Trump Has to Choose: Lose Like Dukakis, or Like Goldwater
If the Republican nominee is defeated in a landslide, the party may be powerless to influence Clinton’s agenda and administration.
Trump is approaching his last chance to turn a catastrophic campaign into an ordinarily unsuccessful campaign: to rise from Goldwater debacle to respectable Dukakis defeat.
.. The difference between a Goldwater and Dukakis outcome is the difference between holding a Republican majority in at least one chamber of Congress and a down-ballot deluge that would open the way to a new bout of Democratic legislative activism.
For conservatives,
- it is the difference between mitigating the excesses of the Affordable Care Act and driving onward to government-run health insurance;
- between another burst of tax increases and the opportunity to bargain for tax cuts; between influence over Supreme Court appointments and being powerless as the justices are replaced;
- between outright amnesty for immigrants who are in the country illegally and stopping people from coming over U.S. borders.
.. The most powerful advertising dollar is the first, the dollar that turns “no advertising” into “some advertising.”
.. It really is possible to show respect for the achievements and contributions of America’s legal immigrants––past, present, and future––while also addressing American concerns about immigration. During her previous presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton opposed drivers’ licenses for people who are in the country illegally. Her position has evolved now to opposing virtually all and any enforcement action against illegal immigrants, unless they have committed some major non-immigration-related crime.