There Is No GOP Mandate

We're Right. They're Wrong. A Weekly Column From Stuart Stevens.

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It’s tempting to compare Republican Senators to the Prussian politicians who ushered in Hitler. But it’s unfair.

The Prussian politicians were more responsible. They faced a country in crisis, with hyperinflation, rising Communist influence, and a breakdown in social order. Republican Senators have no excuse.

America was the envy of every Western democracy. Low unemployment, low inflation, booming economy. But Republicans allowed Trump to break them like China dolls.

These weak men and women -many I know, quite a few I helped elect - claimed they were strong on national security. Now, Russia’s choice runs American intelligence.

They claimed they cared about families. Now a former heroin junkie who opposes the mandatory vaccines that have ended polio, whooping cough, and measles is running American health services.

They claimed they cared about law and order but supported pardoning violent cop attackers and an FBI head who took the Fifth in confirmation hearings.

They say they support traditional values but have turned over their budget duties to a guy with an unknown number of kids with names like “Exa Dark Siderael” and “Techno Mechanicus” with an unknown number of women he didn’t marry, a man with a well-reported recreational drug habit who appears to have shown up at a presidential inauguration stoned out of his mind.

Why did they surrender their Constitutional responsibilities to please a felon? It’s not complicated or novel. They are weak men and women with a desperate need to be accepted. We had a Greatest Generation, and now we have the Worst Generation of Republicans. They deserve no respect, only shame and scorn.

But here’s some good news. The 2024 elections will be the high water mark of MAGA. Think Pickett’s charge. It’s as far up the hill as they will get.

Much effort has gone into declaring the 2024 election a transformational event that signals a seismic shift in American politics. That’s wrong.

In 2024, only 40% of Americans approved of the incumbent president. In the history of modern politics, no party’s presidential nominee has received more than 2% greater than the approval rating of their party’s president. Harris broke that rule with 48%.

On election day, only 26% of the electorate thought the country was going in the right direction. No incumbent party has won the White House when the right track was below 45%.

This was the perfect environment for a challenger to win. It should not be confused with an endorsement of Trump or MAGA or Trumpism. Almost any Republican with some vaguely broad appeal – Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, for example – would have done much better. Just as the polls showed Nikki Haley winning in a walk.

Looking at the 2024 election and concluding that American politics is forever changed is how societies end up worshipping volcanoes. There’s drought, the volcano belches, and it rains. Next thing you know, you’re sacrificing virgins to honor the Volcano Gods.

Why did Trump run like a scalded dog from any association with Project2025? Because he knew it was terribly unpopular. As America watches the implementation of Project 2025, it has not become more popular.

There are moments in politics when a candidate or issue or party has lost while seemingly thriving. This is such a moment for MAGA.

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