Opinion: Voters are moving away from Kari Lake, Donald Trump and the extreme politics that have dominated the Republican Party. Will the GOP move with them? Editorial board || The Arizona Republic
A week ago Tuesday, the nation’s voters served notice that they are done with the Republican Party’s diversion into extreme politics that was born in the wreckage of the Great Recession.
In Arizona, they told us they are done with gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and her deep dive into MAGA.
That political movement led by Donald Trump probably destroyed itself on Jan. 6, 2021, when it attacked the United States Capitol and ended our national commitment to peaceful transition.
In the first election since the Capitol riot, voters made Republicans pay the price. They closed the door on what should have been a midterm expansion of the party out of power and delivered Trump his third defeat in the last three elections.
Kari Lake’s loss shows voters’ disgust
In Arizona, voters rejected the election denialism that Kari Lake made central to her campaign. They turned against the bare-knuckled rhetoric she used to batter her Democratic opponent and even her fellow Republicans who weren’t fully onboard the MAGA bus.
Even in defeat, her extremism reared itself in a tweet that should have been all gracious concession. “Arizonans know BS when they see it,” she wrote, providing yet another sign that voters had rendered the right verdict.
Her loss to Katie Hobbs, a timid campaigner, only underscored voter disgust for Lake’s populism. They correctly understood America’s democratic values are intrinsic to its people and its relationship to the world.
In the midterm:Arizona’s politically purple credentials are hard to top
Donald Trump may announce as early as Tuesday that he’s running for reelection, but his voters are on notice that they have no future as a political movement led by him.
The Republican Party must either change or begin its long decline.
