If you’re a Republican looking to jump off the Trump train, now is your last, ..

Source: Washington Post | September 9, 2016 | Chris Cillizza

If you’re a Republican looking to jump off the Trump train, now is your last, best chance

Over the last two days, talk in the political world has been dominated by Donald Trump’s strange prime time doubling down on his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has praised Putin’s high poll approval numbers, insisted he is a better leader than President Obama and said that if Putin says nice things about him, he will say nice things about Putin. He also “accidentally” appeared on RT, the Russia-owned “news” service.

That’s a remarkable series of events — even for Trump. Remember that this is the same Russia that Ronald Reagan — patron saint of the Republican Party — described as the “Evil Empire” when it was part of the Soviet Union. And the same Putin who has a long history of suppressing dissent and free speech within his country.

It’s a totally inexplicable position for the Republican nominee to take. It’s an inexplicable position for any politician in either party running for any office to take. You can tell that in the tortured ways in which Trump’s backers within the GOP are trying to deal with his bromance with the Russian leader.

….

The calculation among the bulk of GOP elected officials seems to be that the political hazards of renouncing Trump are greater than simply holding their nose and supporting him. After all, Trump is the party’s nominee. And he is, ostensibly, more conservative than Clinton on key issues for the Republican base like the future of the Supreme Court.

True enough. (The smartest thing Trump has done in months is when he released the names of 11 conservatives he would consider nominating for the Supreme Court.) The problem that Trump’s effusive praise of Putin poses for Republicans is that it’s not really a partisan stance. Most people in the country — Republican, Democrat and other — don’t view Putin (and Russia more broadly) as someone worthy of being lauded.

This is not an issue in which Republicans can retreat behind the old Trump’s-the-nominee argument. Trump isn’t speaking for the vast majority — or even a healthy minority — of voters within the Republican Party. Backing a candidate who repeatedly flirts with Russia and its leader is not the sort of thing that you can just write off to being a good soldier for the party in the postelection analysis.

If you are a Republican elected official considering whether to jump off the Trump train, it’s now-or-never time. You go along with Trump’s views on Putin’s Russia and you don’t get to run away from him if he goes down in flames over the next 60 days.

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