Op-Ed: The allure of the Republican Party is baffling. Voters will regret falling for it, but Donald Trump has yet to prove that he has any ability to sway a vote. It’s a party that has embraced economic populism and the notion that we’re all racists because we don’t like President Obama.
A recent Post-Dispatch article looked at how Americans are faring with Donald Trump, and why, just like in the primaries, he still has an uphill climb.
Here are five takeaways from the piece:
1. Republicans’ most pressing need: Winning
“Democrats are clearly the more formidable electoral group in this year’s congressional elections, but Republicans believe their top priority is to pick up seats in the Senate.”
“Republicans believe they’ve got four critical congressional seats–open seats with Democratic challengers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina–to win in 2016, while Democrats have an edge in Arizona, Indiana, Utah and Nevada.”
“Republicans also have to worry about keeping their House majority. For now, they’re not talking about their Senate races, but there’s a sense that some House members will run for reelection to state legislatures where they are unpopular. In those states, the GOP needs to be competitive with the incumbent Democrats they are replacing.”
That sentiment is true regardless of which party ends up with control of Congress in 2014. The party that loses seats in the Senate takes the House, and that should be the GOP’s goal.
The GOP would be wise to focus on the midterms and concentrate more on winning the Senate. This is the only way voters will elect leadership in the future.
2. Trump may actually be helping the GOP, even if he’s not delivering on his promises
“His decision to drop out of the presidential race a few weeks ago probably helped Republicans in many of the states that have been trending Blue
