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The Incredible Shrinking Party

I have shitty photoshopping skills so I don’t even try to alter images to match my post titles. My last attempt took way too long so I surrendered to the inevitability of my ineptitude. In short, I’m no Michael F.

I’m continually amazed by how much people still care what hardcore Trumpers think. They’re an irrelevant sub-set of a rapidly shrinking group. Repeat after me: to hell with the Trump base. Surveys on the number of self-declared Republicans put the figure at anywhere from 24 to 28%. Before Trump’s election, the numbers were more like 30-33%. He’s shrinking his party at a rather staggering rate. Rather than concerning themselves with angry white working class Trump voters, Democrats should go after those former GOPers who have abandoned the Party of Trump, hereinafter POT. They, too, want to put a brake on this out-of-control president*.

Politically successful presidents do not shrink their party. I was of age during the Reagan administration and Ronnie grew his party. College campuses were full of young Republicans who thought of Reagan as their political grandfather. This Kinks song was about young Thatcherites but it was equally applicable to young Reaganites:

Repeat after me: there’s a Kinks song for every occasion.

Donald Trump has had the opposite effect on the vast majority of young voters: he has repelled them with his repulsively retro views. Reagan was able to wrap his retro views in warm, nostalgic words and images from the golden age of Hollywood. They didn’t call him the Great Communicator for nothing.

Reagan’s way with young voters is one reason the country is in the fix we’re in right now. Those spineless middle-age Congressional Republicans were once young Reaganites. They seem, however, to have forgotten about his dislike and mistrust of the Russians.

It’s time for Trump’s opponents to gather together in a grand coalition to take the POT down several pegs this fall. I’m open to working with whoever wants Democrats to take control of Congress, state legislatures, and Governor’s mansions. This is no time for grudge holding: the stakes are too high. There’s also no time for hand wringing about Gerrymandering when there’s an obvious solution: get out the vote in massive numbers. It’s time for our people to turn out for EVERY ELECTION, not just presidential years. The fate of the Republic and liberal democracy is in the hands of the voters. Just say no to the Incredible Shrinking Party and throw the bums out.

I guess that qualifies as my version of the “win one for the Gipper” speech. It’s time for the cat in the movie poster to stop toying with the shrunken POT and go for the kill. There will be a treat in it for everyone. Della Street will insist.

The last word goes to former Democrat Ronald Reagan as a dying George Gipp in Knute Rockne: All American.

Beats the hell out of hunting for the Celebrity Apprentice N-word tape. Besides, as I said on the tweeter tube:

Another day, another last word fib. Woe is me, bop.