This is downright stupid.
A bunch of overwrought Trump supporters, furious over what they perceive as wide-spread election fraud, are showing their disgust by declaring they will #BoycottGARunoff.
That’s right; to get even with Democrats for their supposed cheating in the 2020 election, these folks will refuse to participate in what they fear might be another sham vote — one which will decide who fills Georgia’s two contested Senate seats, which party then controls the U.S. Senate and, effectively, whether Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) get to dictate the future of the United States.
That will sure show those nasty Democrats!
Except, of course, that Joe Biden supporters, those who exult in his promises to be “the most progressive president in history,” are overjoyed in this unexpected break in Republican ranks. They cannot believe their good fortune.
Most analysts predicted in recent weeks that the GOP would win at least one of these two seats, allowing continued Republican control of the Senate. Recently, the odds have tightened. No one expected Trump supporters to throw a spanner in the works, but they have.
President Trump must exert all of his powerful influence to stop this nonsense. He has been enthusiastically backing Republican candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on Twitter and plans to go to Georgia this weekend to campaign on their behalf. He must talk up the incredible importance of sending them back to the Senate.
He must explain that GOP Senate dominance is the only bulwark against Schumer making good on his promise to “take Georgia” and then “change the world.” That it is our nation’s only defense against the Green New Deal, gun restrictions, open borders and so much more.
Trump must do this not only for the good of the country, but also for his own legacy.
Over his eight years in office, President Obama earned only middling approval ratings (lower, on average, than G.W. Bush, Clinton, G.H.W. Bush, Reagan, Nixon or Ford, for instance) but widespread indulgence from the media, which continues. There is, however, one aspect of his legacy that is undeniable, even by his most adamant admirers: Obama crushed his own party.
During Obama’s eight years in the Oval Office, Democrats lost a net total of 13 governorships and 816 state legislative seats, the most of any president since Dwight Eisenhower. When he took office in 2009, Democrats controlled both chambers of 27 state legislatures; eight years in, they controlled only 13. Among the states they lost were Wisconsin, North Carolina, Iowa and West Virginia, all of which helped elect Trump in 2016.
Further, when Obama was elected in 2008, Democrats enjoyed a 60-seat majority in the U.S. Senate and a 257-seat majority in the House. Eight years later, Democrats had given up control of both chambers, slipping to 48 Senate seats and 194 seats in the House.
Admiring Democrats have a tough time explaining how such a “popular” president could have wreaked such havoc on his own party. The answer is simple: Obama didn’t care. He worked mainly for his own advancement and success and left the rest of the party to fend for itself.
President Trump must not go down the same path. He has enormous standing in the GOP, with 93 percent of Republicans having voted for him in the recent election. He can use that position to further broaden GOP outreach, especially with blue-collar workers and minorities, which he has shown he can do, to influence policy and to raise money for the party.
He can also use his popularity to either run again in 2024 or be pivotal in who succeeds him. Either way, he will continue to lead his party.
Unless, in Georgia, he fails to convince voters to turn out for Perdue and Loeffler.
They need his help. Internal polling of the Georgia races by FreedomWorks is alarming. Some 80 percent of voters indicate they will participate in the Senate vote on January 5; the normal turnout for this type of contest would be closer to 50 percent. Higher turnout generally benefits Democrats. Also, their private surveys show both Democrats in the lead, with Jon Ossoff up one point and Raphael Warnock ahead by two points.
Also alarming is that more than 762,000 absentee ballots have already been requested by Georgia voters, a record and three times the number requested in all the Peach State elections in 2018. Generally, Democrats are overrepresented in absentee voting.
Democrats are pulling out all stops to win these elections, knowing that their leftist agenda of packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster and so much more has zero chance of advancing as long as Republicans hold the Senate.
Hollywood celebrities are flocking to Georgia to campaign for Ossoff and Warnock, while Stacey Abrams, whose failed bid for governor has remarkably given her superstar status among Democrats, is busily signing up new voters.
The contests are almost sure to be the most expensive Senate races in history; Warnock and Ossoff have already enjoyed a flood of funds from outside the state.
Much is on the line. Joe Biden won Georgia’s recount with a razor-thin margin of just over 12,000 votes. President Trump has railed that the election was flawed; a hand recount did indeed “find” extra votes for the president, but so far there has been no evidence that cheating might have changed the outcome.
That hasn’t prevented Trump from criticizing the Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s management of the process, or kept him from lashing out at Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. While it is easy to understand Trump’s frustration as reports of illegal votes have surfaced across the country, it is more important right now, in this state, to put such suspicions and grievances aside.
Republicans must win Georgia’s Senate seats. Winning this round is vital for the nation, and for President Trump. In his rallies, he must douse the discord and make this happen.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. Follow her on Twitter @lizpeek.