Budowsky: Donald, Boris, Bibi — The right in retreat

In American politics, the 2018 midterm elections brought House Democrats a sweeping landslide and a powerful mandate to end the corruptions and abuses that plague the presidency of Donald Trump.

In Britain, throughout 2019 the Conservative Party suffered bitter internal divisions over the plan for Britain to leave the European Union, which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May followed by a string of humiliations of her successor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In Israel, the net result of two back-to-back national elections is the high probability that the arch conservative government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, widely known as Bibi, will be replaced by a much more moderate national unity government that will include, or be led by, his leading political opponents.

In France, centrist President Emmanuel Macron, having won a landslide victory over his far-right opponent, has become a leading statesman trying to preserve the unity of Europe and defend Western democracy against the assault from within and abroad.

In the 2020 presidential campaign, the two front-runners at this moment are former Vice President Joe Biden, who according to polling summaries from RealClearPolitics leads President Trump by landslide margins, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who leads Trump by more than 5 percent, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), leads Trump by some 7 percent in match-up polls.

In the most revealing and powerful evidence of the retreat of Trump and forces on the right that dominate the Republican Party but alienate virtually everyone else in American politics, the GOP has now begun to suffer from a large and growing wave of retirements in the House and Senate that appears poised to become a tidal wave. It could lead to an implosion of the GOP that Trump thoroughly controls like an iron albatross.

Events in American, British, Israeli and French politics are far from settled but the war of the worlds pitting the far right against the center and left backed by leaders of Western democracy is increasingly turning against the right, which is now in retreat and facing the real prospect of a political Armageddon.

The common denominator of Trump, Johnson and Netanyahu is that they all campaign by moving further and further to the right, seeking to aggressively mobilize their core political base which increasingly angers, frightens, alarms and mobilizes the large majority of voters who reject and abhor the political extremism and bitter divisions the far right promotes.

There is now a powerful Trump fatigue, Bibi fatigue and Boris and Brexit fatigue throughout American, British and Israeli democracy that is made even worse, and more dangerous to politicians on the right, by growing fear of an economic slowdown and potential recession that is identified with trade and economic policies of Trump and the ill-fated obsession for Brexit from British conservatives in power under Johnson.

In one of the most potentially self-destructive gambles in American political history Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have bet the entire future of the GOP in the House, Senate and nationally on iron-willed and total support of the historically unpopular Trump. Their relentless obstruction of every attempt by moderates, liberals, centrists and principled conservatives to thwart the excesses, divisiveness and corruptions of the Trump presidency create grave and extreme dangers to the GOP future.

The right is in retreat. 

First American, British and Israeli conservatives retreated by failing to provide a check against policies from Donald, Boris and Bibi that alienate voters and violate traditional conservative values and principles.

Then after the right doubled down on their mistakes as Donald, Boris and Bibi move even further to the right, shrinking the concentric circles of their public support, voters force them to retreat again.

Now, as the Republican Titanic sails toward the electoral iceberg, in the ultimate retreat the GOP retirement wave grows larger every day. 

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas)  and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.