In preparation for tomorrow’s crucial midterm elections, President Trump has ratcheted up his racist rhetoric to a ten. He’s completely given up talking about any of the real problems facing the United States and has decided instead to focus on whipping up fear over the migrant caravan currently making its way through Mexico.
Trump has also made the claim that he would unconstitutionally revoke birthright citizenship, something he has no power to do, throwing more red meat to his hateful supporters in the process. He’s hoping that he will be able to generate enough xenophobic and racist animus in his base to dampen Democratic wins at the polls tomorrow.
According to Politico, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) seems worried about Trump’s increased reliance on blunt race-baiting and believes he should have chosen to focus on the economy and jobs growth instead.
An anonymous source told journalists that Ryan called Trump yesterday and beseeched him to talk about the economy in the time left before the election. Trump rejected Ryan’s entreaty and bragged about how successful his hardline immigration rhetoric has been in energizing his base.
Ryan was speaking on behalf of numerous other Republicans who believe that Trump’s approach to campaigning this cycle could amplify their losses and help Democratic turnout.
“Trump has hijacked the election. This is not what we expected the final weeks of the election to focus on,” a senior Republican aide told Politico.
There are major concerns within the GOP that Trump’s anti-immigration messaging, which is calibrated with his core, fanatical voting base in mind will only succeed in alienating moderates and independents.
“His homing in on this message is going to cost us seats. The people we need to win in these swing districts that will determine the majority, it’s not the Trump base; it’s suburban women, or people who voted for [Hillary] Clinton or people who are not hard Trump voters,” a senior Republican House campaign source said.
Hopefully, the GOP’s worst fears come to fruition tomorrow and their party is served up the staggering defeat that they so deeply deserve after years of enabling Trump’s systematic dismantling of our republic. Get out and vote blue.
