Going, going, GOP
“Is it us or is it Trump?” is the question asked in the Colorado Sun’s Nov. 19 analysis of the true-blue wave in Colorado’s recent election leaving the state with a Democratic trifecta in state government and costing one Republican U.S. representative his job.
As it often is with either/or questions, the answer is both. Let’s take Rep. Scott Tipton (please). He won reelection in a blood-red district with lot of hats — cowboy, hard and John Deere — but by a much smaller margin than in the past to Diane Mitsch Bush.
Tipton’s had his nose right up Trump’s butt for two years, and that hurt him with women, millennials and minorities. Trump’s misogyny, reactionary policies and a serious tactical error campaigning on his immigration program, rather than the economy, hurt Tipton among those groups.
Thirty-nine percent of those polled disapprove of Trump’s immigration policies. That’s lower than his overall job approval rating. The economy isn’t improving at the spectacular rate it did in the first two years of the Obama administration, but it’s getting better. The immigration situation isn’t.
Focusing on the cruel, racist and xenophobic immigration crackdown doomed Rep. Mike Coffman. His district has a large Latino population.
Now let’s look at Tipton separate from Trump, if we can. It is well known Tipton is a political whore for any corporate or special interest PAC that will finance his campaigns. He stands for nothing but money and there are many in the 3rd Congressional District who’d like to see him represent them.
In the Colorado Sun analysis, several GOP strategists said the party should stay the course and wait for the Dems to screw up with their tax-and-spend policies. This is very shortsighted.
The old white guys who make up the Republican base are dying off and being replaced by above mentioned women, millennials and minorities who have a political outlook completely at odds with the party of Trump. The status quo will mean the end of the Grand Old Party.
Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale
