{"id":21178,"date":"2024-10-21T00:08:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T07:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=21178"},"modified":"2024-10-21T00:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T07:08:22","slug":"the-election-as-a-game-of-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2024\/10\/21\/the-election-as-a-game-of-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"The Election As A Game Of Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"

     Your humble author has noted repeatedly this year that the Presidential race seems less of a campaign to win than a game of chicken, with each side trying to be as bad as possible while still remaining second worst. The problem with this strategy is that once you\u2019ve won, you\u2019ve ceased to be the second<\/em> worst option.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

     This is perilous at best. \u00a0 Most election years for Republicans after Trump became President resulted in either subpar election results overall, or even absolute disasters. The one exception was the 2021 off year elections in Virginia and New Jersey where Trump was not a factor. This year, Trump, as of the writing of this post, is likely favored to win a second and non-consecutive term.<\/p>\n

     But whatever internal breaks and checks on the grifters and fringe existed in in his first term will not be there for a second\u2014his first administration did best when he let competent people do their job, and did the worst when the grifters and fringe had their way.<\/p>\n

     The old purported \u201cestablishment\u201d has long been purged<\/a> and \u201cMAGA\u201d is<\/em> the establishment now<\/a> to a greater degree than the old \u201cestablishment\u201d ever was. Even if Trump<\/a> were to lose<\/a>, he\u2019d just become the de facto<\/em> 2028 GOP nominee<\/em> for President.<\/p>\n

     Now, instead of judiciously applying to the breaks after winning that game of chicken, we could very well have hit the gas and go \u201cpeddle<\/a> to the metal<\/a>\u201d. From mocking<\/a> association<\/a> to Middle Class and LARPing<\/a> as a blue collar workers to lamenting that America isn\u2019t like so many foreign countries who can be ruled by a strongman<\/a> who will fix everything<\/a>, there isn\u2019t much there beyond being the water that conforms<\/a> to the shape of Trump and his Republican Party proxy.<\/p>\n

     If he wins, it could be a Pyrrhic victory for the GOP. \u00a0 That purging of the older \u201cestablishment\u201d included the removal of competent people<\/a>, leaving a void<\/a> that those grifters and the fringe<\/a> have quickly filled<\/a>. They wanted to get rid of the \u201cGOPe\u201d? Trump was the monkey paw that made that wish come true.<\/p>\n

     The GOP has been turned into a vehicle to drag Donald Trump over the line of 270 Electoral Votes It has been maximized to do that at the expense of all else. His winninc coalition would be his coalition and his alone. We\u2019ve already seen for nearly a decade now that his popularity is not transferable to other candidates\u20142022 providing a bumber crop of those Trumpy candidates who lost winnable races while non-Trumpy candidates won\u2014and due to the 22nd<\/sup> Amendment, Trump would never be on the ballot again to provide even potential coattails.<\/p>\n

     Trump lost in 2020 in large part due to Biden being as close to \u201cGeneric Democrat\u201d as possible, allowing people to vote against<\/em> Trump rather than for Biden. But even then Trumps personal<\/em> popularity kept it from being a blowout. The GOP would no longer have the benefits of Trump, while retaining all the negatives. \u00a0 The Republican Party won\u2019t return to what it was before Trump, but thee will be a post-Trump Republicans Party that will be evenmore different than Gingrich and the Republican Revolution of \u201894 was to they heyday of the Reagan White House.<\/p>\n

     Many Republicans are biding their time and preparing themselves to be one of those who shape this new post-Trump Republican pary. Thos proberbial \u201cinteresting times\u201d are indeed upon us.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     Your humble author has noted repeatedly this year that the Presidential race seems less of a campaign to win than a game of chicken, with each side trying to be as bad as possible while still remaining second worst. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[65,70,33,24],"class_list":["post-21178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections","tag-doom","tag-facepalm","tag-gop","tag-leviathan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21180,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21178\/revisions\/21180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}