Asa Hutchinson Of Arkansas

The Republican Party’s Pitiful Upcoming Debate In Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

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The upcoming Republican Presidential debate on Wednesday evening, without Donald Trump’s participation, seems certain to be pitiful in nature.

Most of the candidates are unwilling to alienate MAGA supporters of Donald Trump, so it is expected they will not be critical of the frontrunner, who is so far ahead, that one wonders what is the point of debates as things stand for now!

Only Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson seem willing to utter any criticism of Trump, although if Will Hurd makes the debate, he might also do so to some extent.

But Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, and Doug Burgum clearly have no guts or courage to denounce Trump, so the debate is a waste of time!

A Most Despicable Governor: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Of Arkansas! :(

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former Press Secretary to President Donald Trump, became well known for incessant lying and nastiness in that role.

But she managed to promote her profile to the point of believing that she was qualified to run for Arkansas Governor, a position her father, Mike Huckabee, held from 1996-2007.

Her father, once seen as moderate, has become a right wing religious extremist since leaving office in 2007, and his daughter now is surpassing earlier Arkansas governors in moving the state further to the bottom.

Hard to believe that the state once had Winthrop Rockefeller as a Republican governor, and Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton as Democratic governors.

And the most recent Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, while conservative, came across as “reasonable”, and is now challenging Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, and is showing guts and courage as a critic of Trump, a rarity in the present.

But Huckabee Sanders is copying Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his meanness and nastiness, on such issues as race, gender, sexuality, health care, and child labor.

She is promoting discrimination against gays and lesbians; waging war against abortion rights; refusing to allow an African American Advanced Placement history course in high school curriculums; taking poor Arkansans off Medicaid; allowing child labor to return to her state; and threatening librarians with prison terms if they do not remove materials and promote “Book Banning”!

The state is in the bottom five nationally in so many statistics, but Huckabee Sanders is following DeSantis’s playbook, and has national Presidential ambitions, which is stunning, since she has zero qualifications for the Presidency, and is not very smart intellectually!

Donald Trump Indictments Mounting Up

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Former President Donald Trump has already been indicted twice, and it now seems clear that he will be indicted in the next couple of weeks at least twice more–by Jack Smith regarding the January 6 Insurrection in Washington, DC, and in Georgia for interference in the election results in that state in the Presidential Election of 2020.

Additionally, “fake” electors in Michigan have been indicted by the Michigan Attorney General, and more such indictments may follow in other states that Trump supporters challenged in an unethical, illegal fashion–including Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump is taking the Republican Party down with him, as even now, the leaders in Congress, including Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, Congressman Jim Jordan, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and many others continue to claim that Trump has not engaged in corrupt behavior, but that Joe Biden has done so!

And except for Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, no other Republican contender for the White House is willing to show guts and courage, and denounce Trump, and call for him not to be allowed to compete for the Presidency!

Only One Republican Senator And Many Republican Governors In Presidential Race Of 2024!

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With the Presidential Election campaign beginning with the announcement of numerous Republicans having declared their candidacy or about to announce, an odd point to make is that ONLY one Republican Senator, Tim Scott of South Carolina, has announced his candidacy, and it is highly unlikely any other Republican Senators will join the fray.

Instead, the bulk of candidates are those who have served as Governors in the past or the present.

This includes Ron DeSantis (Florida), Nikki Haley (South Carolina), Mike Pence (Indiana), Asa Hutchinson (Arkansas), Doug Burgum (North Dakota), Kristi Noem (South Dakota), Chris Christie (New Jersey), Chris Sununu (New Hampshire), Glenn Youngkin (Virginia), and Greg Abbott (Texas).

In 2016, the following US Senators ran for the Republican Presidential nomination: Ted Cruz (Texas), Marco Rubio (Florida), Rand Paul (Kentucky), Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania), and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina). All except Santorum are still in the Senate, but not choosing to run this cycle!

There are also other Republican Senators rumored to have Presidential ambitions, including Rick Scott (Florida), Josh Hawley (Missouri), and Tom Cotton (Arkansas), but they have chosen to stay out of the race.

Is There A Jon Huntsman Or John Kasich In The Republican Presidential Campaign Of 2024?

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With the Republican Presidential race in high gear now, with the entrance later today of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, two days after the entrance of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the question arises?

Is there anyone in the Republican Party who has the potential to draw support and acclaim as occurred with former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr. in 2012, or former Ohio Governor John Kasich in 2016?

Neither Huntsman nor Kasich went very far in the race, but both gained respect and applause as reasonably decent candidates.

But are there any such individuals now?

Theoretically, there might be with Senator Tim Scott; or possibly former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; or possibly New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu; or possibly former Texas Congressman Will Hurd; or finally, former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

But it does seem like a long haul to compare any of them to Huntsman or Kasich, realistically!

Three Likely Republican Contenders For The White House Are Trump Critics!

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There are three potential Republican Presidential contenders who are standing out as major critics of Donald Trump.

None of the three have announced they will run, but it seems likely they will do so.

They are:

Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu

And Sununu is an outlier, in that he is saying that the Republicans need to stop trying to outlaw abortion nationally, as former Vice President Mike Pence and many other Republicans are advocating.

The question is whether any one of these three individuals can overcome the tremendous edge of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, and even others, including Mike Pence, Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley.

Republican Party Committing Suicide, Except For Asa Hutchinson And Chris Christie!

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It is beyond all sanity that just about ALL Republican Party leaders and office holders are rushing to the defense of Donald Trump, and interfering with a local New York investigation into his financial wrongdoings!

Only at this point do we see former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who has just announced his Presidential candidacy, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is expected to announce his Presidential candidacy soon, willing to back away from Trump, and indicate they would not support the idea of his becoming President again via the Presidential Election of 2024!

To see former Vice President Mike Pence condemn the indictment by the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is shocking, as well as the outrageous statements of Senator Lindsey Graham, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and a multitude of others, who clearly think the rule of law does not apply to a former President who abused the Constitution and undermined civil order in the nation!

Republican Governors Vs Democratic Governors: The Future Battles!

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As one looks ahead to future political battles, one cannot ignore the growing role of Republican governors being challenged by Democratic governors, usually a “fraternity” in which the members share a “camaraderie”, but not so in 2023, 2024, and beyond!

A number of former or sitting Republican governors are seen as likely to seek the Presidency, and even those who are not seeking to “move up” are engaged in “culture wars”.

Meanwhile, Democratic governors seem unlikely to enter the Presidential race for 2024, standing by while President Joe Biden moves to run for a second term, but they are “backups” in case the situation changes, and are certainly to be seen as part of the long term future of the Democratic Party, even more than sitting members of the US Senate.

The list of Republican governors includes Ron DeSantis of Florida; Greg Abbott of Texas; Kristi Noem of South Dakota; Glenn Youngkin of Virginia; Brian Kemp of Georgia; Chris Sununu of New Hampshire; and former Governors Larry Hogan of Maryland and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas.

The Democratic list of the Governorships has potential future Presidential contenders, including Gavin Newsom of California; J. B. Pritzker of Illinois; Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; Jared Polis of Colorado; Jay Inslee of Washington; Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; Wes Moore of Maryland; Phil Murphy of New Jersey; Andy Beshear of Kentucky; and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.

Never have we had so many state governors seen as potential Presidential contenders, with the reminder that in the past 100 years, we have had the following Presidents who were state governors: Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Party Loyalty Should Be Secondary To Loyalty To Democracy!

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It is extremely infuriating to discover that almost all Republican office holders are unwilling to state that loyalty to the nation is more important than party loyalty!

Considering the criminal behavior of Donald Trump, and the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection, it is beyond belief that many office holders continue to deny what happened, and even those who are so called “critics” of the former President are unwilling to state that if Trump is the Republican nominee in 2024, that they would refuse to support and vote for him.

This shocking attitude has recently been expressed by New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu. And former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan first said he would back Trump if he ends up the nominee in 2024, but then walked it back, stating he would not pledge to support Trump, but believed he would not be the party nominee. This is not encouraging, the need of Hogan to walk back what sounded like party loyalty was more important than loyalty to democracy!

At this point, it seems as if only the two Republicans who served on the House January 6 Committee, former members of Congress Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, are committed to opposing Trump completely.

It also seems that former Arkansas Governor and potential Presidential contender Asa Hutchinson might be in this camp, but still not for certain, and Republicans who hold office, and are not running for President, who would seemingly refuse to support Trump would be limited for now to Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski!

This is all very wearying, the refusal of most Republicans to put country above party!

Potential Republican Presidential Nominees Who Would NOT Support Donald Trump!

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With the Presidential campaign of 2024 beginning, the question arises whether there are ANY potential Republican Presidential contenders who would refuse to endorse Donald Trump, were he to win the Republican Presidential nomination next year.

Many Republicans have made criticisms of Trump in some form, and a number plan to run and compete, but the issue is IF any of them lose the nomination to Trump, would they support and endorse him at the end of the process.

There is no certainty of any active Republicans willing to go so far as to refuse to support the party nominee if Trump is that nominee.

But on paper, the following, none certain to run, would likely NOT support him:

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah
Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson
Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois

This author and blogger would have added sitting New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to the list, but it turns out that even with their likely candidacies for President, and their strong criticisms of Trump in recent times, that they have said that they WOULD support Trump, were he the nominee of his party!

This is stunning, as it takes Sununu and Hogan off a short list of Republican political figures who have the guts and courage to overlook party, and do what is good for the nation!

Trump recently stated that he wished to torch the Constitution, and what else needs to be known as to the threat to American democracy than that utterance!

And yet Sununu and even Hogan, as well as many other Republicans who opposed and criticized Trump in the past and present, are still letting party win out, and would support Trump if he was the nominee of the Republican Party!

Realize one thing about the short list given above, that all but Romney (who would be 77 and a half at election time in 2024, and is considering running for reelection to the Senate), are FORMER officeholders!

And despite Liz Cheney stating she would do everything possible to stop Trump, will she actually run against him or form an independent party candidacy?

And Kinzinger seems highly unlikely to mount a campaign either.

And Hutchinson is an unknown, and is unlikely to be a serious contender in any case.

So fundamentally, it seems likely that no significant Republican will stand in the way of Trump, ultimately, and many will even show that party loyalty matters more than principle!

So the Republican Party is hostage to a very dangerous, authoritarian Fascist threat in Donald Trump, but the leading alternative seems to be a person of similar authoritarian tendencies, who is much younger and smarter, and therefore, even MORE dangerous than Trump would be!

This is in reference to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis!