I hope the Larry Hogan fracas isn’t a sign of idiocies to come.

As you may know, the U.S. Senate is currently divided, effectively, 51 Democrats to 49 Republicans. The GOP is likely to win Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat in West Virginia this November, making it 50:50.

The Republican path to a Senate majority runs through one of three states (hopefully all three, but that’s not likely): Maryland (votes 2-to-1 Democratic), Ohio (trending red, but the Republican has to beat a longtime incumbent) or Montana (same).

In any other year, deep blue Democratic Maryland would be a lost cause and I wouldn’t even mention it. In the 2020 election, for example, Biden trounced Trump 65% to 32%. It’s been 40 years since the state has sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate.

But in a miracle of historic proportions, Republicans have a shot at flipping the Senate seat there this year because their candidate is Larry Hogan, who’s already won two statewide elections for governor, is wildly popular and left office last year with an 80% approval rating.

Not only that, but Hogan has gotten lucky with his opponent. In the Democratic primary, wealthy businessman and U.S. Rep. David Trone was running against Angela Alsobrooks, a relatively inexperienced county executive.

Trone was by far the stronger candidate. Not only could he have self-funded his campaign — he spent $60 million of his own money just on the primary — but he’s the classic Democrat stealth candidate: Don’t worry, I’m just a regular white guy from the suburbs [dashes off to vote in lockstep with AOC].

Alas, Trone lost to the black lady because the Democratic Party is required by law to give the nomination for any office of any kind to the black person, whether in South Carolina, North Dakota or Reykjavik.

Still, Hogan’s race is far from a cakewalk. With twice as many Democrats in Maryland as Republicans, he’s going to need the votes of every single Republican, plus a fair number of Democrats and Independents. It’s a tough needle to thread, but he’s done it twice before.

And if he wins … the clouds will part, the sun will shine and birds will sing. Schumer will no longer be Senate majority leader. Ted Cruz could be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — instead of, say, Mazie Hirono (notable accomplishment: the only Japanese person with a low IQ). Sen. John Kennedy might replace “Just a Mom in Tennis Shoes” Patty Murray on the Appropriations Committee. We could be talking about “Senate Majority Leader Steve Daines.”

[This is a virtual staging to give you an idea of the wonderful changes a Hogan win would bring about; actual committee assignments will be determined later.]

I don’t care if Hogan is a serial killer. Every Republican should be working overtime to get him elected to the Senate.

Even if the only thing you care about is electing Donald Trump, nothing will be more important to him in a second term than having a Republican majority in the Senate. And if Joe Biden wins, a Republican Senate will be the only thing standing between the United States of America and total destruction.

Have I impressed upon you how important Hogan’s election is to the course of human events?

So naturally, the nimrods working for Trump have been viciously denouncing Hogan because of a remark he made that only a paranoid schizophrenic could interpret as an attack on Trump.

Before the verdict was announced in Liberals v. Trump, Hogan had tweeted:

“Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”

Standard political pabulum. Big deal.

This was before the verdict was announced, when Trump still could have been acquitted. And don’t tell me no one thought that was possible. Fox News was running headlines like these:

— “Former prosecutor predicts ‘Trump is walking out’ without a conviction in Bragg case”

— “3 reasons why jury might acquit president”

— “CNN reporter warns potential Trump acquittal in New York trial is ‘worst-case scenario for Democrats’”

But Trump’s widdle feelings were hurt, so Team Trump swung into action to denounce Hogan. RNC chair — and the former president’s daughter-in-law — Lara Trump sniped on CNN that Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly, anybody in America.”

Senior Trump campaign adviser and RNC official Chris LaCivita responded to Hogan’s tweet thus: “You just ended your campaign.”

Both officials hinted that the party might not help fund Hogan’s Senate campaign.

Naturally, their attacks set off an avalanche of invective from other Trump cultists, who called Hogan a “traitor,” a “loser,” a “clown,” a “treasonous traitorous POS,” and expressed their dearest hope that he would lose his election.

Ultra MAGA! #FJB! #TRUMP2024!!! [Democrats sweep the Senate.]

This is exactly how the Tea Party got us Obamacare. They ran a bunch of sure-to-lose candidates who were so much purer than the RINOs they were replacing — and ended up losing a half-dozen Senate seats for the GOP, handing the Democrats a Senate majority. The minute Democrats had control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, they pushed through a brilliant plan to give free health care to nontaxpayers, paid for by taxpayers.

Thanks, purer-than-thou Tea Party!

If Democrats pull another hat trick in 2024, the first thing they’re enacting is a total amnesty. Then it’s lights out for America.

It’s bad enough when ordinary Americans are incapable of strategic thinking. But these are Trump’s top people. They’re willing to blow up the country to protect the big baby from something that could possibly be construed as a dis — if you squint hard enough and look at it from a certain angle.

Trump, of course, is completely oblivious to how much he will need a Republican Senate, much less how to get one, preferring to indulge his teenage girl ego.

Anyone who wants Trump to succeed in his second term (or Biden to be hamstrung in his second term) should be donating to Larry Hogan right now — especially the morons who denounced him on Twitter.

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