The Silver Lining of a Dismal Midterm Performance

By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY, National Review, November 9, 2022 -In the long run, the much-anticipated red wave’s failure to materialize may help the GOP wean itself off Trump.

From the start, smart Democrats spotted the GOP’s glass jaw in this midterm cycle, which I’ve described a number of times, including back in March, when the party’s Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, rightly blasted the Republican National Committee’s self-destructive decision to censure GOP representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their service on the House January 6 committee:

Understandably, people’s time is mostly spent worrying about soaring prices, rising crime, failing schools, and the Biden administration’s overbearing-yet-ineffectual response to a now-endemic virus that our overmatched president foolishly vowed to “shut down.” On the rare occasion that Americans reluctantly find themselves diverted into renewed consideration of the riot, it is because Narcissus can’t let it go. The former president continues to peddle the “stolen election” tripe that fueled the riot. He still wields outsized influence over a Republican Party that lacks the self-preservation instincts to burn him. And he is toying with another presidential run. That means the RNC, under the thumb of Trump loyalists, can’t let “stop the steal” go either.

Democrats had a very good night on Tuesday, not so much because they succeeded in putting Trump on the ballot but because they expertly highlighted that the Republican Party chose to put Trump on the ballot by nominating the deeply flawed man’s preferred deeply flawed candidates. 

... Donald Trump cannot win the presidency again. He is popular in a number of places, but poison in most others. The former president will never again have what he’d need to win a national election: the reluctant support of doubters who, for the sake of stopping Democrats, were willing to take a chance on his flawed character. Had it not been for Trump’s bizarre post-election performance, culminating in the disgraceful Capitol riot, congressional Republicans would be in a position to stop Democrats right now. (Read more)

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