In his column for the Daily Beast, conservative writer Matt Lewis lamented the decline of the Republican Party dating back to the rise of Donald Trump by claiming the GOP has become obsessed with trying to elevate celebrity candidates whose only qualification for political office is being famous.
That being the case, Lewis suggested the GOP has become a "magnet" for "inexperienced and just plain weird wannabes."
According to Lewis, the former president destroyed any chance the GOP would gain control of the Senate in 2020 when he stepped into the Georgia Senate race with complaints about election fraud and handed the two Senate seats held by Republicans to the Democrats.
Trump, Lewis predicts, is at it again as veteran lawmakers are leaving and the Trump-endorsed candidates who have no business running for the Senate have become the nominees and are proceeding to crash and burn long before the November midterms.
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"If Trump hadn’t sabotaged two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia back in 2020 by insisting the vote was rigged, Republicans would never have lost control of the Senate to begin with. What is more, Sen. Kelly Loeffler would be running for re-election, thus making Herschel Walker’s (shall we say) unorthodox candidacy a moot point," he wrote. "The same could be said for Dr. Oz’s crudités faux pas. Absent Trump, it’s entirely possible that, instead of heading for the exits, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey would be coasting to re-election in the Keystone State."
"Aside from pushing aside quality candidates who might, you know, win— another aspect of Trump’s influence is that he is a magnet for inexperienced and just plain weird wannabes," Lewis continued, before adding, "... politics is different from other pursuits, and just because the rules didn’t apply to Trump in 2016 doesn’t mean they won’t apply to you. And there’s a difference between wanting a bunch of boring establishment career politicians and thinking the U.S. Senate is a no-experience-required gig for washed-up celebrities."
As Lewis points out, Trump will pay no political price if his candidates lose and the Senate remains in Democratic hands and, on top of that, he won't care.
"Trump would rather preside over a MAGA party whose remaining members are 100 percent beholden to him, than a big-tent party whose members think for themselves. He couldn’t care less if Republicans control the Senate in 2022. For Trump it is, and always will be, about Trump," Lewis explained. "If anyone will pay the price politically, it’ll probably be Mitch McConnell, the loyal GOP tactician who so obviously despises Trump—but hesitated to put his own political capital on the line to vanquish him. Should Trump’s band of idiot candidates fail, it will cost McConnell the chance to reclaim the title of majority leader."
You can read more here.
