Well, no
Republicans aren’t fleeing Trump or Trumpism. That’s the tragedy of Biden’s limited win.
The silence is deafening.
Days after vote counts and media projections declaring Joe Biden the president-elect, only a few Republicans have stepped forward with congratulations and offers to work with the soon-to-be 46th president.
Former president George W. Bush said he thanked Biden “for his patriotic message.” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, no fan of President Donald Trump, wrote a gracious column in the Wall Street Journal. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, praised Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as “people of good will and admirable character.†Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she’ll be “ready to work with their administration when it takes office.”
But the top Senate Republican, majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, declined to acknowledge Biden’s win in a floor speech Monday and defended Trump’s legal fights. Trump is “100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” he said. Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., pledged to investigate voting irregularities and misconduct. (snip)
Trump’s on the way out. He’s got 10 weeks left. Why are Republicans sticking by this one-term washout and refusing to acknowledge that we’re about to have a new president?
There are over 71 million reasons why. That’s the number of Americans who voted for Trump, and that total will rise as votes continue to be counted. We’re in a second wave of the pandemic — the worst public health crisis in a century. Nearly a quarter-million people have died, over 11 million are unemployed, families are shattered. And yet the president who presided over this grotesque calamity, downplayed it, said it would go away quickly, still got more than 71 million votes.
If we were ready to abandon him, even with faults (hey, who doesn’t have faults? Which president didn’t?), why did 71 million vote for him? Why are most refusing to concede? We know that it is a long shot to retain the White House with the cheating, because the media is excusing the cheating. But, we aren’t giving up and moving on. Yes, we’d like Trump to tone it down a bit, stop the friendly fire, and tell us more of the good conservative things he’s done. Also, try and cut the spending. Really, who thought this NY liberal would be, in action, one of the most Conservative presidents ever? He’ll never be Ronald Reagan, but The Gipper would be proud of Trump’s actual record.
Of course, this article is written by Paul Brandus, the founder and White House bureau chief of West Wing Reports and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, so, as usual a so-called reporter who does opinion
Trump’s a loser, thank God. But even in defeat, his hold on voters is impressive. This means that while Trump himself will soon be gone, Trumpism — and all the destructiveness the term conveys — will endure. Republicans have 71 million reasons not to break free of his toxic spell. That’s a tragedy. And a warning for the future.
You know what Trumpism is? Fighting back and enacting Conservative policy. Again, Trump turns that amp up to 11 too often, but, other Republicans could learn something, name, to stand firm and fight back.