How Their Circular Firing Squad Cost Republicans Georgia And The Senate
The Georgia runoffs would’ve gone the other way had any number of factors turned out differently, but Trump's bad behavior and overreaction to it among others in his party was the central theme.
By Ilya Shapiro
January 20, 2021
Georgia’s new senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, are getting sworn in the same day the nation’s new president is giving the Democrats effective control of the 50-50 Senate. After a Capitol riot aimed at stopping the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral count, then an impeachment and scorched-earth debate on political extremism, the Peach State’s Senate runoffs of just two weeks ago seem like old news.
There is, however, a common thread you can draw from Donald Trump’s actions in this election to outcomes that hurt the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and, more importantly, the country. Yes, other people were involved. Incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler were bad candidates. Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — whom I know and supported in the past — made cynical objections to state electors to fundraise and position themselves ahead of the 2024 presidential primaries.
But Trump further weakened the Georgia senators, and the Cruz-Hawley cabal was trying to curry favor with Trump voters, who were, in turn, taking their cues from the bully pulpit. And it was the president himself who spent two months laying conspiratorial kindling before sparking the mob on the National Mall — later tweeting that he loved the Capitol invaders and, in a video statement telling them to go home still speaking of “a landslide election that was stolen from us.â€
It’s too early to tell the enduring significance of Jan. 6, but Jan. 5 is likely a bigger short-term blow to limited government, individual liberty, and free markets, all things Republicans used to believe in.
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/20/how-their-circular-firing-squad-cost-republicans-georgia-and-the-senate/