Donald Trump is rapidly taking the GOP down with him
How unpopular are Republicans right now? Something like one third of likely voters have a favorable opinion of the GOP, with nearly 60% of voters not so content with its leadership or lack thereof. Despite their poor approval ratings, the party continues to embrace ideas that are even less popular, and often downright dangerous. Since they can’t win elections by being honest about their own platform, they stoop to tactics like voter suppression to move the needle, since even taking up wedge issues like abortion and gun control seem to no longer work in their favor.
Not content enough with lying and misrepresenting the Democratic Party’s entire platform, the trend for Republicans lately has been to come up with a false narrative. The party has become too radical, they claim, enough that traditional, long-time Democrats are leaving and voting Republican instead. They tried this throughout the 2018 midterms, with the hashtag #walkaway on Twitter and newspaper op-eds from former Democrats endorsing Republicans, even culminating in a #walkaway parade on Washington for people to express their disgust with the party – the same party they like to blame for incivility in politics. They embarrassed themselves when only around 50 people showed up to the event.
Not to be outdone, the pro-GOP American Action Network ran a series of television ads decrying Rep. Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico. Another ad denounces Anthony Brindisi (D-NY), and others lash out against Reps. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Abby Finkenauer (D-IA), Jared Golden (D-ME), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Susie Lee (D-NV), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Ben McAdams (D-UT), Max Rose (D-NY), and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). The problem? Each ad features the same woman, ‘Stacy,’ claiming to be a constituent of theirs.
In each ad, Stacy condemns them for voting in favor of impeachment and urges them to get to work on the real issues. Naturally, the work will begin on these real issues when Republicans are voted out of power – when Mitch McConnell is no longer allowed to act as the “Grim Reaper” of the Senate. The fact is that more Republicans are fleeing their own party than the other way around – and fewer independents are willing to vote for them as long as Donald Trump is the head of their party.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making