Willie Brown: Closet Republican?

Trump's base

Willie Brown of course is a famous Democrat, but for years he has had a thing about powerful Republicans. Sarah Palin is "brilliant" and Michele Bachman got a shout-out. 

In yesterday's Chronicle, he praised Donald Trump:

No matter what you think of Trump’s message, his delivery was impressive. He stayed on script and kept referring to everyday heroes in the gallery, thus forcing the Democrats to stand and cheer. It was populist theater, where presence and impression trump content. And the overnight polling after the speech showed that once again, he connected with voters, at least enough voters to make him a 2020 favorite (Democrats have a 2020 problem: Trump is good at elections).

Trump actually lost the popular vote, since Hillary got 2,864,974 more votes than he did. Only our Founding Fathers' 18th Century construct---the electoral college---allowed that jerk to become president.

Has Willie become a closet Republican in his old age?

More:

Make no mistake, President Trump’s State of the Union address was the kickoff for his 2020 re-election campaign, and so far I’ve yet to see a Democrat who can beat him.

In reality Trump's approval rating has been permanently mired at 40% with his disapproval rate at 55%! It's pointless to speculate about 2020 this early, but any one of the Democrats announced so far can beat Trump.

The bad news for Trump will continue this year, since the Mueller report will surely verify all the worst fears Republicans themselves have about their unhinged leader. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

Two prominent conservatives in yesterday's NY Times:

Republicans lost significant ground[in the midterm elections] among everyone except Mr. Trump’s core base of rural, evangelical and “non-college” supporters (and even among them, the Republican margin shrank a bit). This happened with unemployment lower than at any time since 1969 and with Republican turnout at its highest level in a century. Mr. Trump’s hard-core base is large enough to dominate the Republican Party, at least for now, but it is not large enough to dominate the country. In the long run, a third or so of the country cannot effectively govern the other two-thirds with an unpopular agenda and a Twitter account.

The base for Trump and the Republican Party: racists, religious crackpots, and the uneducated.

See also Trump allies fret as legal troubles multiply.