Some of the stark phrases are obligingly memorable, as this man talks about what used to be his political party: “It’s pretty much a Trump cult in the GOP primary electorate… But like all cults, it’ll end badly.”
“[Republican officials say] If I publicly criticize him he won’t change one bit, but I’ll lose my seat in a primary to a nut and the nut will give the seat to vile socialists on the other side, who are no better than Trump in many ways…it gives Trump a moral pass as he ethically urinates all over the institution of the presidency.”
“[Further, they say] We cannot let the liberal Republican-hating media ‘win.’ So I keep quiet while we rack up important ideological victories — judges, regulatory reform, taxes — and wait for this dark storm to pass.”
“What happens if we [GOP] lose the House — and more — in the 2018 midterms. If it does happen, such a meltdown will shake the party badly — no political party endures a major loss without repercussions — and Trump, the supreme magical winner of 2016, will become an epic party-killing loser.”
“One crazy prediction: if Trump does hang on, I predict he’ll start talking about dumping Mike Pence as VP. Such a story would create irresistible drama for the reality show producer POTUS.”
“His election was a dead-cat bounce and is extremely unlikely to be repeated. I’m not sure he’ll survive his first term, but if he does and can win re-nomination, he’ll find a re-elect very daunting. The demography is worse and getting even more difficult every day, the novelty is gone, incompetence is always punished in the fullness of time and the staff machine that exists to prop up an existing POTUS is a weak shambles of dregs and enablers. Ideologically, Trump has cashiered the Republican Party’s longstanding equity as a force for free trade, fiscal conservatism, tough foreign policy and hard-headed competence. Trump now provides political fuel and success only to those who would destroy the conservative movement. He’s driven the GOP into a moral and political ditch.”
Click here to read the whole exchange between CNN and Mike Murphy. Murphy has a long history of Republican campaign work, starting in the 1980s. Among governors he helped elect: Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. He has fled politics for Hollywood where reality has a stronger presence than in today’s Washington D.C.
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