In reply to: The Maryland Senate race shows Hogan with solid posted by Raoul
You need to rethink. Hogan is a good, capable, and honest man. He is the best candidate in the field. Vote for him. Don't be a dumb shit.
We should be propping these types up as much as possible, for the sake of both parties and our country as a whole.
The Oregon GOP basically got taken over by Christian Nationalist wackos like Dallas Heard (who themselves have since stepped down, I think).
My former neighbor was the head of the Multco GOP and was pushed out years back by some dude who had the ear of the Proud Boys and brought muscle to a meeting. I can't even concoct a better story.
Even if a decent fellow wanted to ignore these asshats and run on a moderate platform, they'd be vilified as "extremists!" by anyone even slightly left of center.
I think the GOP is beyond saving - they should just bring back the Whigs and abandon it at this point.
Oregon Lefties are so out of touch with reality that anyone who is center left or right of that is "a fascist!!!!". There's no point in running moderate or center-right GOP candidates in Oregon- they'll be labeled MAGA extremists anyways, so why not just run the actual MAGA extremists. It's maddening.
You claim to be a Republican, and this guy seems to embody all the characteristics you'd want a non-Trump Republican to have.
Why would you not support someone like that?
With close numbers in the House and Senate, voting for any Republican could empower a GOP majority. And given that at least today, the GOP is ruled by MAGA, that isn't something I would enable.
A GOP majority completely under the spell of MAGA?
or
A GOP majority where MAGA's power is blunted?
Hogan doesn’t endorse the batshit crazy MAGA agenda (in fact he is very publicly against it and a RHINO in MAGA circles) and I believe he has the integrity not to do it in the Senate. I prefer him to an unabashed progressive like the two alternatives.
At least that's my guess based on his previous posts. Basically, he thinks any Republican win is seen as support of MAGA even if the candidate is not MAGA.
I don't know if he's right or not. It's a hypothetical, and I can see both sides being right --- full purge vs. supporting the type of Republican candidate that embodies non-MAGA Republican.
MAGA isn't going away, at least not any time soon. It's not like the nitwits in places like MTG and Gaetz's districts suddenly will have road-to-Damascus moments and stop believing the nonsense they believe.
Those people always existed, they just existed as a minority within the Republican party up until now. The only solution is to withhold votes from their candidates until the movement recedes into the background again, not to keep normal Republicans out of positions of power where they might do some good. Discouraging normal Republicans means they end up walking away and the task of getting rid of MAGA's becomes much more difficult.
If a Hogan-type was in my district, I'd crawl over broken glass to vote for him.
The closest thing I have is John Cornyn and he's not up for a while.
As noted earlier, I voted in the Texas Republican primary and left most of the boxes blank. It was truly a vote for "Quien es mas loco?" I voted against one guy I spoke to because he was clearly a disphit but little did I know that the guy I ended up voting for was 10x worse.
I think Ted Cruz might actual have a fight on his hands. Beto should've beaten him but Beto's not that bright. Allred is much smarter. Cruz's ace in the hole is probably the presidential election. The Red Hat ACP will be out in droves.
Not to keeping arguing on Barney's behalf, but I can understand his argument for the purge. Basically, the Republican party must be totally destroyed in order for it to be rebuilt.
Personally, I don't think he's right for the reasons that you mention -- MAGA's red state grip is not going away. Combined with the power of stupidity, MAGA wins if Hogan wins or loses. If he loses, then it's a point in their argument (at least, I assume it will be their argument) that Hogan is a RINO and the next candidate there will be full MAGA. If he wins, then he's a Republican/MAGA vote. MAGA only loses if Hogan wins and has the stones to stand up to MAGA. Are there ten Republicans that have been able to pull that off and win re-election?
Is there any chance he votes against the party if Trump wins the election? I just don't see it. Trump and his supporters would make every part of his life a living hell.
Look at Manchin or Sinema recently, or the Gang of Six from years ago, or the ACA vote wrangling process. When every vote counts, a centrist can leverage their vote to extract concessions and alter the bill.
Hogan seems like someone that would join a new Gang of Six to push forward a bi-partisan bill aimed at fixing one of our numerous problems. Look at his rational for entering the race:
“I still don’t have any burning desire to be a senator. I wasn’t looking for a title. I don’t need a job. But I’m just so frustrated with how broken our political system is,” Hogan said in an interview with CNN during a campaign stop at a food market in Baltimore last week. “George Bush was a pretty good salesperson trying to convince me that the party and the country needed me, and I would have had an important voice that I can make a difference.”
Someone that doesn't want the job is the exact person that we need. We have plenty of power hungry pols running around DC already, we don't need another one.
To the contrary, I'm quite sure he's aware of everything you've said.
He's shown no inclination to work with Trump before, why would he suddenly start doing it now?
And what would be the point of MAGA primary-ing him in Maryland? They have absolutely zero traction there.
I don't subscribe to Barney's stance. People should vote for whoever (whomever?) they want. I don't know anything about Hogan beyond this thread. If he's as you and others have described then I hope he wins as I lean toward the notion that principled, moderate Republicans are the key to defeating MAGA or at least keeping it in check. I guess I'm just skeptical that he will cross party lines to vote moderate.
Of course, Hogan is aware of everything I said. It's his career, and I'm barely even a political observer. But, also, it's his career. MAGA can "defeat" him without primary-ing him. They can keep him off desired committees, cut him off from any party financing, etc. Those are just the behind the scenes things.
If I could get a guarantee that Cruz loses in Texas.
I am concerned that with more time the senate becomes more MAGAfied and party leadership/control matters more than individual members.
I really hope that once Trump leaves the scene we can go back to having boring politicians and fights over policy.
Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney -- all RINOs who would be rejected by Trump and the MAGA contingent. For God's sake, we are probably less than a decade away from Trump being deemed a RINO which is pretty funny because he is the only one that is actually a RINO since he's a Democrat.
There is a giant swath of the country that feels like they've been left behind, and they aren't wrong. They've been shucked like an ear of corn for 50 years. Well, now there's nothing left but the husk --- and their votes. They don't care who the candidate is, they just want to see the whole thing blown up. I'm not sure I can blame them. I put far more blame on the single-issue abortion voter and the head in the sand debt/deficit voter. They were the ones that decided "I know this candidate is bat shit crazy, but at least they aren't an abortion-loving, heavy-spending Democrat". Nevermind that Republicans regularly run deficits that would make Democrats weak in the knees and that many Republican candidates have far different personal views and experiences with abortion than their political "stance" would suggest.
We've had waves of nativism in the past, accelerating partisanship, etc.
Sometimes it takes a war or some sort of inflection point to reset things. Sometimes people just get tired of fighting each other and passions cool.
The problem right now is moderates have little to no leverage. There are many pro Ukraine/moderate GOP house members. They won't do anything to pressure leadership because they know they would be eaten alive in a primary and it doesn't matter in a general.
My hope is post Trump the MAGA types have less juice in the primary and the party cares a built more about leadership/governing. But alas probably not a hope grounded in reality.
I think it ends with him.
The only common policy across MAGA is who can be the biggest asshole and the answer will always be Trump. The rest is just celebrity and fear. There's no mantle to hand because there's nobody to take it. No one's spent the past 40-50 years polishing his bullshit brand.
But I see people like Tucker Carlson out there, and maybe even Don Jr.
A little name recognition and charisma might get it done.
I guess we'll keep hoping.
He has an animal cunning. He has a deplorable charisma but it is charisma. People should be studying his branding strategies which are less strategy and more finely tuned gut instinct.
I don't think we've had anyone remotely like Trump in 250 years and I don't expect another soon.
The second the GOP stops fearing him, I think it'll be a race to see who can disavow him the fastest and the loudest.
My money's on Marco Rubio. Fuck, I can't believe I voted for that guy in the primary.
It's possible that without the massive bully pulpit that Trump wields that moderate Republicans will be able to start winning primaries again after he's gone. Similar to this Hogan guy, I'm skeptical but hopeful.
Every post you make on this board claims that you're a purported conservative who laments the current state of the Republican party and what Trump has done to it. I hear you. I'm a right of center voter who has voted third party the past two elections because I would never under any circumstance vote for Trump (and live in a solid blue state, so don't have to worry that my third party vote could help Trump win). But if you claim to be an old school Republican, like Larry Hogan, and claim to be sad not to vote for him, why not just vote for him? Because he has an R next to his name? We need some decent people with Rs next to their name to win elections if the party is ever to become something respectable again.