{"id":1445,"date":"2019-01-03T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T15:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2019-01-03T10:29:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T15:29:17","slug":"through-his-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/03\/through-his-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Through His Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through His Eyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best when read accompanied by In Your Eyes<\/a> by Peter Gabriel <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for all of us Democrats, it seems the President has placed himself in an impossible position. He\u2019s defended \u201cWALL\u201d using the Vatican as an example, tweeting that \u201cWALLS\u201d and \u201cwheels\u201d have worked for thousands of years, and creating stories about the Obama\u2019s home protection (not a ten foot wall.)  <\/em>He has let Vice President Pence and Senator Lindsey Graham float possible compromises, and then quickly denounced their ideas.  He gave a twenty-minute rambling explanation on national television during the cabinet meeting, then called Democrats to the \u201cSituation Room\u201d to tell them how they should vote.  Not surprisingly, they didn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems unreasonable, unthinking, and unhinged.  He has closed parts of the government, holding hundreds of thousands of paychecks and national parks hostage for \u201cWALL.\u201d  From any reasonable political standpoint he has backed himself into an unwinnable corner; if he doesn\u2019t get his $5 Billion for \u201cWALL\u201d and reopen the government, he loses. Even the Republican leaders, notably Senator Mitch McConnell, are silent on the issue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at the numbers. According to Gallup Polling<\/a>, <\/em>the President\u2019s overall approval rating is 39% approve, 55% disapprove (and a poor 5% don\u2019t have an opinion.)  89% of Republicans approve of his Presidency, with 39% of independents and 8% of Democrats (really, Democrats?)  And finally, 26% of American voters consider themselves Republican, 32% Democrat, and 39% Independent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a little math from an old government teacher (check the figuring.)   What President Trump\u2019s Republican approval number really represents, is 89% of 26%, or 23% of the total voting population.  So why does that give him so much confidence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is that it doesn\u2019t, but there is one more figure that needs to be noted.  In the 2016 primary election the overall voter turnout, according to Pew Research<\/a><\/em>was 14.8% of registered voters.  This is compared to the 61.4%<\/a>turnout in the general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14.8% of American voters chose the candidates for President.  14.8% also chose the candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives. That small sliver of the voting population controls who gets to go on the general election ballot; they are the motivated party voters who clearly identify.  In the Republican Party, they are the 89% that approve of the Trump Presidency.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the President has this weapon remaining:  his approval (or disapproval) still controls the Republican Party electorate.  His tweet, or off-hand comment, really does have the power to end a political career.  Ask Republican Congressman Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a career politician who had been Governor of the state.  He had the audacity to criticize Donald Trump, and the President successfully backed his primary opponent.  Sanford retires today from the Congress (notably, Democrat Joe Cunningham won the seat in the general election.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newly minted Republican Senator Mitt Romney criticized the President in a Washington Post<\/a><\/em>editorial.  But Romney is in a unique position as the Senator from Utah, one of the \u201creddest\u201d states in the country that does not strongly support the President.  The Mormon influence in the state does not blend well with the President\u2019s background and actions; Romney is politically safe to criticize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while the President\u2019s position on the \u201cWALL\u201d is not popular (62% of Americans do not support it<\/a>) it absolutely does resonate with the Republican base.  Keeping that base happy is essential to the President\u2019s survival, as their happiness gives him power over Republican Senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is foreseeable that the Democratic House of Representatives will find it necessary to impeach the President.  Impeachment is the bringing of charges to the Senate, it is up to the Senate of the United States to determine whether to remove the President from office (historically no President has been removed from office, Andrew Johnson survived by one vote in 1869, and Richard Nixon resigned prior to being impeached.)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate requires two-thirds vote to remove from office, sixty-seven Senators.  Currently the Senate has fifty-three Republicans, forty-five Democrats and two Independents (Sanders of Vermont, King of Maine) that caucus with the Democrats.  To remove the President it would require all the Democrats and Independents, plus TWENTY Republican Senators.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WALL isn\u2019t about security on the Southern Border.  It isn\u2019t really even about the President showing his muscles to the new House of Representatives.  What it is about is solidifying the Republican base to maintain control of the Republican Senators.  This has been the President\u2019s \u201cRussiagate\u201d strategy since Rudy Giuliani was hired; it\u2019s not about the law, or the facts, but about keeping the BASE to keep pressure on the Senate when impeachment comes up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my fellow \u201cResistance\u201d members; this is not time to despair.  The Mueller report is not completed, we don\u2019t know what Robert Mueller knows, and neither does the House or the Senate.  Until that information is revealed, and the Nation gets to see what really happened, we can\u2019t determine the impact.  The \u201cconcrete wall\u201d that Trump is trying to build around his base may turn out to be a slatted fence, or bamboo, or simple a dirt line in the sand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Report arrives, we may well see the view change through Republican Senators\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through His Eyes Best when read accompanied by In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel  So for all of us Democrats, it seems the President has placed himself in an impossible position. He\u2019s defended \u201cWALL\u201d using the Vatican as an example, tweeting that \u201cWALLS\u201d and \u201cwheels\u201d have worked for thousands of years, and creating stories about the Obama\u2019s … Continue reading “Through His Eyes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThrough His Eyes : Our America - 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