The dominant factor in this year’s election is the shift to the right in the
Republican Party. It’s a tidal wave that has produced the nomination
of Donald Trump for president, washed statewide partisans such
as Kurt Schaefer on the rocks and now threatens U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt.
This year Blunt is between that rock and a hard place. In normal
times the last thing he would do is support the likes of Donald
Trump. But now, as the tea party wing of the party holds the
GOP establishment hostage, Blunt & Co. are trapped. He and
other mainline GOP colleagues whisper they will vote for the
party nominee, hoping this torturous decision will keep the
support of Trump voters without losing traditional mainliners.
It might be an impossible stretch.
I’ve always liked Roy Blunt, but now he is part of the new Republican
orthodoxy that opposes anything labeled “D,” particularly the
Obama administration.
This has caused him to line up repeatedly with fellow Republicans
voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, an empty flourish aimed
at keeping the oppo-bloc revved up. If re-elected, Blunt will be a
dependable vote for an agenda dictated by the right wing of the
party. In November election, he will vote for Donald Trump largely
because, he says, he can’t abide an “Obama third term,” a comment
without particular substance but with considerable campaign appeal
among the “Never Hillary” crowd.
Indeed, most Republicans who support Trump cite antipathy for Hillary
Clinton. A few have broken ranks, but most are in that hard spot: not
in favor of Trump’s GOP vision but terrified of losing his partisan voters.
These stretched-out Republicans pray their moderate supporters will
coalesce with tea party types to make a majority, a chancy proposition.
In Missouri, Blunt clings to this swaying reed. He hopes to win Missouri
in a squeak by hanging on to Trump’s fraying electoral coattail. In statewide
Missouri elections, gerrymandered state legislative constituencies often
are overwhelmed by a more homogeneous electorate giving Democrats
a better shot. Partisans can’t gerrymander a single statewide district.
Blunt’s Democratic opponent is Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander,
a promising officeholder with a bright political future. In a normal year,
Kander would be a decided underdog. This year he and Blunt are
neck-and-neck.
If elected, Kander would be a competent senator and appealing
for many because he would not be another retrograde Republican.
He would work to overturn Citizens United, the 5-4 Supreme Court
decision allowing unlimited campaign contributions. He would
support a President Clinton’s appointments to the U.S. Supreme
Court. He would work to upgrade, not defeat, the Affordable Care
Act. And so on.
In other words, Jason Kander would resist the reactionary Republican
tidal wave. He could very well be part of a Democratic takeover of
the Senate, which would be a good thing at this moment in history.
If we are to have a Republican, I would just as soon have Roy Blunt as
any I know, but even my old friend is hopelessly hamstrung by a party
that has lurched out of bounds. If he were a true outlier opponent of
Trump and today’s GOP majority, I’d carry his banner and buy him
a drink, but I know of no such political animal. Even Blunt is
engulfed in the unacceptable right-wing political surge. I’ll buy
him a drink any day, but this year I can’t carry his political banner.
Jason Kander for U.S. Senate.