12 August—It’s clear that the dreaded, irresponsible Democrat trifecta has been driving Connecticut to fiscal ruin while stripping towns of traditional, effective home rule for the better part of a generation. The state’s latest descent into the cesspool of fiscal ineptitude and inapt progressivism started with the election of Gov. Dannel Malloy in 2010 and has gained fetid momentum with his successor, despite Gov. Ned Lamont’s token gestures of fiscal and social moderation—if not needed restraint.

So what can be done to save the state and its towns from further ruination and hopefully bring it back to fiscal health and social common sense? The obvious solution is to get rid of the complacent Democrats who have caused the damage.

Problem is, Connecticut Republicans just aren’t up to the task. Like any powerless party, Connecticut’s embarrassingly ineffective minority Republicans are eager to criticize the embarrassingly ineffective but nevertheless powerful majority Democrats. Bitching is easy, after all. And the Republicans naturally have their own brilliant but invariably vague correctives and promising agenda. That’s also easy. And the Connecticut Republican agenda—as far as anyone can tell and for all its’ worth—does in fact look pretty promising.

But the problem here—the immediate problem, as it were—is that Republicans won’t be able to claim the governor’s office or majorities in either house of the General Assembly as long as they put up inferior candidates and as long as even their superior candidates for any statewide office hew to the party line. Connecticut Republicans tend to do that more than Connecticut Democrats.

For 15 years, that Republican strategy has been a total flop. And now, to make matters even worse, a good part of the Republican party line—and not just in Connecticut—revolves around Donald Trump. Of course. Republicans simply are not allowed to disavow Trump or criticize him in any way. Period.

While Trump may—or should—usually be irrelevant to state and local politics, if Republican candidates for state and local office can’t avoid talking about him, you’ll never hear them say a bad word. At least in public. To be sure, many benighted Republicans really do think that Trump is a businessman, the greatest president ever, and a demigod. But even those who see him for the con man, the worst and most corrupt president ever, and the dictator that he is keep it to themselves.

In the circumstance, why Republican candidates don’t diss Trump doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Trump isn’t likely to help Republican candidates get elected in strongly Democrat Connecticut. We saw that when Trump endorsed Bob Stefanowski for governor in 2018 and 2022 and he lost to Ned Lamont—by 13 points in 2022.

Stefanowski is a successful businessman as opposed to a con man and he campaigned enthusiastically both times. And in 2010 and 2014, Tom Foley, like Stefanowski a successful businessman as well as Ambassador to Ireland, also also campaigned enthusiastically both times before losing to Dannel Malloy.

But you’ve got to wonder . . .