Corker, Flake and the goodie 2 shoes gang

[BA Deere]

What the hell is their deal???  We just got done with 8 years of a dyed in the wool socialist and not a peep out of them Sunday school boys, now Trump is in, someone they probably agree with on policy 80% of the time and they are burning down the house.   Someone suggested to me that powerful people must "have something on them" forcing them to fall on their sword in one last ditch effort to take down the president.  Corker/Flake and you could add McCain are raising a flag that no one salutes...we don`t even take a knee to the stupid Flake flag.

Flake is most curious with his fake boy scout act, was he a sleeper senator, just a "placeholder" in a conservative state, voting with the GOP when he had to much like a undercover narc agent snorting cocaine to earn cred amongst the group he infiltrated.  Now when he`s no longer "useful" he bails trying to shoot and stab as many as he can going out the door. 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/9/16079244/jeff-flake-retires-trump 

Though Flake’s critique of Trump hasn’t yet had much of an impact on national policy or Senate business, his admission that he was sure to lose his primary says much about whether Trump critics have a future in the Republican Party.

Because Flake wasn’t just on track for a defeat — he was on track for an overwhelming defeat. He trailed Ward by more than 20 points in two recent polls of GOP primary voters, which is a positively atrocious showing for an incumbent.

Meanwhile, polls generally indicate that Arizona GOP primary voters seem to like the president far more than they like Flake. (A PPP poll found that 65 percent of Arizona Republicans approve of Trump but a mere 22 percent approve of Flake.)

[bruce MN]

Net result could be.2 D Senators from Arizona.

But principles will have been stood by.

[r3020]

They won't be any more progressive than the two they have now.

[rsbs]

Maybe the new democrats will bring some reason to the Perez/Ellison crew.

I agree that you can't get much worse than McCain and Flake....sleeper cells is right.

[BA Deere]

Not that I am big into polls, but the poll in my snip from the story says 65% of Arizonians approve of Trump and 22% approve of Flake....that`s pretty substantial, I don`t see them exactly replacing McCain and Flake with Democrats.  

But Flake is a junior senator elected in `12 in the midst of the Obama reign ...well, wasn`t Obama`s socialism any affront to his precious principles????  I don`t exactly know Flake`s position on policies, but I would imagine that he and Trump overlap much more than he did with Obama....that`s the appearance that he was trying to project anyway.  

The Democrats have totally purged any "moderates" from their party.   So I don`t see how in a red state a "moderate" Democrat could have one big toe in the Democrat party and be accepted and appeal to the red state voters simultaneously.  

Flake is being sour grapes childish, he and Trump agree 80%, why not try and work with the president on the 80% and maintain his precious values at the same time?  The former "gang of 8" member must really like Mexicans, that`s all I`m sayin`.

[bruce MN]

I wouldn’t disagree with that. Dem candidates will be moderates. Even though reading challenged B.B. says there sren’t any, even while moderates still dominate the party in most parts of the country. SEE: The fellow who is running against Judge Moore in Alabama. 

[bruce MN]

It said: 65% of AZ REPUBLICANS, not 65% of Arizonans.

The 22% who support Flake aren’t going to vote for Ward hell or high water. They will mirror the highly significant number of Democrat Obama supporters who were never going to vote for Hillary Clinton.  

The AZ GOP is most certainly going to nominate Ward and be looking to find a clone for in the event that Sen. McCain can no longer serve.

And Arizona is ever more becoming purple. That simply by the fact that Flake and McCain are seated because they won elections they.  It takes success with independents and a bunch of crossover votes to win in a purple state. 

[BA Deere]

Here`s a time capsule quote from your 5:38, last yr on Independent voters

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/independent-voters-are-overrated/Independent Voters Are Overrated | FiveThirtyEight

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Trump’s winning independents is a bad thing. They make up a sizable portion of the electorate, about 34 percent. It’s just that winning them isn’t a sure sign you’re winning the election. If Clinton is doing better among her base than Trump is with his and is able to hold down Trump’s margin with independents, she’ll probably win. If Trump, who has picked up ground in the polls over the past month, starts either blowing Clinton out among independents or starts doing better with his base, then he’ll have a real shot of winning the White House.  

But Trump did win the Independent vote.   What I think you`re counting on is as Mexicans come in they`ll vote Democrat and have babies that`ll also vote Democrat.   But what you are assuming is that all Mexicans are stupid, well some aren`t, some  they`ve been here before Columbus and don`t appreciate what the Dems have done to this country either.

FWIW. As the dossier of Hillary`s/DNC blows up and the media is even less trusted, the wall comes up, the Dow 401K wealth effect, beef consumption goes up more and more will identify as Republican.

[bruce MN]

A poor candidate does particularly poorly when taken for granted voters don’t show up in taken for granted numbers.  That is why Hillary Clinton lost the election. Large numbers of Obama voters either didn’t show show up or voted for a different shot at “change”.  I can’t see with all of the tribalism and the vitriol it creates that is all around how we wouldn’t have a similar mess on our hands as we do presently if she’d picked up a few more votes in a handful of counties in those close states and won. These guys here who are so inscensed over people not being humbled by their tribe having “won something” would be apoplectic had they lost a nail biter 

The thing that that I think you are overestimating is the prospect of alt-right, Ttrumpist candidates winning House and Senate seats in places other than those enclaves where they already are seated. 

Steve King will stay in the House. Kelli Ward is very, very long odds to ever serve in the US Senate.

The rough approach that is in play is going to become tiresome as campaigns start up.  Civility, character and decency are going to be valuable currency. Just the natural progression of things. Not saying that come with a GOP candidate, but internal forces are working hard at preventing that.

[BA Deere]

My crystal ball is no better than anyone elses, but there is a shift that has happened in the last 10yrs where the "race card" no longer works.   People are seeing plenty blacks on college campuses, they see with their own eyes that those on the "lower rungs" drive nicer cars, newer I-Phones, get a leg up at universities and job applications, all the while their family struggles just to stay above water.   And probably like a judgemental ex-smoker those that pulled themselves up don`t have a lot of sympathy for the whiners and complainers.  Make of it what you will, Trump has touched many "3rd rails" and survived, so IMO the old rules of politics no longer surprise.   I see no reason that Kelli Ward won`t stand as good of chance as anyone in winning the senate seat.

Here is a new book out by Laura Ingraham that I believe will explain how we got from there to here.

https://spectator.org/laura-ingraham-gets-it-billionaire-at-the-barricades/  

Not last and certainly not least she touches on the Bush drive — the Establishment GOP obsession with amnesty for illegal immigration. Ingraham captures the problem exactly:

This period of time was among the most alarming and hopeful of the Bush presidency. “Alarming” because never in my life had I seen political leaders display such contempt and indifference toward the people they claimed to represent: “hopeful” because working Americans mounted a brave and tireless uprising and crushed the Establishment’s attempts to force immigration amnesty on the nation.

In fact, that “contempt and indifference” Laura mentions is if anything more evident now than then, which is saying something. It explains without question the passion that lies behind the Trumpsters of today who vividly understand the open contempt directed at them by elites — and seethe at the wild and contemptuous characterization of them as, in Hillary’s words, “deplorables.”

The book moves on through the unifying force for Republicans that was the Obama presidency. And then… the Trump era dawns.

Laura begins with a speech she gave to CPAC in 2015 in which she lit into the GOP Establishment. And in typical Laura Ingraham straightforward style she asked the thousands of conservatives present: “How many of you in the room are skeptical of another Bush term?” She writes: “Hundreds of hands shot up, as hoots and whistles filled the air.” Right there was a vivid illustration of what was coming down the GOP’s and the nation’s political highway.