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Democrats addicted to losing
While preventing a split in the party may have been successful, as some Democrats claim, this has come at the cost of its image in the eyes of US public opinion. Trump and Republican supporters succeeded in portraying repeated attempts by Democrats to indict and impeach Trump as a personal vendetta, prioritising narrow partisan interests over the public interest. From the perspective of Democratic supporters, policies that the party’s left-wing are pushing, such as leniency on illegal immigration, expanding healthcare without thinking of the cost, and restricting the purchase and possession of personal firearms, are all policies opposed by Republicans and Trump. These policies are mostly supported by Democratic voters, and the dominance of the left-wing camp within the Democratic Party — as clearly demonstrated by the attempt to impeach Trump — raises an alarm about the future of the party. The Democratic Party is already suffering because it has not yet decided on a strong candidate to run against Trump in the presidential race, and even worse, some party members are still adamant on continuing to battle Trump and ignore the Congress acquittal. They view him as guilty and therefore he should be slandered in the coming months, in the hope this will impact his chances of winning a second term in November. Periodic opinion polls conducted by Reuters reveal that the impeachment trial did not impact Trump’s popularity among Americans, although it was broadcast live. Some even predict Democrats will also lose in the long-term, and they will not be able to truly contest the elections for the White House even beyond a second term for Trump. Michael Kimmage, a history professor at the Catholic University of America, said as much on the website Politico on 5 February, when he was asked what he expects historians will write about the impeachment trial and this era 50 years from now. He responded: “I think they will say the following: The Trump era began with Trump’s election in 2016, hit a high point with his acquittal on impeachment in 2020 and ended with President Mike Pompeo’s 2028 loss to the young Midwestern Governor Tom Wilkinson.” Posted by: trailing wife 2020-02-17 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=563655 |