After Bowing to Trump Will Fake Republican Candidates Pay the Price

After seven years of bowing to Donald Trump, will fake Republican candidates pay the price in 2022 and 2024?

Trump earned several adjectives since June of 2015. Among them are the usual, malignant narcissist, racist, Islamophobic, vengeful, ignorant, poorly educated, coward, braggart, boring, self-centered, and incompetent. However, the most important and accurate word to describe Trump’s nearly 76 years making a fool of himself is “liar.” Over four years, the real Donald Trump was exposed as he lied to “his people” more than 50,000 times.

What dumbfounds me, is that after being impeached for cause twice, being responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths from Covid-19, and attempting to overthrow his own government the pretenders who call themselves “Republicans” continue to stand by the worst president in history.

The question is, “will their loyalty to Trump hurt them or help them in the 2022 and 2024 elections?

Let’s go back to the 2008 election. Republican candidates were afraid to use the name “George W. Bush.” The “Great Recession” continued to force American families from their homes. There were more evictions every day, and unemployment numbers were rising. Also at issue were two wars begun under Bush 43’s administration, adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.

When Bush left the White House on January 20, 2009, I had no doubt that his administration would be remembered as the worst in American history. I admit when I’m wrong, and I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

From January 20, 2017, until January 20, 2021, disaster struck every day. Trump remained in “attack mode,” spreading anger and hatred across the nation, dividing our people for decades to come. The only thing his administration “accomplished” in four years were huge tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations, adding trillions of dollars to the national debt. Every action taken by your fake president was a move to fascism. As the leader of the white supremacist movement in America, the worst of our country, who were hiding under rocks and in our swamps came into the light of day celebrating Trump’s illegitimate presidency. These are the small things. Everyone knows about his claims that the coronavirus, would “just go away,” and his treasonous actions on January 6, 2021.

Let me offer one example of a Trump-supported candidate in 2022.

Her name is Kari Lake. She is a Trump protégé who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Lake is a proud member of Q’Anon and spews baseless conspiracies constantly.

Until a month ago, Lake avoided interviews with legitimate news agencies. However, her ego apparently overrode the few brain cells she had left and agreed to answer questions from Liam Bartlett. Bartlett is a journalist for an Australian news program.

Unfortunately for Lake, she is unaware of the manner in which men and women speak in other nations. Bartlett began with “Your man, Donald.” This resulted in a “hissie fit” from Lake.

Lake: “Why would you say that, sir. ‘Your man Donald?”’

Bartlett: “Well he is. He has endorsed you personally. He said a few days ago that those people at the Capitol should be pardoned. They should all be pardoned. Do you think they should be pardoned?”

Lake continued along the same line without answering his question. Her temper rose, and she eventually walked out of the interview. Once again, a right-wing politician refused to answer questions about the issues.

Not a single member of Trump’s administration was qualified to hold public office. Look at the junior senator from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville.

Tuberville was a college football coach without 10 seconds of experience in government. However, he pledged his loyalty to Trump and the orange buffoon campaigned for “Tommy T.”

During the January 6 insurrection, Tuberville was in constant contact with Trump from inside the Capitol.

With the exception of dark red states, a Trump endorsement is not worth much. Besides, he won’t be able to campaign from a cell in a federal or state prison.

Op-Ed by James Turnage

Sources:

Daily Kos: Trump protégé, Kari Lake, gets flustered, crumbles in an interview and runs away
FiveThirtyEight: How Republicans Are Thinking About Trumpism Without Trump; by Julia Azari

Images Courtesy of Gage Skidmore/The Star News Network’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License