For better or worse, most Americans have made up their minds about the two major-party presidential candidates running this fall. And that is, Republican strategist and CNN contributor Scott Jennings said, big trouble for Kamala Harris’ campaign.
Appearing on the Clinton News Network this past weekend, Jennings told Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky — who said that the Trump GOP is like a “cult” to her, because of course — that “you know your party is in trouble,” which is why she and other Dems are doubling down on the talk of cults and zombie-like voters.
The exchange, which went viral, came after Roginsky said that “I don’t understand for the life of me why Republicans who support Trump still call themselves Republicans if they ever voted for Ronald Reagan or George Bush or worked for Mitch McConnell or any of the kinds of things that Republicans used to stand for.”
Never mind that this is a convenient Democratic tactic: Pick a Republican that they hated when he or she was in a position of power, say that they would be the kind of Republican they could tolerate, and why can’t you guys be more like them? It never works like that, of course; Mitt Romney, currently the beau ideal of the “old Republican” that Democrats could tolerate, was painted as a dog-abusing cancer-patient killer who thought corporations were people during the 2012 presidential campaign.
However, as Jennings noted, he and other conservatives are less in thrall to a man than they are to a series of ideas.
“Number one, I want lower taxes. Number two, I want conservative judges on the court,” he said.
“Not with Trump!” Roginsky shot back. It’s unclear what she meant by this; Trump had a good record on judges and Democrats are the ones promising to raise taxes. But, whatever; Jennings continued.
“Number three, I want a better economy for American workers. Number four, I want a president who cares what’s going on in Middle America, which the Democratic Party has completely and totally abandoned,” he added.
“Are there Republicans right now? Is there a push-and-pull on foreign policy in the party? Absolutely,” he added.
Do you watch CNN?
“That’s true all the time for every political Party. You don’t have total unanimity on every issue. And I do prefer a muscular foreign policy and maybe Donald Trump, like every other politician I’ve ever voted for, won’t do everything that I like all of the time.
“But I’ll tell you this: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have run this country into the ground. I want a center-right government. And most of the time, they’re going to do what I want to do. And all of the time, she’s not.”
Roginsky went on to drift off into talk about inflation if Trump’s tariff policies — which the Biden administration has kept in effect, it’s worth noting — are enacted. She then went on to connect this back to her point about the wider GOP and how “whatever whims come into [Trump’s] head … you all jump behind him.
“If he said the sky’s purple tomorrow, you’d say the sky’s purple tomorrow,” she claimed.
“There’s nothing left in the Republican Party anymore that is based in any kind of ideology. You don’t even have a party platform anymore. It is based on the whims of one man and you’re all falling in line.”
“And I think that’s really sad for a party that used to stand for something. I didn’t agree with what a lot of it stood for, but at least it had a coherent message and a coherent policy.”
Jennings went on to note that “it’s not a cult.”
“I don’t always agree with Donald Trump. I don’t agree — there’s virtually no politician alive that I or I think any other American voter agrees with all the time, and it’s my right to agree and disagree and it’s also my right to vote for a direction for the government that’s basically in line with where I want to be,” he said.
“There’s two people running, Trump and Harris. Harris, none of the time is going to do what I want, and Trump most of the time is going to do what I want. And millions of Republicans are going to make that choice — whether they come from the Romney, Bush, McConnell, Reagan, whatever wing of the Republican Party. Millions of Republicans are making that calculation today,” he added.
“And the reason you’re upset is because Harris is struggling, Trump is surging, and you know your party in trouble.”
Fact check: Accurate.
Was informed I’m in a cult and not allowed to be a Republican by my debating partner on @cnn. So I explained why that’s wrong, and why millions of Republicans are planning to support Trump & the GOP ticket this fall. pic.twitter.com/tPRlf5pBdw
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 21, 2024
Again, it’s amazing how quickly the messaging goes from joy-and-vibes frivolity to “I don’t get how anyone could vote for a literal Nazi running a cult who will arrest half of America” rhetoric like Roginsky was peddling.
The fact is, the Democrats are in trouble. They know it. The polls show it. That’s why the rhetoric is getting more fevered, the claims more ridiculous, the fear-mongering more preposterous. Reason, as Jennings amply demonstrated, is the best way to fight back against this fusillade of the febrile.
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