Move On

People who thrive on attention should be ignored.

People who have never won the popular vote shouldn’t lecture those who have, particularly those who grew their share of it the second time around.

People who are almost eighty should retire from public life.

And people who can’t potentially serve eight consecutive years as President shouldn’t run for the presidency.

Over the past year, Mitch McConnell funded the races of men who had pledged to throw him out of the Republican leader’s slot. Lindsey Graham campaigned with America First MAGA candidates who had used him as a punchline. And Republican donors who hate Trump wrote big checks to help Trump’s candidates get elected.

The only people attacking the GOP from inside the GOP right now are Donald Trump, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger. The latter two are finished in politics. The former wants back in.

The Recount @therecount

“A true leader understands when they have become a liability. A true leader understands that it’s time to step off the stage, and the voters have given us that very clear message... I could not support him.” —VA Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) comes out against Trump’s 2024 candidacy

Either the GOP heads to the future, or it stays in the past. That is a choice for its voters. Independent voters went against the GOP because it turns out they’d rather stay in a terrible economy with leadership who won’t start World War III by tweet than hand the country over to a bunch of people who came off as crazy personality cultists.

The question is whether the base of the GOP will recognize it cannot win the presidency alone and independent voters will not help them if they don’t like the GOP nominee. Our existential crises as Republicans are not the same for independent voters, many of whom want to vote for someone, not against someone, and want to like their candidates, not be constantly exhausted by them.

Pennsylvania voters chose John Fetterman because they knew him and had voted for him for Lt. Governor before his stroke and, after his stroke, still preferred him to a Trump-picked New Jerseyian who couldn’t pronounce the names of local Pennsylvania businesses.

You really think they’re going to vote for Trump in 2024?

Georgia voters rejected Trump’s slate of candidates and may reject their local football hero in a runoff who is only running because of Trump. They rejected Trump in 2020. You really think they’re going to vote Trump in 2024?

Arizona is in a dogfight and rejected Trump before. Do you really think they’re going to vote for Trump in 2024?

There’s 46 Electoral College votes right there in the Democrat column. Add in Michigan, which, in Trump’s words, just went “bigly” for the Democrats by rejecting a host of Trump candidates. That’s 15 more Electoral College votes in the Democrat column.

Guess what? That gives the Democrats 270 Electoral College votes right there with a number of states undecided altogether. Give them all to Trump and he still loses.

Do you really want to go backward to go forward? That’s what Democrats did, and look how well it is going for the nation.