By Steve BermanRepublican big money donors are looking to the center for their candidates. Democrat far-left money is fighting with centrist cash, with Joe Biden stuck in the middle. Though still followed by a significant chunk of Republicans, Donald Trump’s ability to generate cash (besides his current war chest, which is about 10 percent of what it takes to run a presidential campaign) is likely hobbled. Trump will be spending his money on legal defense.
The GOP is flecked with nuts, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy giving away so much in exchange for his position, with so many promises that none of them can be kept. The nuts, though popular for critics to use as proof the GOP has gone mad, really wield less power than the far-left extremists embedded in the Democratic Party.
Erick Erickson noted that big Republican donors are looking at Gov. Ron DeSantis, and his ability to “make a pivot to jobs and the economy and not just battling woke businesses.” He offered recommendations to combat Trump’s points, which will undoubtedly focus—as he always has—on Mexico and China. Trump, in fact, was not particularly hard on either nation. Biden is now moving toward some Trump-era policies regarding immigration, and he’s gotten tough on China, having never really reversed the Trump tariffs.
We know candidates will rise and fall, like they did in 2016; one moment it was Ben Carson, then it was Ted Cruz, then Marco Rubio, but Trump put them all in the dumpster. Donors don’t see it going that way this time, but they are playing their cash game carefully.
If Democrats go with Biden, who just introduced a $6.9 trillion budget he knows can’t possibly pass, including a 3.2% lift for defense, matching the rise for mandatory entitlement spending like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, they have to realize Biden will automatically move to the center, where the votes are. This will annoy and dishearten the far-left, who may back a primary challenger to their liking.
And there’s Mexico. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador apparently sided with the cartels, blaming the U.S. fentanyl crisis on Americans. He denounced the Republican Party, even threatening to create an organization to encourage American hispanics to vote against the GOP. López Obrador is giving Republicans a gift. American hispanics are not supportive of “woke” efforts by liberal white academics who foisted the hated “latinx” label on them, but neither are they supportive of the racist screeds of Trump and his ilk.
Mexico and American hispanics could drive both the GOP and the Democrats to the center, and this gives Republicans more hope than Democrats.
Republicans have a chance to go to the center, if DeSantis, Nikki Haley and whoever else is coming in will pivot, and cut off the poison far-right and its Fox News entertainment complex.
There is hope, but it doesn’t lie with Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, or their fellow travelers. It may lie with Mexican-Americans, immigrants, Asian Americans and the center.
Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.
The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at ideas@thefirsttv.com.