THE GOP FINDS THEMSELVES-In a Possible No-Win Situation

This is due mostly in part to the Capitol rioting on January 6, as lawmakers are watching very closely to see if Trump will lose the grip on any of his base constituents. The questions of concern are:

·        How do they appease Trump supporters and also avoid alienating the moderate Republicans, at the same time, continue to build the base?

·        Indeed, the biggest concern is regarding what’s on the mind of GOP lawmakers, and what Trump’s next role will be in the GOP party?

 

During the 2016 presidential primaries Senate Republican Lindsey Graham made a ‘now-infamous prediction’, “if we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed-and we will deserve it”.  The senior senator from South Carolina seemly was somewhat of a modern-day prophet. At least, according to the unfolding and emergence of what has been a manifestation as observed by the whole world during Trump’s tenure as the succinct leader of the free world

 

“The Republican Party is in a precarious position. They are caught between a rock and a hard place”, so says, Jonathan Krasno, Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University, New York, NY. Trump has basically set and dictated the agenda for the GOP party during the totality and entirety of the time he held power. He did it even when that agenda was a traditional contradiction of Republicanism. Also, senator Graham utterance of words of disapproval made many GOP lawmakers to be initially critical of him, but eventually, Graham did an about-face and went on to become a staunch and almost cult-like enthusiastic supporter and defender of Trump’s insidious leadership acts, and antics perpetrated on the populist of America

 

A Party Divided

Some of the Republican politicians have begun to run from EX-POTUS. Ten of them in the House of Representatives voted with Democrats to Impeach Trump-making it the most bipartisan impeachment in US history. While most Senate Republicans, including the now minority leader Mitch McConnell voted recently to declare the impeachment trial unconstitutional now that Trump is not a sitting president, albeit five GOP members of the Senate did not support the situation.

 

Prior to the vote when McConnell was asked his thoughts on the Senate trial impeachment vote, he was not obliged to say publicly how he would vote, but he said to his fellow GOP’s that their choice should be a ‘vote of conscience’

 

In an Ipsos/Axious poll that was done in the aftermath of January 6, Capitol riot, 56% of Republicans polled held fast to being ‘traditional Republicans, while only 36% called themselves a Donald Trump supporter”. But on November 20, 2020 presidential elections, Trump performed was worse than the Republican Party generally, such as:

·        Split Tickets in the suburbs

·        Mail in early ballots from urban areas of the US-not in his favor

·        Military ballots from abroad-not in his favor

·        Stacy Abrahams yeoman and copious voter education and registration

·        All contributed to trump losing the popular and the electoral college vote, even as Republicans picked up 11 seats in the House of Representatives

 

Just several days ago Senator Mitch McConnell, who has indulged Trump’s Big Lie of election fraud claims and not initially acknowledging the Biden/Harris win. He came out explicitly and blamed Trump for inciting the mob and riot that swarmed the attack on the US Capitol. Therefore, it seemed that McConnell and other GOP’s are buying time during the wait for the impeachment to begin on Feb 9^th to perhaps avoid coming out definitely for or against Trump’s behavior of inciting the riot.

 

The Senate Leaning toward considering Censuring Trump

 

If Trump is Censured what does that entail? Well, really not much. If the censure persists it shall be simply a slap on the hand. It will be a formal, public condemnation of his actions regards the Capitol riots. The school of thought is that an enormity of the American Populist would arguably believe that just to censure him is not a proper proportional punishment based on his overt actions in inciting the Capitol riots. Many others, unfortunately, would refute that it is the only form of punishment likely to pass the Senate since there is a need for 17 Republicans to support the impeachment process

 

However, as the trial of impeachment is being debated and discussed other investigations are underway. The Federal Officials are conducting investigations of “significant felony cases tied to the sedition and conspiracy”-after the Capitol riots. And they are saying there remains a possibility that Trump may face legal consequences which could sway some GOP voters even further away from being in support of the EX-POTUS. It seems that all are waiting to see and hear the results of the final determination of the Federal Investigations.

 

One of the major bone of contention being considered, is that Trump resisted calls to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol during the breach, resulting in then Vice President Pence taking the lead and doing so himself

 

Steve Braxton, Freelance Blogger, http://blog.feedspot.com/money_making_blogs