This weekend was jarring. It began with the tape of Donald Trump bragging about his entitlement to sexually abuse women because he’s a “star.” It was followed by the most destructive hurricane since the 1990s. And it ended with Trump turning the presidential campaign and debate into a sleazy reality show.
Politically for North Carolina, the weekend could have major consequences for the election. The hurricane offered Pat McCrory a chance to showcase his leadership skills and prove that his administration can handle a crisis. So far, he seems to have passed that test. We should all hope for competence at this time in our state and keep in our thoughts the families who are suffering and the first-responders and volunteers who are helping them.
However, McCrory’s moment to shine was overshadowed by the seeming collapse of the Trump campaign. Friday’s video was followed by Republican leaders across the nation withdrawing support. None of the North Carolina delegation withdrew their support. Sen. Richard Burr said he would wait to see how Trump responded. What he was really saying is he would wait to see what the polls show later this week.
Sunday was marked by Trump creating a media spectacle as he shared a stage with a host of women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct 30 years ago. His debate performance proved that he’s no longer running for president. He’s looking for applause from the base that gave him the GOP nomination.
The question now becomes how damaging Trump’s candidacy is for the GOP as a whole. He’s running a remarkably negative, if unconventional, campaign. It’s not ad-based. He’s attracting the media with increasingly outlandish claims and spectacles. Negative campaigns rarely encourage voters to switch from one candidate to the other. They serve to suppress the vote and the people he’s suppressing are the ones he needs to win. He’s making conservative women who can’t, or won’t, vote for Clinton repulsed by him. It’s a recipe for disaster.
In North Carolina, Trump threatens to drag down the entire GOP ticket. Republican leaning women, particularly in the suburbs, may stay home altogether rather than go to the polls for Trump. A two or three percent drop could swing a state as closely divided as North Carolina. Combined with a motivated and organized Democratic base, it could create a wave the drags people into office up and down the ballot.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Mathew came and went, leaving destruction in its wake. Power is being restored and fallen trees are being removed. High water may be gone by next weekend, but Hurricane Trump is apparently just getting started. After his poor performance in the debate Sunday, he has begun a civil war within the Republican Party. He’s attacking the GOP leadership and venerable Senators like John McCain.
The math doesn’t work. Without women, blacks, minorities, Hispanics, various non-Christians, and now leaders in the Republican Party, where is his winning constituency? There aren’t enough gun rights people, uneducated white guys, Hillary haters and evangelical Christians left to give Trump a victory. He has been throwing raw meat and conspiracy theories at his rallies, but he is preaching to his own choir of crazies.
The tape released Friday was dismissed as locker room talk by Trump. Lots of people including professional athletes are wondering where this locker room is. Is it a prison locker room? Even Evangelical women are backing away from a would-be president who claims to grab women. “I moved on her like a bitch.” Sexual battery is real, and one in five women sitting in church on Sunday have experienced it.
Trump is now in free fall and is taking his marching orders from Breitbart Boss Steve Bannon, whose goal is to destroy the Republican Party and replace it with a White Nationalist Party. The stain of endorsing racist leadership will remain with the Republican Party long after this election. Trump used Breitbart language in Sunday night’s debate when he called Hillary a demon, a theory that Alex Jones (not of these pages, but the extremist Alex Jones of Infowars) propounded – that Obama and HIllary are demons who smell like sulphur.
The Trump effect is devastating for Republicans. Across the nation it has become a moment where the country’s character is being challenged. Republicans are walking away from the party to demonstrate their patriotism, their loyalty to the Constitution and their commitment to decency. The angry mobs at the Trump rallies are speaking a foreign language.
Latest statewide poll shows Hillary up by one one point and Burr and McCrory ahead. But Republicans “…are walking away from the party…?” Could it be that many Democrats will be voting for Trump? Or is it all those independent voters that are making the Presidential race so close in NC?
Not really.
For the first time in my life I understand how a dictator can emerge in an otherwise rational and compassionate society.
There is a populist messenger that blames the “others” for our current bad circumstances. They offer a solution that includes jailing your opposition, torturing and killing family members of suspected terrorists, and cozying up to other “strongmen.”
Up until last Friday our own wanna-be dictator was within a point or two of victory. This very narrow margin in the polls was maintained even after making the following offensive comments:
“I could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.” “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” “Blood coming out of her wherever.” “They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” “He’s not a war hero…I like people that weren’t captured.” “Total and complete shutdown of Muslims.” “Goofy Elizabeth Warren.” “fat pig”, and re: Putin “I think we would get along very, very well.”
Nobody can be surprised or dismayed by his latest ‘hot mic’ video. It is just more of the same.
Still, it ‘feels so good’ to be free from the 140+ years of total democrackkk domination and desecration from and by the original party of slavery and the KKK ! Thank God we were able to free ourselves if but for a couple years.
Remember how the corrupt and evil democrackkks controlled us back in the 90’s -2010 ? We cannot allow that ever again.
I hope the analysis of the GOP Senate/Congressional races is correct. Interesting to see McCrory actually do something well, but does not change my overall view of him. However, I have been trying for months to figure out how he could have learned so little political skills as mayor of Charlotte for so long. Having lived here for only four years, despite having family here for nearly two decades, I have been observing a city political system and scene vastly different from NYC.
I had known of the “city manager” system for several decades but never seen one up close. I think it insulates the mayor from serious political dealings to a great extent and the City Council to a lesser extent. I am also beginning to have some doubts that it works well for a city this large. To me the recent protests should have been expected, but it seems most leaders in Charlotte had a very different sense of Charlotte.
Has NC moved back from its swing toward the right enough for a Senator Ross, despite her time at the ACLU? I hope so, but it would not surprise me to see a Tillis/Hagen repeat. As for Burr, unless the Senate leadership moves to dump Trump, I doubt he will change his stance.