{"id":8813,"date":"2022-09-09T12:05:50","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T12:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8813"},"modified":"2022-09-09T12:05:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T12:05:50","slug":"the-ludicrous-idea-that-trump-is-losing-his-grip-on-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=8813","title":{"rendered":"The ludicrous idea that Trump is losing his grip on the GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“In Arizona, Senate nominee Blake Masters<\/a> and likely gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake<\/a> are Trump-endorsed 2020 election deniers. In Michigan, gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon is cut from a similar cloth<\/a>. Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump\u2019s impeachment in 2021, lost his bid for reelection to yet another Trump-endorsed Big Lie supporter<\/a> (two other House impeachment supporters, Washington Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, seemed on track to fend off Trump-backed challengers<\/a> in Washington state\u2019s open primary<\/a>). Rusty Bowers, the Arizona House speaker and star January 6 committee witness, lost a state Senate primary to \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 a Trump-backed election conspiracist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a splash of cold water on the narrative of a waning Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPundits trying to will into existence a GOP that has moved beyond him are way beyond the facts,\u201d the Atlantic\u2019s<\/a> Ron Brownstein wrote on Wednesday morning. \u201cThis remains a Trump-ified GOP, with most openly embracing him and almost none openly confronting him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brownstein is right. And he\u2019s right for a fundamental reason: Trump\u2019s vision of politics, a war between true Americans and a system that has betrayed them, describes how many Republican voters see the world<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The simplest barometer of whether Trump still dominates the party is the 2024 presidential polls. And by that metric, Trump\u2019s grip is pretty hard to question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RealClearPolitics poll average<\/a> has Trump leading the field by an average of 26.2 points. All but one national poll cataloged by FiveThirtyEight in July<\/a> had Trump beating DeSantis by a similarly large double-digit margin (the sole outlier, from Suffolk University, had Trump ahead by a \u201cmere\u201d 9 points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Granted, any challenger against an \u201cincumbent\u201d like Trump probably wouldn\u2019t pop up on many voters\u2019 radars this far ahead of an election. But much of the \u201cTrump is slipping\u201d coverage skips past all this vital context. For example, the New York Times recently ran a write-up of its poll with Siena College headlined \u201cHalf of G.O.P. Voters Ready to Leave Trump Behind, Poll Finds<\/a>.\u201d And indeed, the poll did find that 51 percent of Republicans would vote for someone other than Trump if the primary were held today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the headline is misleading. The Times poll found that Trump still commanded 49 percent support in the party; his next closest rival, DeSantis, garnered a mere 25 percent. In the article, reporter Michael Bender notes that the results show that \u201cMr. Trump maintains his primacy in the party,\u201d contradicting the piece\u2019s headline.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you read studies of the American conservative movement<\/a>, Trump\u2019s continued strength should be no surprise. The political strength of the movement never came from its policy ideas. Many of its positions, like tax cuts for the rich and stringent abortion restrictions, have ultimately proven to be extremely unpopular<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, its strength has been rooted in grievance: the bitterness of those who believe that modern America is changing too fast, beyond recognition, turning \u201ctraditional\u201d citizens into aliens in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A charitable observer might call this sentiment nostalgia for a bygone America. A more critical one might call it the venting of reactionary white male rage against a more egalitarian country. But whatever your assessment, it is this politics of cultural grievance that animates the GOP base.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/23287527\/trump-gop-control-august-gop-primary-2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In Arizona, Senate nominee Blake Masters and likely gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake are Trump-endorsed 2020 election deniers. In Michigan, gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon is cut from a similar cloth. Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump\u2019s impeachment in 2021, lost his bid for reelection to yet another Trump-endorsed Big Lie supporter (two other House impeachment supporters, Washington Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, seemed on track to fend off Trump-backed challengers in Washington state\u2019s open primary). Rusty Bowers, the Arizona House speaker and star January 6 committee witness, lost a state Senate primary to \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 a Trump-backed election conspiracist.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a splash of cold water on the narrative of a waning Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cPundits trying to will into existence a GOP that has moved beyond him are way beyond the facts,\u201d the Atlantic\u2019s Ron Brownstein wrote on Wednesday morning. \u201cThis remains a Trump-ified GOP, with most openly embracing him and almost none openly confronting him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brownstein is right. And he\u2019s right for a fundamental reason: Trump\u2019s vision of politics, a war between true Americans and a system that has betrayed them, describes how many Republican voters see the world.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The simplest barometer of whether Trump still dominates the party is the 2024 presidential polls. And by that metric, Trump\u2019s grip is pretty hard to question.<\/p>\n

The RealClearPolitics poll average has Trump leading the field by an average of 26.2 points. All but one national poll cataloged by FiveThirtyEight in July had Trump beating DeSantis by a similarly large double-digit margin (the sole outlier, from Suffolk University, had Trump ahead by a \u201cmere\u201d 9 points).<\/p>\n

Granted, any challenger against an \u201cincumbent\u201d like Trump probably wouldn\u2019t pop up on many voters\u2019 radars this far ahead of an election. But much of the \u201cTrump is slipping\u201d coverage skips past all this vital context. For example, the New York Times recently ran a write-up of its poll with Siena College headlined \u201cHalf of G.O.P. Voters Ready to Leave Trump Behind, Poll Finds.\u201d And indeed, the poll did find that 51 percent of Republicans would vote for someone other than Trump if the primary were held today.<\/p>\n

Yet the headline is misleading. The Times poll found that Trump still commanded 49 percent support in the party; his next closest rival, DeSantis, garnered a mere 25 percent. In the article, reporter Michael Bender notes that the results show that \u201cMr. Trump maintains his primacy in the party,\u201d contradicting the piece\u2019s headline.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“If you read studies of the American conservative movement, Trump\u2019s continued strength should be no surprise. The political strength of the movement never came from its policy ideas. Many of its positions, like tax cuts for the rich and stringent abortion restrictions, have ultimately proven to be extremely unpopular.<\/p>\n

Instead, its strength has been rooted in grievance: the bitterness of those who believe that modern America is changing too fast, beyond recognition, turning \u201ctraditional\u201d citizens into aliens in their own country.<\/p>\n

A charitable observer might call this sentiment nostalgia for a bygone America. A more critical one might call it the venting of reactionary white male rage against a more egalitarian country. But whatever your assessment, it is this politics of cultural grievance that animates the GOP base.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1338,219,221,130,968,506],"class_list":["post-8813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-conservatism","tag-conservatives","tag-donald-trump","tag-republican","tag-republican-party","tag-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8814,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8813\/revisions\/8814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}