The Republican Strategy For Mid-Term Elections Is Not About Policy

The Republican Party passed a tax bill that primarily benefited wealthy voters.  They intended to run their election campaign on the tax bill by arguing that it was designed to help the middle class.  That strategy has worked for many years.  The GOP has learned that it is not working this year.  They have moved to a new strategy.  The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF),  has raised $100 million to spend on the mid-term elections.  This article describes the thrust of their ad campaign.  They have switched to misleading and false personal attacks on Democratic candidates. 

Paul Ryan has used his position as the House majority leader to raise funds for the CLF.  He is retiring from a Republican Congress this November that he had led on the traditional GOP policies of cutting taxes for the rich which increased the federal budget deficit.  He then proposed cuts in social welfare programs to pay for the tax cuts.  His last goodbye from his leadership position is to bless the CLF strategy that worked for Donald Trump.  The basic idea is to get voters at GOP rallies to shout "lock them up" at Republican rallies.

Is There Enough Resistance To Trump?

By now we all know what has been printed in numerous articles about Trump before he was elected and after he took over the White House.  Bob Woodward's pulled most of them into a single book that describes how many White House officials have attempted to prevent Trump from doing more damage than he would have done without their resistance.  Donald Trump is not much different than the Trump who ran the Trump Organization.  This article argues that the resistance to Trump may have prevented Trump from doing more damage than he might otherwise have done but that was not enough.  Trump continues to attack our institutions and divide our nation every day that he is control of the White House.  He is not fit to be in the position that he holds and Republican leaders have done little to contain him.  They put party loyalty over our national interest.

They Came To Honor McCain And Bury The Republican Party

Donald Trump has taken command of the Republican Party by capturing a substantial portion of the Republican base.  They can't win primary elections if Trump turns his base against candidates that do not bow down before him.  They also depend upon votes from Trump's base in general elections.  They can't win general elections either without a big turnout from dedicated Trumpians.  Trump's dominance of the Republican Party was put on full display by the senator from South Carolina who once had a backbone with support from John McCain.  The new Lindsey Graham appeared on Fox News to demonstrate his loyalty to his new boss.  He only needed to study Trump's tweets to answer the questions that he was asked.  Three Republican leaders were invited to speak at the ceremony for John McCain.  Trump, of course, was not invited to attend, or to speak at the ceremony, however, the three Republican leaders who spoke at the ceremony have aligned themselves, and the Republican Party, with the demagogue who controls a substantial portion of the Republican base as well as many of the major donors to Republican campaigns.  The Republican Party exists only in name.  It is not your father's Republican Party; it is Donald Trump's party.