Thursday 24 October 2019

Do Republicans in Washington really want another four years of Trump?

Very few Republican voices speak out against Trump. First because they get instantly attacked on Twitter by the president. Second because they might be endangering their chances of getting reelected. Third because they don't have the courage to be a lone voice in the Republican establishment. And fourth because they are scared that any criticism of the president might help the Democrats to win the 2020 presidential election. So, four good reasons to stay quiet. Senator Lindsey Graham was highly critical of Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from northeast Syria and spoke harsh words in public. But strangely he reversed his criticism within 48 hours or so and decided, after all, that Trump had thought brilliantly out of the box and had devised a strategically sensible solution to the endless war in Syria. Wow that must have been a helluva phone call he got from the White House! With Graham back in the Trump fold, the only one speaking out critically against the president is Senator Mitt Romney, former presidential candidate. As a result he is having a hard time with the president who singles him out for personal attacks in his tweets. Romney who claims his future is behind him - ie he has no presidential ambitions - generally comes across as a common-sense politician who knows what he thinks is right and has the courage to say so when his views clash with those of the president. Romney is well respected in the Senate but other Republicans are getting uneasy about his public forays against Trump. The president is in enough trouble already with the Democratic Party impeachment inquiry, and Romney's fellow Senators and Representatives seem not to want the former presidential candidate to rock the boat further. They would rather Romney stayed quiet and leave the personal attacks against the president to the Democrats in the hope that they will damage the campaigns of their presidential election candidates when/if they fail in their impeachment attempts. I doubt Romney will keep quiet. He has nothing to lose, apart from the friendship of angry Republican colleagues, but, to be honest, he is voicing anxieties about Trump which a lot of Republican politicians must be feeling now. Does the Republican Party really really want another four years of Donald Trump? What would life be like with a second-term Trump? But the reality for the Republicans is this: however worried they are about Trump, his seemingly dodgy quid pro quo chats with the Ukrainian leader - no US military aid unless you dig dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter - his maverick decisions on foreign policy issues, especially Syria, and his war with the media and trade war with China, Republicans are never going to ditch their encumbent president. If they do, the Democrats will win in 2020. So, whether or not Romney continues to bash Trump, the Republican estabishment will stick with their president. If anyone is going to unseat Trump I suspect it will be from wthin the Trump administration. The State Department, for example, is now a disillusioned organisation, with officials leaving in droves. Several senior State officials are coming clean about Trump in evidence to the impeachment inquiry committees. Trump has denounced them as traitors, but these are honourable men and women who can no longer remain silent about what they have seen and heard. If impeachment is going to succeed it will be the testimony of these professionals which will play a major role in exposing allegations of executive wrongdoing.

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