election. So why shouldn’t we just root for a blatant monster like Oz or Barnette to win the nomination? It would just increase the odds of the Democratic candidate winning the race.
As the Republican Party becomes a new kind of monster, our thinking has to evolve when it comes to defeating that monster. The reality is that the Republicans are going to put forward a nominee in every midterm race, and they’re all going to be 100% corrupt and anti-American – some of them will just be a lot less flamboyant about it. The races that are going to be close are the ones that will decide the outcome of the midterms. In those races, we should seriously consider rooting for the Republicans to pick the most openly deranged nominee possible, so it’ll give us better odds of winning that race. We shouldn’t have to think in these terms, but this is the reality of the enemy we’re facing.
