By: Cliff Kincaid

Karl Rove, the de facto head of the Trump 2020 Campaign, has apparently arranged for his old boss, George W. Bush, to campaign for four Republican Senators in danger of losing their seats this November. All four are either out-of-touch with conservatives or outright liberals. They are Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Martha McSally (Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

The “Save the Senate” move reflects Trump’s declining poll numbers, but the Bush presidency was also a disaster, as the economy was taken down in 2008 by a housing crisis that was used to justify massive federal intervention, leading Bush to declare, “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” On foreign policy, Bush was known as an advocate of what his father called a “New World Order,” based on American interventions in the Middle East that failed to resolve age-old conflicts but produced thousands of American wounded warriors.

In his retirement, George W. Bush paints pictures of those injured by the wars he started.  A book with the paintings, Portraits of Courage Deluxe Signed & Personalized Edition, can be purchased for $350.00.

Of the four Senators, Gardner is the most notorious. Calling himself a “common-sense conservative,” Gardner was labeled a “pot whore” by drug policy expert Dave Evans because he does anything the Colorado-based marijuana industry demands of him. Collins is a long-time anti-Trump liberal and McSally is a lackluster female candidate that the Republican establishment has tried twice to make into a Senator.

McSally lost a race for one Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and then was selected to fill the seat of former Senator John McCain when he died. She tried to attract conservative votes when she called CNN’s Manu Raju a “liberal hack.” This led to an appearance on Fox News. She also made a few headlines by questioning Fed chairman Jerome Powell about the central bank using a firm called BlackRock linked to China. Otherwise, she has pursued a “moderate” course.

Tillis called Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch “a fair, independent-minded judge with impeccable qualifications” and added that “He will be an outstanding Supreme Court Justice.” All of this talk has blown up in his face.

Of course, Gorsuch has betrayed conservative voters with his disastrous ruling, backed by Chief Justice John Roberts and the four members of the Court’s liberal bloc, in favor of LGBTQ rights. The ruling overturned state laws and threatens religious liberty across the land, as many conservatives feel betrayed by Trump and those who backed Gorsuch, including such powerhouse “conservative” groups as the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.

With Trump’s reelection in doubt, Democrats only need to win four seats to take back the Senate, and right now, they claim they are leading in five of the most competitive races. Those races are:

  • Governor Steve Bullock (D) leads Steve Daines (R) 46-39 in Montana.
  • Sara Gideon is leading Susan Collins 47-43 in Maine.
  • Mark Kelly is leading Martha McSally 51-41 in Arizona.
  • Cal Cunningham is leading Thom Tillis 46-44 in North Carolina.
  • John Hickenlooper is leading Cory Gardner 54-36 in Colorado.

With a Senate takeover, while keeping the House under Nancy Pelosi’s speakership, America would have a one-party government under President Biden. And with Justices Roberts and Gorsuch voting with the four liberal members of the Court, this would give the left-wing control over all three branches of government. All of Trump’s appointees to other federal court positions would be of little or no value, as any conservative rulings could be overturned on appeal.

Even though most voters believe 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has early dementia, he is leading Trump by big margins, as many as 14 points, in most polls.

While some believe Trump’s decline in the polls is not permanent, and that some surveys underestimate his appeal, there can be no doubt that his presidency is in deep trouble. But what is most worrisome to many conservatives is the acknowledged role being played in his campaign — and the campaigns of Republican Senators and candidates — by former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove. He is known as someone who likes to appeal to Democrat voters with “moderate” or liberal platitudes and positions. That is guaranteed to make conservatives stay home.

Taking this advice, Trump is pandering to the liberal-left, making favorable comments about the return of anti-cop activist and former football player Colin Kaepernick to the NFL.  “Trump softens on Kaepernick” was one headline. The former player once wore socks depicting police officers as pigs and donated $25,000 donation to an activist group, Assata’s Daughters, named after Assata Shakur/Joanne Chesimard, a cop-killer who fled to Communist Cuba.

In other liberal moves, Trump has endorsed federal legislation to regulate police forces that are normally under the control of local governments. On the matter of riots that have been spreading across the country, Trump threatens to restore law and order but does nothing, except clear out some protesters across the street from the White House who burned a historic church.

Meanwhile, Communist North Korea is starting another crisis with the United States, and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Member Yang Jiechi in Honolulu, Hawaii “to exchange views on U.S.-China relations.”

“I’m a little upset with China” over the coronavirus, Trump had said. As of June 18, a total of 117,000 people had died in the U.S. because of the disease and the figure could reach 200,000 by October. At the same time, over 40 million Americans have been thrown out of work because of government economic lockdowns designed to prevent the spread of the virus.

The official U.S. State Department release stated that Pompeo stressed “important American interests and the need for fully-reciprocal dealings between the two nations across commercial, security, and diplomatic interactions” and “the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks.”

It’s a little late for this kind of pandering and appeasement. The meeting alone demonstrated American weakness.

Meanwhile, Trump administration U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was on Capitol Hill, saying it’s unreasonable to expect that the United States could decouple its economy from China’s.

It’s the kind of business-as-usual approach we would have expected from Obama/Biden and Bush. This is another reason why Trump is in deep trouble.

  • Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. usasurvival.org.