Republicans are 'hellbent on nominating a likely loser' because Trump is all they believe in: conservative
Republicans are heading for disaster with former President Donald Trump cruising to a likely nomination for 2024 — but are blindly oblivious to this fact because they don't trust any piece of outside information that would alert them to this, wrote conservative columnist Matt Lewis for The Daily Beast on Monday.
Lewis' warning to the Republican Party comes amid other soundoffs from experts that the GOP rank and file doesn't know or care it's heading for a potential crash.
"Let’s start with the notion that he can’t beat Joe Biden. Anyone who watched Trump defy the experts in 2016 should be skeptical of such declarations. But according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, '53% of Americans say they would definitely not support [Trump] if he is the nominee,'" wrote Lewis. "This leaves Trump with 47% of the electorate that is 'gettable,' which is an important caveat when you consider that he picked the Electoral College lock by winning just 46 percent of the popular vote in 2016." But it's even worse than it looks because "in addition to the 53% who definitely won’t vote for Trump in 2024, 'Another 11 percent say they would probably not support him in November 2024' — which is to say that 64% of voters are unlikely to support Trump.
"POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
Republicans are not aware of this — but nor do they particularly care either, wrote Lewis.
"Republicans have quit believing the establishment media and their polls (here, I have some sympathy). Despite his many losses, there is a lingering perception that Trump can pull off miracles (as he did in 2016), and that the media is out to get him," wrote Lewis. "What is more, there really isn’t a better option. Republicans believe that Trump is more electable than Ron DeSantis, who is in second place, nationally (even CNN concludes these voters may be right about that)." And even if Trump supporters did know about Trump's electability issues, it likely wouldn't matter, because 65 percent poll as saying they'd rather a candidate share their values than be electable. They are, in short, sticking to Trump with a religious fervor.
What this means is that 2024 is likely to end up a rerun of 2020, wrote Lewis — and the result is likely to be the same.
"It’s possible that some external event will prevent another Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden matchup," concluded Lewis. "But for that to happen, it will probably take an act of God — not an act of political persuasion."