In a recent WaPo OpEd piece, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin points out that Rep. Mark Sanford [R- SC], after mildly criticizing Chumpie, was primaried by a “cheerleader for President Trump” who was then in turn beaten soundly by Democrat Joe Cunningham in a county described by Sanford as the most “conservative district in the country to flip to the Democrats”.
So the local GOPers went for the Chumpbot but the overall populace went blue. Hmm. According to Sanford, one of the reasons for this is current, Trump-inspired, Republican incivility: “I heard it from young soccer moms and longtime Republican voters alike. They don’t want to condone behavior that is counter to what they’ve taught their children.”
Rubin suggests that by Sanford primarying the rat known as Sen. Lindsay Graham [R-SC], he “would do his party, state and country a service” and characterized Graham’s born again Trumpism as burning “with a fervor that stuns colleagues and friends of his former ally, the late senator John McCain (R-AZ)”, further bemoaning Graham’s vote in favor of “a budget-busting tax bill, but he’s also become an all-purpose apologist for
Trump’s lawlessness (e.g., illegally putting an unfit acting attorney general in charge of the Russia probe, undermining the credibility of elections, smearing the FBI).” Rubin believes “Sanford has the unique ability to primary him from the right while bashing him for enabling Trump.”
The interesting thing is that those in the know not only agree with Rubin but have stated that Graham’s conversion to Chumpism stems from a fear of losing his seat, not to a Democrat but to a fellow Republican in the primaries. Sanford could be the one.
