If it seems like a bad time to be a liberal democrat right now imagine being a conservative republican running against Donald Trump. Try attending the Trump rally in Des Moines and canvassing for votes among people wearing MAGA hats and Trump shirts. Imagine trying to explain the complete breakdown between promises and results. People don’t just ignore a guy like that, they despise him.
But, thanks to Joe Walsh you don’t have to imagine what that would be like, you can read about it. But, you have to look around because it isn’t being widely reported on.
Walsh is a Tea Party member, a former republican member of congress, and a scalding, mean conservative radio personality. Now he can’t get arrested in DC. The Republican Party has made it clear, it brooks no dissenters. It is officially the party of Trump. States have cancelled their primaries to show fealty to the President. When he went to the Republican National Headquarters to file a complaint the guards wouldn’t let him past the lobby.
Here is a conservative who preaches fiscal conservatism and his credentials are well established. But Fox News won’t talk to him. He preaches free trade and is ignored. When he was a member of congress he supported a balanced budget and has campaigned on eliminating the ballooning deficit the current administration is piling up. But, nobody will listen to him. They have become the party of Trump. Fox News has become the advertising arm of the Trump empire.
Mitt Romney, who was the party’s candidate in 2012 is being blackballed by conservative Super PAC CPAC, because of his vote to allow witnesses in the impeachment trial. A vote that was largely symbolic and Romney was smart enough to know that. Perhaps he voted his conscience and Trump and his minions can’t have that. Romney has now become persona non grata and he should be proud.
Personally, I would never vote for Walsh or Romney. Unless the other choice was Trump, but it shows how things have changed. Trump has turned the party of Lincoln into the “party of the first part” in some coming trial of American values. And I hope it comes in 2020.
Can we allow one man so much power? Can democracy survive in the face of such rampant megalomania? If the Senate won’t take a stand, the voters will have to.
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