Washington – Republican frustration with the results of the midterm elections, the defeat of a large number of candidates backed by former President Donald Trump, and the future of his dominance in the party pose multiple questions.
Some commentators believe that the “disappointing” results of the Republicans’ hopes represent a clear mandate for the party to move away from Trump, who was a prominent player in the election campaigns during the past weeks, and his talk about his desire to run for the presidency in 2024 occupied the headlines days before the elections.
Will Trump pay the price this time?
From the moment Trump emerged as the Republican candidate for president in 2015, many traditional Republican leaders have hated him, albeit silently; Desperately waiting for an opportunity to get rid of him, their voters always intervened to intimidate them and had to acquiesce, and in the end Trump paid no political cost for his repeated mistakes.
After Republicans suffered major losses in the 2018 midterm elections under Trump, losing 41 seats; Giving the Democrats a majority to control the House of Representatives, Trump’s losses continued in the 2020 presidential election, as he ran without a primary contest from any Republican candidate.
Months ago, the Republican leader in the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell, attacked Trump’s selections of a number of candidates and their support in the party’s primaries, especially the Senate seats. McConnell said that Trump’s selection of candidates who are loyal to him and do not have the requisite qualifications to run, let alone win; The party will cost a lot.
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After the defeat of a number of these – led by Dr. Muhammad Oz in Pennsylvania, and candidate Donald Boldock in New Hampshire, states that Republicans could easily have won if they had traditional candidates – many Republicans attacked Trump, blaming him for the defeats that could have been defeated. Avoid it.
In Georgia, Trump’s Senate candidate Herschel Walker faces a run-off on December 6, while other Republicans won the state by a large margin, such as Governor Brian Kemp, who won 55% of the vote despite Trump’s hostility for him.
And Fox News highlighted the victory of Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Ravensberger, although he was “hated by Trump.” And Ravensberger had “refused Trump’s request after the end of the 2020 elections – in a famous phone call – to find “11 thousand additional votes in his favour” to win the state.
This prompted former Trump adviser Jason Miller to appear on the right-wing television network Newsmax and say that Trump should delay the announcement of his presidential campaign scheduled for next Tuesday.
The question now is whether Trump will finally pay a heavy price for his political mistakes, after his supporters for years have allowed him to get away with wrongdoing that culminated in his efforts to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. .
Trumpism remains
Policies demanding toughness with immigrants, anti-globalization and restrictions on the openness of global trade, a return to conservative social origins with their Christian roots, and controlling American military involvement in foreign wars have become; Synonymous with “Trumpism” ideas.
Professor Cass Mudd, professor of American politics at the University of Georgia, told Al Jazeera Net that “Trump opened the door wide for a revolution in the Republican Party, which allowed people like DeSantis to rise. Now the governor of Florida and his supporters want to continue that revolution without its original leader Trump.”
Not all aspirants to lead the Republican Party differ ideologically from Trump, but they have a different political experience, and they have more accurate visions of Trump’s spontaneity and populism. De Santis, for example, adopts “Trumpist policies” on issues of immigration, abortion, unlimited support for Israel, and anti-China.
The possibility of getting rid of Trump
Historian and Princeton University professor Shane Willentz acknowledged that getting rid of Trump “would not be so simple; his leadership appears to be the Republican electoral base as strong as ever, and the Republican leadership seems well aware that there is not much they can do about it.” “Once Trump announces his candidacy again, his rallies will become his official campaign headquarters, it may be too late to stop him. To make matters worse, Trump has charisma, but de Santis doesn’t yet have these qualities despite his quality.”
And about the bigger picture of the conflict within the Republican Party, historian Willentz told Al Jazeera Net that “the story that no one wants to tell is that after 20 years and more of extremism, the Republican Party is really deeply divided.”
Trump saw the weaknesses of the 2016 party’s candidates, the historian says, and snatched the party right from under the legs of its traditional leaders in a comical and menacing fashion, like any authoritarian demagogue in modern history. Once the right-wing Christian nationalists saw it as their best hope, Trump united the party, except for the deeply disaffected, who had no electoral standing of value.
Tramt adds, “Since his appearance, he has not faced a strong Republican challenge, and today DeSantis believes he can play that role, and he may be the only suitable and acceptable Republican right now. No other alternative can be thought of. Certainly not the former Vice President Mike Pence that he considers so much.” “A Republican elector is a traitor. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Eric Scott don’t stand a chance.”
Given the importance of the pro-Trump base thus far, historian Willentz said, “It is still hard to believe that de Santis could defeat Trump in a head-to-head confrontation. But overall, unless there is some prima facie evidence that Trump’s grip has weakened, I think that This last chance will turn into a mirage.”
