So far to date 11 House republicans, many of them leaders in the House are not running for reelection. 2 republican Senators are retiring. With Democrats only 3 House members are not running for reelection. There are more from both parties who are not running for reelection in the House but only because they are running for other offices, https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_U.S._Congress_incumbents_who_are_not_running_for_re-election_in_2018. Besides the large lopsided number of republicans not running compared to the small amount of Democrats retiring, republicans in the House who are retiring are from leadership positions. Which tells me that there is a conflict within the republican party that has fractured the leadership with the obnoxious far right wing.
The two republicans in the Senate are also well respected leaders within the establishment republican party but it seems they are facing a right wing in the Senate that has forced their hands to leave. Even one, Flake from Arizona got on the Senate floor and ripped trump and his followers a new one. I can only say that on November 8, 2016 it looked for all the world that the republicans would undo all the advances made by liberal progressives over the many decades of modern growth here in America and around the world. But instead a year later what we are seeing is a republican party, that despite having majorities in all the branches of government, implode in on itself and as of yet have not been able to pass one law or repeal any policy they campaigned against.
The one big change that the trumps and republicans achieved was to remove us from the Paris Climate Change Agreement and as it stands today, we Americans are the only ones not a signatory to the Pact as every other country in world has signed on. So even their victory at removing us from a necessary agreement has made them look childish and incoherent. There is nothing about this last year of republican domination of our politics that has any honor to it. We Americans are currently a laughingstock and quite possibly these retiring republicans cannot bear that fact anymore. Well they can retire all they want but they are still part of what brought it about. Duck and run may give them some initial relief but it will be short lived if what we saw in Virginia and the rest of the nation during the elections last Tuesday night.
The two republicans in the Senate are also well respected leaders within the establishment republican party but it seems they are facing a right wing in the Senate that has forced their hands to leave. Even one, Flake from Arizona got on the Senate floor and ripped trump and his followers a new one. I can only say that on November 8, 2016 it looked for all the world that the republicans would undo all the advances made by liberal progressives over the many decades of modern growth here in America and around the world. But instead a year later what we are seeing is a republican party, that despite having majorities in all the branches of government, implode in on itself and as of yet have not been able to pass one law or repeal any policy they campaigned against.
The one big change that the trumps and republicans achieved was to remove us from the Paris Climate Change Agreement and as it stands today, we Americans are the only ones not a signatory to the Pact as every other country in world has signed on. So even their victory at removing us from a necessary agreement has made them look childish and incoherent. There is nothing about this last year of republican domination of our politics that has any honor to it. We Americans are currently a laughingstock and quite possibly these retiring republicans cannot bear that fact anymore. Well they can retire all they want but they are still part of what brought it about. Duck and run may give them some initial relief but it will be short lived if what we saw in Virginia and the rest of the nation during the elections last Tuesday night.
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