AlterNet has a great piece about how vulnerable GOP U.S. Senators like Cory Gardner (R. CO) and Martha McSally (R. AZ) know that they are totally screwed in their re-election bids against John Hickenlooper (D. CO) and Mark Kelly (D. AZ). But they are sticking with Trump all the way. So you might be wondering why they are going down with the ship. AlterNet discussed this with Never Trump conservative journalist, Jonathan V. Last, and he explains that while both Gardner and McSally will lose their seats, they will gain lucrative post-congressional careers:
After being voted out of office in 2006, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was never elected to public office again yet remained a prominent figure in right-wing politics. CNN, in the Trump era, has often featured Santorum as a pro-Trump pundit. And former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the late Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, made millions of dollars as a pundit even though she never became vice president and never ran for political office again after 2008. Palin is an embarrassment, but in the right-wing media, she is taken seriously.
The “private-sector sinecures reserved for washed-up politicos,” as Last describes them, can be incredibly lucrative. Palin is the butt of jokes outside of the GOP/Fox News/AM talk radio bubble, but that hasn’t stopped her from making millions of dollars.
If recent polls are accurate, Trumpism will cause Gardner and McSally to be voted out of office in November — even if Trump himself manages to pull off a narrow victory in the Electoral College. But the right-wing media often find ways for wingnuts to prosper after they lose elections, from Fox News appearances and AM talk radio shows to book deals. And cable news viewers will probably be seeing a lot of Gardner and McSally in 2021 no matter how badly they lose in November.
Hey, I’d rather Gardner and McSally become Fox News pundits than lawmakers so I think we’ll all be happy to see them gone. In the meantime, let’s keep up the momentum to flip both Arizona and Colorado Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with Hickenlooper, Kelly, Biden and their fellow Colorado and Arizona Democrats campaigns:
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