After what happened to Donald Trump in Louisiana on Saturday night, he might want to undergo another “unscheduled” “partial” medical exam at Walter Reed. Because the very bad week he just weathered could not have ended in a more humiliating fashion.
He was eviscerated in the opening round of impeachment hearings by three stellar career public servants who nailed him for blatantly abusing his office, and, subsequently, he was dimed out by a foreign service officer who testified under oath that he heard Trump on the phone jonesing for (fake) dirt from Ukraine on Joe Biden. Elsewhere last week, Trump was rebuked by two federal courts in his ongoing quest to hide his tax returns. Elsewhere, he saw Roger Stone, his longest-serving political henchman, convicted in a criminal trial that featured sworn testimony from a former 2016 campaign aide who tied Trump directly to Russia’s ’16 election invasion…Have I left anything out? Oh right, he worked his thumbs on Twitter to yet again slime the career of his fired ambassador to Ukraine, a social media moment so despicable that it even discomfited some of his lickspittles.
But despite all those humiliations – this guy is so far over his head, he could wear a snorkel in a kiddie pool and still drown – he has clung to the belief that he has magical powers on the campaign trail; that all he needs to do is find a red-state candidate to tout, and an arena of credulous fans to con, and then all will be well. Which is one big reason why he stumped in Kentucky for Gov. Matt Bevin, and in Louisiana last week for GOP gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone. He actually trekked twice to Louisiana; he’d won it in 2016 by 20 points, so what could possibly go wrong?
So when he showed up the other night, he naturally made the Louisiana race all about him. He was feeling needier than usual – given the fact that his impeachment is on the horizon, and that Kentucky loser Matt Bevin had just conceded his race. So, two nights before Saturday’s election, Trump begged the Louisiana rally: “You’ve got to give me a big win, O.K.?”
They gave him squat.
I’m reminded of a Paul Simon lyric, in a song from the ’80s: “Believing I had supernatural powers / I slammed into a brick wall.”
The purported “radical” that Trump was trying to oust, incumbent Democrat John Bel Edwards, won a second term by 40,000 votes – thus becoming the first Louisiana Democratic governor to win re-election since 1975. And Edwards prevailed, most notably, because suburbanites turned out in massive numbers – the same trend that powered the Democrats’ 2018 blue-wave midterms; the same trend, earlier this month, that turned the Virginia legislature blue for the first time in a quarter century; that ousted Matt Bevin in Kentucky; and that swept Democrats into power in three suburban Philadelphia counties. In suburban Jefferson Parish, Hillary Clinton won only 41 percent of the presidential vote in 2016 – but Gov. Edwards pulled 57 percent.
Granted, Edwards is not the kind of Democrat that would play well in the north. An outspoken foe of abortion, he has strong conservative credentials and ran on conservative state issues. But Eddie Rispone, the Republican challenger and businessman, made his campaign a virtual referendum on Trump. Heck, he virtually touted himself as a Trump Mini-Me.
He ran an early ad that highlighted the Trump sticker on his pickup truck. He ran a nationalized race, mimicking Trump’s favorite issues. On the stump, he’d boast that he and Trump were phone buddies. And the Trump bumper sticker ad was just a warmup; in two subsequent ads, he featured footage of Trump – and none of himself.
Trump had urged Louisiana voters to “send a message to the corrupt Democrats in Washington,” but the message they’ve actually sent is one that Republicans in Washington would be wise to heed. It’s quite simple:
Trump’s act is wearing thin even in the suburbs of red states. Imagine how turbulent the waters will be in 2020, if they persist in lashing themselves to his pirate mast.