The great GOP crack up: Mitch McConnell is still scrambling to lead Donald Trump's Republican Party

[marmar]

The great GOP crack up: Mitch McConnell is still scrambling to lead Donald Trump's Republican Party
Leaving Mitch in the ditch: Trump loyalty may prove too potent a force in the GOP for McConnell to handle

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
JANUARY 25, 2021 1:30PM


(Salon) It took a little longer for the inevitable post-election Republican implosion than might have been expected. Perhaps they were exhausted from all the excitement of witnessing a historic violent insurrection or maybe they are just aimless without former President Donald Trump's Twitter feed to guide them. It's possible they were a little bit gun-shy since people are being investigated for committing sedition all over the country after their assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Whatever the reason, the normally voluble Republicans went uncharacteristically quiet for a few days during Joe Biden's Inauguration week. That silence ended over the weekend after two state Republican parties decided it was time to deal with the traitors in their midst.

In Arizona, the party reelected Kelli Ward — a Trump fanatic who lost her bid for the GOP nomination to the Senate in 2018— as the state chairman and her first order of business was to offer a censure motion against a raft of prominent Republicans, including former Senator Jeff Flake, Cindy McCain, the wife of former Senator John McCain and sitting Governor Steve Ducey, all for the crime of failing to be properly loyal to Donald Trump. The first two are vocal critics and didn't vote for Trump, but Gov. Ducey has been a loyal minion whose only crime was refusing to break the law and somehow give Donald Trump more votes in the election.

Meanwhile, the Republican State Central Committee of Kentucky met on Saturday to vote on a resolution demanding that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell support former President Donald Trump and condemn his second impeachment. The resolution failed on procedural grounds but the people who brought it up say they plan to bring another motion demanding McConnell's resignation. There is no chance that will pass either. Mitch McConnell is the most powerful Republican in the federal government and the Kentucky political establishment knows that. But both of these events reveal that Trump loyalty remains a potent force in the party.

....(snip)....

Polling shows that a large majority of Republicans are still in thrall to Trump to be sure, but somewhere between one-fifth and one-fourth of the party has fallen away. A Pew poll taken after the insurrection found that more than 30% of Republicans disapprove of Trump. That may not seem like much but it is enough to make it impossible for Republicans to win nationally if those people fall away from the GOP permanently. As the Atlantic's Ron Brownstein put it, "if Biden could lastingly attract even a significant fraction of the Republican voters dismayed over the riot, it would constitute a seismic change in the political balance of power." ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/25/the-great-gop-crack-up-mitch-mcconnell-scrambles-to-lead-donald-trumps-republican-party/

[lagomorph777]

1. if Biden could ... attract even a significant fraction of the Republican...s dismayed over the riot

Tall order, but very interesting possibility.

[MissMillie]

2. It seems to me...

(not that I WANT this to happen)

that the GOP, if they were serious about regaining power, would stop aligning itself behind a person who not only fractured their party, but fractured the nation.

I guess we're just lucky that they haven't been smart enough to figure that out yet.

[usajumpedtheshark]

3. The Republicans don't see any need to change and outrage over Capitol invasion already

fading. I don't think conviction by the Senate, if it happens, will lead them away from Trumpism. I think it will take courtroom convictions.