Some Republican Voters in Georgia are Turning on the GOP

When the leadership of the Republican Party decided to embrace Donald Trump - a malignant narcissist who cares only about himself - and his ignorance embracing, cult-like base, they should have realized they were making a deal with the devil. Now, Trump has gone down to election defeat and is trashing anything and everything, including America's democratic institutions as his school yard bully ego cannot accept that a majority of Americans despise him and want him out of office.  A much deserved payback to those in the GOP who knew better yet prostituted themselves to Trump would be to have the GOP lose both Senate runoff elections in Georgia on January 5, 2021, because of Trump's lies and the gullibility of Trump cultist who may boycott the runoff election believing it is "rigged" per Der Trumpenfuhrer's lies.   If this were to happen, it would be divine justice of sorts and seeing "Moscow Mitch" McConnell no longer the Senate majority leader would be worth breaking out a bottle of Dom Perignon.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at Republicans' dilemma.   Here are excerpts:

Part of what makes President Trump’s hold over the Republican Party so powerful is that the Republican establishment doesn’t fully understand it. And that means it is unsure about how to wield it without Trump helping.

That’s manifesting in an ugly way for the party in Georgia. As Trump tries to burn down democratic institutions on his way out of office, at least some hardcore Trump supporters in the state are turning on the GOP.

This couldn’t come at a worse time for the party. Republicans are trying to rally their loyalists to vote Jan. 5 in two Senate runoff races that will decide whether Democrats have full governing control in Washington next year or Republicans can block some of their policies.

But almost all the establishment Republican figures in Georgia or campaigning there have recently faced accusations from some voters that they’re not Trumpian enough for not wading completely into the president’s baseless claims that the election was stolen from him. Recent examples include:

·         Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the Republican incumbents trying to hold on to their seats in the January runoff, have not yet acknowledged that Trump lost the election. But they hint at it in their campaigning, because it’s powerful to frame their candidacies as firewalls to Democratic rule. But some engaged Republican voters don’t seem to want to even think about the Senate races until they find a way to win the election for Trump.

·         In some Trump-supporting circles on social media, there is talk of boycotting the election. Lin Wood is a Trump ally in Atlanta who recently tweeted to his hundreds of thousands of followers: “If not fixed, I will NOT vote in GA runoff.”

·         Politico reports that #CrookedPerdue and #CrookedKelly are popping up on social media, accusing the two senators of being “liberal DemoRats.” That’s despite the fact that Perdue and Kelly stuck their necks out politically to try to demonstrate how concerned they were with election fraud.

·         Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was campaigning in Georgia this weekend when she encountered some GOP voters who don’t see the point in voting if the election is supposedly rigged.

·         [Trump] The president has demonized two of the most prominent Georgia Republicans in the state, Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp (R), baselessly accusing them of somehow playing a role in his losing the election. . . . . Before the 2020 elections, these were two of the most Trump-supportive politicians in Georgia, arguably in the United States.

It’s tough to gauge how much of an issue this is for Republicans. Are these just a small group of voters showing up at campaign rallies, feeling disenfranchised because Joe Biden won the state and Trump lost reelection? Or are they indicative of a more widespread sentiment of disgust with the Republican Party after Trump’s loss?

The latter is certainly worse than the former for Republicans, but both are bad. Whichever side wins these two runoff races will have turned out its base in higher numbers. November’s results revealed there are voters who supported Republicans in the Senate races and Biden for president who aren’t as amenable to Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories. But to win, Republicans are also going to need Trump voters.

Republicans are concerned enough that allies of Donald Trump Jr. are setting up a super PAC aimed at persuading [Trump] the president’s supporters in Georgia to vote, Politico reports. The president has somewhat confusingly and halfheartedly told Georgia voters they need to vote, even though he claims the state’s election system can’t be trusted.

Three days later, [Trump] he was back to falsely saying voting machines such as the ones used in Georgia miscounted votes against him.

I for one hope the Trump cultists refuse to vote on January 5th and the GOP candidates go down to defeat.  The GOP must pay a high price for what it has done to the nation over the last four years.