Doug Thompson: The GOP defeats itself again

Losing the U.S. House fits the party’s pattern

This country has two political parties. One cannot win an election until the other self-destructs. The other regularly self-destructs.

The politically dominant Republicans drove Democrats to the brink of being a fringe party by 2016. The GOP could have elected practically anyone president. In fact, they did.

President Donald Trump is living proof any of the 17 candidates in the GOP primary that year would have won his race. I recant my May 9, 2015 prediction Jeb Bush would have lost. Bush, unlike the president, never got caught on audio bragging about how his celebrity gave him license to grope people.

The GOP reached a peak in November 2016 -- and promptly jumped off.

President George W. Bush, Jeb Bush's brother, had to serve six years and launch an invasion of the wrong country before his party managed to lose 30 House seats in one election. President Trump led Republicans to a loss of at least 37 seats after just two years. Final counts of a four more close races are still going on.

Democrats, enjoy your House majority while it lasts. Those college-educated suburban whites who gave this victory to you will fall right back in line behind the GOP as soon as that party's standard bearer is someone they can stomach. When this president finally leaves office -- which may take until 2025 -- that will solve a GOP problem. The Democrats, on the other hand, will lose a bountiful source of votes. Some will miss Trump as much or more as Republicans now miss the Clintons and Obamas.

No one misses the Clintons more than those who hate them, as I have said many times before.

Some claim Republicans lost this year because they did not keep their promises. Well, that happens when a party promises lower taxes along with lower deficits or better health care that is also much cheaper and so forth. They did get some court appointments -- something a better president could have given them without collateral damage. Oh, and they blew up the deficit, too.

A better president could have told the Democrats, the media, Hollywood, minorities, the Clintons, the Obamas, George Soros, Dr. Mabuse, Professor Moriarty, Sauron, Thanos and whoever else is going to get blamed for GOP self-destruction to go to blazes. However, that requires a party leader who knows what direction blazes is in.

The GOP presidential primary needs fixing. Trump did not nominate himself. The party did not have a primary in 2016. It had a mutiny and threw all the officers overboard. Now anyone who knows how to navigate will not speak up to the mutineers for fear of being thrown overboard, too.

It is not the president's fault he was put into a job he clearly cannot handle. Seeing that he is not cut out for this did not require hindsight. Yet the Republican Party passed over 16 better-qualified candidates. Now his best use is being a tailor-made scapegoat for GOP losses.

The president was nominated with a plurality in the Republican primary. The party fell solidly in line behind him only after he secured the nomination by a fatally flawed process. The bulk of the GOP rank and file were trapped by a primary system designed to stifle dissent. The main feature of that design was "winner take all" primaries. The candidate with a plurality of votes won all the delegates of a state with such a primary. That is the first thing that needs changing.

The Republicans fear a party split. Any such split would not last long even if it happened. Trump's base has nowhere else to go.

Another thing; Leave special counsel Robert Mueller alone. The president's loyalists scream Mueller is biased. They are wrong, but suppose they were absolutely right. At least Mueller is a professional. As long as his investigation remains in progress, there is validity to saying the Democrats are just playing politics when they launch their own investigations, that the Mueller investigation is the real deal and Democrats should await his results instead.

The president will not go along with that -- because he clearly fears a real and professional investigation. Too bad. The Republicans are stuck with the president for now. They need to keep an eye on the near future. He will be gone someday.

Impeachment is not on the table. Not even the Democrats are so foolish as to try that. They are better off politically with the president right where he is.

Commentary on 11/17/2018

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