If Republicans Don’t Stand By Trump, They Risk Losing Their Base Forever

The Republican Party risks exile for longer than it has endured in the modern era if, in the absence of incontrovertible evidence of actual “high crimes and misdemeanors,” it deserts President Trump during the campaign to remove him from office. Democrats are pursuing impeachment because they obviously fear that they cannot defeat him at the ballot box in 2020.

The advantage of talking with radio listeners — and not merely lecturing readers or tweeting at followers or opponents — is that you hear from people who aren’t among the Manhattan-D.C. media elites who overwhelmingly hate Trump.

First, no quid pro quo, much less an illegitimate one, has been proved about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Second, quid pro quos have always been a feature of U.S. foreign policy — from the long-ago Louisiana Purchase to more recently President Barack Obama’s sending the Iranian regime $1.7 billion in cash, which was central to the controversial U.S.-Iran nuclear “deal.” Quid pro quos are sometimes excellent and obvious, sometimes controversial, sometimes illegal.

Third, if a quid pro quo involving Trump is established, and the agreement it refers to was the leveraging of military or civilian aid to Ukraine for assistance in the investigation of the attack on the 2016 presidential election, that would not be illegitimate.

Fourth, the impeachment inquiry cannot be allowed to block or overshadow the deep dive by Attorney General William P. Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham into a suspected handful of anti-Trump zealots at senior levels in the FBI, the intelligence community or within the White House. If Congress’s attack on Trump is permitted to subvert the Justice Department investigation before its findings are publicly aired, the Republican establishment in Washington will simply be torched by the GOP grass roots.

Seems to me the best opportunity to launch a new main political party will be in the run-up to 2024.

Trump can endorse his successor before the GOP primaries start. He can say that his presidency is winding down but the movement has work to do, and the GOP isn’t the vehicle for it.

Start a new political party and give existing GOP Senators and Congressmen the opportunity to get that party’s endorsement. The party will run its own Presidential candidate and down-ballot candidates.

Existing GOP elected officials will either remain GOP Inc or step forward into the 21st Century US conservative political party.

It’s really risky and might likely flop, but after eight years of Trump that leaves conservative voters happy, that would be the best time to try.

Hugh is a former never Trumper??? I have already abandoned the GOP..at the DC level.. I was an ass I sent Rubio money..what a fool i was

Partner, we need to support our President Trump since this is the second coup attempt by the DemonRats having secret meetings in the People's House of all places.

The DemonRats will lose big time next year.

President Trump is being blocked all the time by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Round Table in D.C., the Koch Bros., the Rinos in D.C., on trading issues with the Chicoms, and now the DemonRat party.

These folks I guess do not know that the Chicoms will buy say (1) Microsoft Office program and they will load it to say another 5,000 computers of employees in their office. Yet, here in the U.S. you have to buy Microsoft Office program for each computer machine.

Heck, this saves a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$ to the Chicom government since it is a Chicom company.

This is outright "Copying and Theft of American Technology." This is just one example of the outright Theft and Copying of American Technology.

It just never stops with these Chicoms and here we have a President Trump who understands these issues.

I posted this before, but I’ll say it again here...

The GOP is at a crossroads. If Trump goes down due to Republican collusion, the party will be decimated for generations. It will truly become a non-entity.

But then, there are those in the Republican Party who seem to be fine with that path...

Worse, Trump’s troubles won’t be over after he leaves office. The vindictive left will pursue him relentlessly until he’s jailed. They won’t give up. He will be destroyed if for only having the temerity to run for president to try to bring us back from the brink of destruction.

It is truly a sad time we live in.

And we have NO ONE to stand up for our side...

I don't know why all the rocks are being thrown at Hewitt. He's absolutely right. The surprising thing to me is that the WaPo published this. It needs to penetrate the Washington/CNN/MSNBC echo chamber as a warning to any Republicans thinking about abandoning the President.

They should already understand this. The Dems used impeachment to throw out a Republican President who had just won a landslide election. In contrast, the Dems stood foursquare behind Bill Clinton, who really had committed an impeachable offense by lying under oath to a federal judge. Don't be fooled twice.

"The subject of Abraham Lincoln's "Lyceum" speech was citizenship in a democratic republic and threats to American institutions. In the speech, Lincoln discussed in glowing terms the political system established by the founding fathers, but warned of a destructive force from within. He asked his listeners:

'Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.'- Abraham Lincoln, "Lyceum" Speech

Lincoln then warned that a tyrant could overtake the American political system from within. He said:

'It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.'- Abraham Lincoln, "Lyceum" Speech

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