Over at the Journal Sentinel, while lamenting his party’s current politics, conservative Christian Schneider quotes from a Courtney Barnett song:
“I must confess I’ve made a mess of what should be a small success.”
Now I’m a libertarian, but well aware of how many ideological conservatives feel out of place in Trump’s GOP. Schneider is such a conservative. I’ve a genuine sympathy for those who feel they’ve lost an ideological home, even if it’s not a feeling I share. (I’ve been home for forever in libertarianism, so to speak.)
Libertarians are outside the two-party dynamic, but outside still offers a view. From this outsider’s view, the GOP looks unrecognizable even from a decade ago.
The clever lyrics Schneider applies to his party are as much understatement as anything, considering how very different this year looks.
They are, however, lyrics worth remembering in the months ahead, as America is likely to have more need of confessing that we’ve ‘made a mess of what should be a small success.’
Do you think Johnson-Weld will break 15%? That’s what we need for the debates.
I don’t think so, sadly. I think we’ll land around 5%, but that’s still a lot for us. If Trump implodes, we’ll do better as otherwise GOP-leaning voters abandon him for Johnson. That could might push our vote share higher.
Sanders voters, by the way, will vote Clinton; in the end they’ll not go with Trump.
So if we are to do better this year, our additonal votes will come from disaffected Republicans and independents who abandon Trump.