The national struggle to defeat Donald Trump in November is going forward amid an exodus from the Republican Party and a paradoxical crisis in the two-party system. The paradox is that, even as the parties and their candidates raise more and more money and draw the battle lines between one another more sharply, they excite more animus and aversion in the population at large. It’s hard to be mindful of the huge swath of the American population that is withdrawn and disenchanted, unaffiliated and uncertain, especially given the hype that keeps Democrats and Republicans ever before our eyes.
This hype inadvertently sustains Trump’s power, a president whose popularity ratings are shockingly low relative to every other modern president. Trump’s “base”– the amoral and low-information voters who continue to approve of him–lacks the geographic spread to prevail. Meanwhile, legions of prominent and rank-and-file Republicans have either left the party, gone silent, or endorsed Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
The pool of voters available to put Biden in the White House is unusually large. Let’s remember this as we work to get out the vote against Trump. Innumerable voters besides those who are Democrat want Trump to go.
The millions of people currently without a party are something like “a silent majority.” They do not need to be convinced to join a party: they only need to be persuaded to vote once for Biden and, by ending Trump’s disastrous presidency, save what’s left of our Constitutional system. For that matter, the Senate Republicans (with the exception of the noble Mitt Romney) have so failed in their duties to the Constitution and the nation that the voters must try to depose them, too.
Image: Albert Levering’s “Republican Voters Revolt” (1910),
from this source.
Great that you have been writing a post everyday now ! I so enjoy reading them. Go BIDEN !
I received the following comment from farmrdave via email.
“Susan, I find your comments in this article completely insulting. ‘Rank and file Republicans,’ ‘the amoral and low-information voters.’ I feel that such terms could be applied to the over-educated (well trained) body of Democrat supporters.
“I think all persons at a young age approve of socialist types of government. On paper, they offer so much to a society. These young persons, when they later view the tax deductions from their pay checks, watch the government squander what ever money is available and clamor for more, begin to think differently about what sort of country they want to live in.
“At 66 I have watched enough events conclude that I have a better idea of what causes poor outcome to some of them. I cannot see a favorable outcome from electing a Democrat candidate at this time. We need to allow the older generation of entrenched power-hungry, pro-world-order party members retire or otherwise fade away. Then maybe it will be time to do that to the Republican party. But not now. I feel that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote against Americans and American prosperity.”
To which I say:
1) “Rank-and-file” means the ordinary members of a party, as opposed to its leaders. Check out sites like RVAT (Republican Voters Against Trump) to hear them relate on video why they are disgusted and have abandoned Trump to support Biden. This group includes many life-long Republicans and military veterans.
2) The amorality of Americans who continue to “admire” and “approve of” Trump is something they need to take responsibility for. They’ve lost sight of basic Christian and American values. They temporize about virtue. They don’t care if Trump has a nasty, cowardly, rule-breaking side. These people don’t care that the president has suppressed factual information about COVID, dooming American citizens to death or grave illness for the sake of his own political career. They don’t care that he’s callous or that he withheld aid from states whose governors he didn’t like. They don’t care that he has encouraged insurrection in several states. They don’t care that he ignores American calamities or refers to people who served in wars as “suckers” and “losers.” I wouldn’t want to be in his company for even a minute; I’d show him the door. Trump is immoral, and citizens are the same when they vote for him. Come on.
3) I have never found socialism appealing, not even when I was in my teens and 20s. Joe Biden is a moderate and a person whom many Republican politicians actually like! That’s why Republicans like John Kasich, Cindy McCain, former governor Rick Snyder of MI, and former gov. Christine Todd Whitman of NJ are all going to vote for him. Even Lindsey Graham has defended Biden’s character.
I sure wish Trump’s low-information voters would stop watching Fox News, get out more, and wake up and realize how Rupert Murdoch and other super-rich people from around the world (including Vladimir Putin) are gaming you.
Farmer Dave-how are you going to respond to the author/s response to your diatribe? YOUR fabrications and falsehoods about orange head just got ripped apart. BY the by, I ask again, how much is the RNC paying you to keep parroting orange head?——Or, even more sinister, are you working for an overseas entity ?
Harley,
I have limited farmrdave to just one comment per post, a policy that prohibits him from replying to you.
I am too short on time to moderate wars in the comments section. I urge everyone to stay on the topic of the post and refrain from ad hominem attacks.
Sounds fine to me–and good idea about staying on topic; I think my above comment was not well thought out and I’m glad you won’t push it on.