The Skunk at the Grand Old Party (GOP)
Editors’ Note: Several fault lines have been present in the Republican Party and some new ones are forming. They have become wide enough that both sides are blaming each other for the poor performance during the recent mid-term elections. And, each has a point. The most obvious is the rift between the party establishment and Trump, who came from outside the party, had never held office, and was never really accepted into the fold. The behavior of Mitch McConnell, who spent enormously in primary fights for his candidates, then was selectively parsimonious during the general election (like with Blake Masters), was not helpful for victory. Trump did similar things. He is sitting on a large war chest but did little monetarily for his selected candidates. RNC chair is held by Mitt Romney’s niece and she did not do a great job. And at the state level, many are unimpressed by Kellie Ward. In terms of electoral success, she is not posting a lot of victories, is she? There remains tension between the McCain wing of the party and the Trumpists. But as we indicated in a previous article, there is also a growing consensus among people who have supported Trump, that his behavior and ego (witness the attacks on Ron DeSantis) are now becoming increasingly destructive. Trump was always abrasive but managed to be elected after bruising many Republican egos in the primaries. And, we will never know what more he could have accomplished as President had he not from the get-go been subject to subversion by the FBI and the DOJ, and the constant attacks by Democrats and the press. However, that tragic history cannot be changed at this juncture. But a new fault line is developing among folks who are neither for the establishment nor for Trump. They endorse most of the MAGA positions, and want a greater emphasis on fiscal sanity, but want a candidate less abrasive and ego-driven than Trump. To be sure, they don’t want a John McCain or Mitt Romney either. Our readers seem to be mostly in this camp. As mentioned before, the polls we have conducted among readers are about 2:1 in favor of DeSantis. We suspect if he was the candidate, most Trump supporters would find him satisfactory. We don’t have a magic wand to bring these warring factions together. But we need a leader who can do that because we face a very well-funded and clever opponent in the Democrat Party, and they seem able to bury their differences to win, while we are not. That said, our chances are better if we can be united and we need a candidate who can accomplish this admittedly difficult task. What is clear is that Trump does not seem to have the temperament to bring the party together. Do Republicans want to win, or not? And as for Trump, this should not be just about him. If we cannot stop the Democrat Party and its socialist/woke agenda, the nation may not be able to recover. The stakes are too high to be petty.
On the morning after the mid-term election, my wife and I were walking in the dark with a flashlight on our daily morning walk, in our neighborhood in the Foothills of Tucson, where there aren’t any street lights. I glanced up, saw a skunk heading our way, and exclaimed, “A SKUNK! TURN AROUND!”
I’ve been saying something similar for four years, but in reference to Donald Trump. As a product of the working-class, it pained me to warn working stiffs, who felt they had no one else to fight on their behalf, that Trump was loyal to himself and not to them. Accordingly, I predicted, he was severely damaging the GOP and thus would leave them even more defenseless than they were before against a Democrat Party that had forsaken them.
When Trump behaved like a bully and jerk in his first debate with Joe Biden on September 29, 2020, he confirmed how an increasing number of independents saw him. It was my belief at the time that had just lost his chance for reelection.
Two years later, on November 5, 2022, Trump appeared at a campaign rally in my wife’s home state of Penn., ostensibly on behalf of Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, but actually on behalf of himself. As usual, it was all about Donald J. Trump. He even went so far as to ridicule Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and to strongly indicate that he was going to soon announce a run for reelection. Upon seeing a replay of the rally, I turned to my wife and said, “He just turned a possible red wave into a torrent of blood from a wounded GOP.”
Here in Arizona, where votes are still being counted, the skunk stunk up the state, regardless of the final tally. Governor Doug Ducey, who, by law, couldn’t run for a third consecutive term, did not run for the US Senate, because he knew that Trump loyalists wouldn’t vote for him in a primary, because Trump wouldn’t endorse him, because he wouldn’t embrace the skunk.
As a classical liberal, I’m mostly disenfranchised by today’s politics. But I have to admit that Ducey was a good governor, one of the best in the nation. Under him, Arizona became a leader in school choice and in tax reduction. A state that ranked near the middle in total tax burden is set to become one of ten states with the lowest total tax burden—assuming that Democrats don’t prevail in the state and reverse course.
Ducey would’ve been a far, far better senator than the Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly, whom Ducey would’ve beaten handily if it had not been for the skunk spraying Ducey and keeping him from running for the Senate. Ducey would’ve attracted votes from independents and carried other GOP candidates on his coattails.
At the same time, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake might lose to one of the most lackluster politicians in the nation, because Lake was endorsed by Trump.
Campaign signs for Lake and Senate candidate Blake Masters are still on roadsides, with some of them saying, “Endorsed by Trump.”
They might as well have said, “Endorsed by Skunk.”
