I take no pleasure in saying 'I told you so,' but I told you so

It's not even Labor Day yet, and panic is setting in among Republicans.

As Hillary maintains her lead especially in the critical states, the fear that the Alt.Right takeover of the party has doomed it on the presidential level is rapidly becoming a certainty. "Purple" states like Virginia and Colorado are already out of reach. Bright red states like North Carolina and Utah are in play. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida- the three states Trump must win-  are slipping away, if they aren't already lost. Worse, Trump's hubris and poor management- he believes that organization is unimportant because the awesomeness of his personality will win the election,  and has apparently squandered tens of millions of dollars while failing to open more than a handful of offices and hire more than a tiny number of staffers  even in the critical states- have driven party professionals to despair. All over the country, GOP workers are searching for ways to cut Trump off and dedicate available resources to local and statewide candidates.

Rank-and-file Trump supporters, meanwhile, continue to hallucinate about winning and seem unable to even consider the possibility of defeat except through the election somehow being "rigged-" though how one "rigs"  a result as massive as the upcoming Clinton landslide is a mystery to everyone but them. They continue to show every evidence of their intent to blame the upcoming debacle on those of us who have put country ahead of party and refused to support an unqualified, unstable, ignorant,  dangerous and naive know-it-all who in fact knows nothing either about how one becomes president or what can or should be done once the goal is achieved.

They seem incapable of considering that their own role in nominating a sure loser in a year in which losing should have been nearly impossible might have something to do with the increasingly obvious and ugly ending to the farce the 2016 presidential campaign has been. No matter; after November nobody will take them seriously anyway.

With pro-abortion, anti-religious freedom and almost Trumplike isolationist Gary Johnson not a viable option for most disaffected Republicans and tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist Darrell Castle of the Constitution party scarcely better,  Evan McMullin remains a candidate sensible NeverTrumpers (that is, real Republicans) can rally behind. In the meantime, all party resources- including those Trump has depended on, to the limited extent that he cares, to take the place of the organization he himself has failed to build- are going to be shifted, as they should be, to the Senate.

Barring a miraculous victory for McMullin (this year, with disasters like Trump and Hillary nominated by the major parties, the possibility of a catastrophic mutual meltdown of historic proportions can't be entirely excluded), the best available outcome- a victory for Hillary coupled with the GOP retaining both houses of Congress and a Senate majority resolutely determined no matter what the political cost not to confirm any of Hillary's appointments to the Supreme Court. And that means every available Republican party dime- every red cent, as it were- being spent on retaining Congress, and especially the Senate.

Comments