People are sure coming out of the woodwork, to get out there and condemn Trump over this dinner with the alleged supremacist and Kanye West.
McConnell wants to be sure to be out there with his condemnation of Trump. But as others have noted, has Mitch ever criticized any of the “squad” or any other Democrats for objectionable comments and behavior????
“People are sure coming out of the woodwork, to get out there and condemn Trump over this dinner with the alleged supremacist and Kanye West.”
Death by 1000 cuts. Expect many more such character assassinations allowing GOP Trump haters, Democrats, celebrities, and media personalities the opportunity to express outraged and pile on. The goal here is not to separate Trump from his 40% base, their tricks have not been successful in doing that. However, what they have learned is a constant barrage of attacks does wear down moderate women, liberal Republicans, and young voters who believe much of what they are hearing.
In today’s highly polarized electorate, all you have to do is move the vote count at the margins, by 2-3% to win. We saw that in the midterms where young people came out to vote against conservative Republicans.
Trump can’t defeat this strategy by attacking the attackers or giving the apologies they are demanding. A string of apologies will start to chip away from his base. The best strategy for Trump now is to be very careful and selective of who he engages with and creating his own message for each engagement. Never let the orchestrated media attack to define the encounter get started. Second, he needs to start going on the offensive on the issues, not personalities. Much of his success in 2016 was talking about the issues the people care about and the elites don’t want to talk about — border, unfair trade practices, two-tier justice system, inflation, never ending wars. His strength is his position on the issues — force them to talk the issues.
Going forward, act like the leader of the Republican Party. Make specific proposals for legislation the people will like. Challenge McCarthy and McConnell directly to get to work on it. Make McConnell uncomfortable. Force him to either support strong action on a conservative agenda. His only options in response are to say he won’t do it or to say he can’t do it due to not having enough votes. Either way he looks weak. Trump’s response, instead of directly attacking McConnell would be to say: “If you can’t do what the voters want, tell us what you can and will do.” It is possible to keep him in the hot seat without mean spirited attacks.