We are putting far too much energy into explaining the collapse of the Republican Party. It’s not complicated. Let’s begin where the end of the GOP starts: Republicans want Clinton to win. Donald Trump is the excuse, not the reason.
Smell that? It’s the stench of another Republican loss.
We have never had to put up with so much sanctimonious chest-beating directed against a candidate from his own party. The battle between Trump and prominent Republicans was an amusing diversion when it began. Now it’s not so funny because Trump isn’t the only one being stabbed in the back. Feel a pain between your shoulders? I thought so.
Not putting a lot of effort and money into winning makes sense when you don’t stand a chance. That’s the time to run a ticket like McCain-Palin. This year things are different. The election should be a slam dunk despite a Republican talent for giving away easy wins, like 2012’s Romney-Ryan challenge to more Obama.
Republicans are overly fond of their winning strategy for losing: run a lackluster ticket, lose the election, hamstring the winner in Congress, and hope to find a way to have him removed from office.
This time “him” is a her. Little else has changed, except for the unprecedented opportunity to embarrass Hillary if she becomes the president.
The problem in 2016 is that the party has a loudmouth on its hands who is difficult to manipulate but has a chance of beating Clinton. GOP knees are shaking as members in Congress brainstorm ways to make sure nothing on the Hill changes, especially their sneaky way of doing business with Democrats.
Republicans have gone so far as to buy into media and Democrat-created controversies like Trump’s Gold Star parents gaffe. Why so much dissent and derision when Trump brings hope to a party of losers?
There are five reasons.
5 Reasons Republicans want Clinton to win
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Republicans don’t like Hillary because she is a Clinton and has the audacity to run after what her husband’s libido put us through. Benghazi and the email server are window dressing, but they are also two scandals that the GOP is itching to go after her for. They can’t do it unless she comes back to Washington.
What are the bright bulbs in the Republican Party thinking? This is my guess:
1. Impeachment hearings are the best kind of partisanship.
Even if impeachment efforts fail, as they surely will, they present wonderful opportunities to get in front of the press.
2. As long as the party keeps the House and Senate they have little to fear from Clinton.
This is a lethal miscalculation. Hillary may not be honest, but she isn’t stupid. The Republican failure to cope with Obama’s executive orders will pay off big time during her presidency. They couldn’t stop Barack. They won’t be able to stop Clinton, either.
3. If Trump wins, Republicans have to do something.
They’ve been boasting agendas, new directions, prosperity, and ways to save America. Can the GOP live up to its words? Not in a million years. Getting things done is Democratic territory. Republicans prefer talk, criticism, censure, and especially House votes and hearings that never end and go absolutely nowhere.
4. Ryan is power mad.
Our speaker wants to rule America from the House and not take any chances Trump will steal his thunder. Ryan is already in hot water with the Freedom Caucus over the Huelskamp debacle. This election will cost him so much credibility that by the time he gets what he wants and the presidency is lost his party will demand he be replaced.
5. Trump doesn’t know how to play the game
Trump either believes what he says or puts on a pretty good show. He won’t be good at nuzzling up to Democrats. He doesn’t know the rules of the game. He is not a career politician. He’s everything Republicans hate because let’s face it, the biggest difference between rank and file Republicans and Democrats is who pays for their campaigns.
Not knowing the rules means disturbing how things work in Washington. Too-long careers in politics make for fat, happy politicians who want to keep things going nowhere and prefer sham hot button controversy to the real business of moving the country forward.
That makes an outsider dangerous. Republicans fear outsiders just as much as Democrats. An outsider who is also a loose cannon with a big mouth? Forget it.
Are Republicans cowards, irresponsible, or just plain lazy?
Divisions. Warring factions. No cohesive agenda. A ticket few Republicans are comfortable with. Defeat. Finger pointing and blame. We’ve been here before. We’re on our way again.
Republicans with enough clout to cause Trump problems refuse to admit that he is backing everything they have been asking for. Now we know what their real problem is. It isn’t about Trump. They are afraid to live up to their words.
With Donald Trump in the White House and a GOP Congress the party is on the hook to make America better. That’s what we’ve been waiting for. They want Hillary to win because they know if the mantle of responsibility falls on the GOP the party will fail.
I am a Republican and I am ashamed.
UPDATE August 9, 2016: Yesterday we heard that a long list of former GOP “national security officials” added their voices to Republican Party efforts to put Hillary in office by refusing to support Trump. If I had a role in creating the foreign policy that preceded Benghazi, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran’s nuclear program, North Korean nuclear proliferation, the rise of radical Islam and ISIS, and our refusal to retaliate for a terrorist attack on our soil that killed nearly 3,000 people, I would be hiding in shame instead of trying to finish what I started by putting Clinton in office. That’s just me, though. I’m not a former national security genius.
Silver platter is right. All the GOP had to do was defeat a liar with no credibility. Even four more years of Obama would be tolerable compared to suffering Hillary Clinton in the White House, but that’s where we are headed.
This all sounds possible. I have never seen a party so dead set on destroying themselves as the Republican Party. This years election was handed to them on a silver platter and they are dead set on throwing it away. Why can’t they unite behind the people’s choice? I believe that too many of our politicians have been in Washington way to long. The Republican Party needs a good house cleaning. If Hillary gets in and the House and Senate get a Democratic majority, all I can say is: “Heaven help the United States of America”.