Daily Verse | Numbers 11:18-20
Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”
Happy Wednesday. I learned from a young age that I am unique, just like everybody else.
Now that Trump is out of office and has been acquitted in the kangaroo court known as the United States Congress, what comes next? Nearly 75 million people voted for him, the largest number ever for an incumbent president.
76 percent of Republicans (along with 25 percent of Independents and 4 percent of Democrats) believe he was cheated out of returning to office. The same number of Republicans, 75 – 21 percent, want to “see Trump play a prominent role in the Republican Party” in the future.
What sort of role would he play? A variety of recent polls suggest a strong sentiment toward a third political party; perhaps a “Patriot” or “MAGA” Party led by the exiled president.
Gallup reports that support for a third U.S. political party is at the highest it has ever recorded. “Republicans’ current level of support for a third party is also the highest Gallup has measured for Republicans or Democrats in Gallup’s trend.”
Both the Hill-HarrisX and CBS YouGov polls show that a majority of Republican voters would join a third party led by president Trump (those numbers include those who would join right now and those who would “most likely” join should one form in the future). In addition, there is strong support for such a party by Independents, along with a smattering of support among Democrats.
The obvious take-away is that a “Trump third party could provoke a pivotal realignment in American politics. With the support of 46% of registered voters in the new poll, Democrats would reap the benefits of a fractured opposition and entrench themselves as the nation’s dominant party — even without majority support.”
No one wants to cede the next decade to the Democrats.
What that means is that Trump is necessary for the survival of the GOP. Leaders like Mitch McConnell, who trashed Trump after he voted not to impeach him (don’t miss Trump’s response), would be foolish to think that he can ignore Trump’s influence and the threat he represents to GOP hegemony among conservatives and libertarians. It’s not that Trump even needs to start a third party—it’s the fact that so many GOP voters remain loyal to him.
A Politico/Morning Consult survey conducted on Sunday, the day after the trial, indicated that six out of 10 Republicans said they want Trump to play a major role in the GOP going forward, with eight out of 10 Republicans said [sic] they hold a favorable opinion of the former president.
Sen. Lindsey Graham was vocal about that in a recent interview with Sean Hannity, saying (with my emphasis),
“I’m more worried about 2022 than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to eat our own. President Trump Trump [sic] is the most consequential Republican in the party. If Mitch McConnell doesn’t understand that, he’s missing a lot… We need to knock this off. Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the house Republicans. He has taken a different approach to President Trump. I would advise Senator McConnell to do that.”
A majority of voters agree that, “The only path to unity is to rebuild shared national identity focused on common American values and virtues of which we have plenty.” If that’s true, then perhaps the GOP could champion a return to our traditional and historic values in its platform.
Nah—will never happen.
If Trump created a Patriot Party, it would split the conservative base and leave the Democrats with a majority, and no one wants that. For that reason, I don’t believe Trump will form a third party. If he did, however, I would consider joining it.
Whatever happens in the months ahead, one thing is certain. I vote a pox on the houses of both Republicans and Democrats.