Opinion: Why the rise in water could be caused by Trump

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It is too early to know, of course, and there is ample evidence that those who stand against the vindictive Trump will be crushed by either his methods of intimidation or his loyal followers, with little support from the rest of the GOP. However, it is noteworthy that over the past few days we have heard from two key figures in the conservative camp telling Trump that he should stop grumbling about the election he lost and let the Republican Party focus on the real issue, rather than on its own. serving fantasies.

Statements from Rupert Murdoch-who controls a media empire that includes, among other assets, the shameless pro-Trump Fox News-and from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – an adviser who worked with the former president and helped him prepare for presidential debates during the 2020 election – could serve as a test for Republicans who understand how damaging Trump’s dominance in the GOP is. , and how it will eventually sink the party. Surprisingly Murdoch, who addressed his company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, said the United States is faced with a number of major political decisions that conservatives will not be able to shape unless Trump persists. “The current debate in American politics is deep,” he said, citing education, welfare and economic opportunity. “It’s very important that conservatives play an active, strong role in that debate,” he added, “but that won’t happen if President Trump stays focused on the past.”

Murdoch is not alone in arguing that Trump is a threat to conservatives. Christie, who has just published a new book that resembles his unofficial entry into the 2024 presidential race, makes the same case, only stronger.

Consider the title of Christie’s book-which effectively places Trump as a threat to the GOP: “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.” Notice that Trump fits two of the three reasons why the party needs aging (by Christie, maybe).

Murdoch and Christie weren’t the first Republicans to stand up to the former president-but their criticisms of Trump were dramatically different. Trump’s earlier critics, such as Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and others, melted into avid defenders when their criticisms proved dangerous to their own status. Their returns are reminiscent of a quote often attributed to Groucho Marx: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.” Christie said many in the GOP are afraid of Trump, whose “behavior is meant to instill fear.” Conservative Republicans who refuse to line up, such as Rep. Liz Cheney, is being pursued from a party that is increasingly re -creating the raging, iconoclastic and intolerant brand of the former president.

Sure, Murdoch and Christie’s words may also fail to change the course of the GOP, but their criticism is different. They both helped Trump throughout his presidency, and it’s important that they speak out now against him. Their plea that he stop complaining about the last election, however, will only be deafening, as Trump has no ability to admit that he was defeated. But Murdoch and Christie are sending an important message to other party members – and to the rest of the country – that continuing to support Trump is a dangerous folly.

Coincidentally or not, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, finally recognized Biden’s win on Thursday, more than a year after the 2020 vote. “It hurts,” she said, “Joe Biden won the elections and it’s painful to watch. He’s the President. We know that. ” No doubt Murdoch and Christie have their own personal motives in speaking out against Trump at the moment, and there is plenty of evidence to substantiate the accusations of hypocrisy. Murdoch, whose Fox News – home of Tucker Carlson, a transmitter of harmful lies and propaganda about everything from the Covid vaccine to American democracy – still serves Trump’s goals. But Fox News is now faced with billion-dollar defamation lawsuits brought by two voting technology companies that say the network is spreading false statements of election fraud.

Murdoch could be driven by a fear of responsibility and the potential harm that further lawsuits could cause to his bottom line if Fox News continues to follow Trump into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and baseless claims. There’s also the possibility that he cares about the future of conservative politics, and genuinely fears that the GOP might be trampled on if Trump doesn’t give up.

Christie, for his part, is trying to promote his book and his prospects to take over the White House.

However, it is noteworthy that they did the calculus and decided they could benefit from speaking out against the former president, even though other Republicans were deeply hurt by doing the same thing.

I think their calculation makes sense.

With President Joe Biden’s ratings sinking, conventional wisdom seems to have ruined the Democrats. But Republicans could be damned if they continue to stay with the former president.

There is no doubt that the Biden administration is horrible at messaging. The economy is emerging but consumers are feeling pessimistic. Meanwhile, Biden is making important legislative progress, and the inflationary pressures that create the false impression that the economy has failed can be resolved at the right time to bolster the fortunes of Democrats. Even if Democrats are still at a loss in 2024, it’s hard to imagine voters looking forward to another four years of Trumpian chaos. Biden may look unreliable today, but the former president, with the lowest approval rating of any president in modern times, remains unpopular and controversial. Do Republicans want to involve a candidate in endless – and serious – legal problems? According to the New York Times, prosecutors are likely to impanel a grand jury in Georgia on a criminal investigation into the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election (In September, he suggested he was unfairly targeted, which says, “Even the Fulton County is suing me by the DA, district attorney.”) Meanwhile, New York prosecutors convened a second grand jury to hear evidence about the Trump Organization’s business practices, according to the Washington Post. (The first grand jury, which met this spring, indicted two Trump companies and a tax evasion executive. Trump, who was not charged, denied the accusation and called the investigation a “political witch hunt. ”) A Pew poll conducted in September found that two-thirds of Republicans want Trump to remain a major force in the party, but only 44% want him to run again. One-third of Republicans and 92% of Democrats do not want him to be a major national political figure in the future. That is not the arithmetic of success.

There is potential for a post-Trump Republican Party to gain ground. It still seems like a long shot at this point, but if his critics are successful in persuading the GOP to move in a different direction, there is a chance that American democracy could return some similarities to normalcy, which the leaders of politics arguing what policies are best for the country, without fear of upsetting the soft, exploding feelings of a vicious loser.

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