Why has the Republican Party's leadership caved in to Donald Trump and his insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from him? Is it because they're afraid of Trump's base? Because they've gone stone cold nuts? Or what?
It turns out, apparently, that the answer is none of the above. If the latest scuttlebutt and blind quotes are to be believed, they've caved in to Trump thanks to ordinary old-school extortion. In particular, they believe that if they oppose Trump he will destroy the Republican Party in a spasm of sheer bloody-minded vengeance.
Has Trump actually told them this? Or have they simply accepted over time that this is the lay of the land? There's no telling, but it makes sense in any case. Trump, after all, plainly has no special loyalty to the Republican Party. And retribution against his enemies is his single strongest drive in life. If the GOP rejected him, he would reject them in return ten times over, probably by forming his own political party and taking with him half of all Republicans in existence.
Does knowing this make any difference? I'm not quite sure. But . . . maybe? I need to cogitate on this.
I reckon it's all bluff. Leave the Republican Party to follow a lunatic in his mid-70s, a proven loser, a man with no political machine on the ground and insufficient energy and talent to create one? If push came to shove, he'd be lucky to get more than a handful of members of Congress to join his 'party', and Republicans might be pleased with an excuse to get rid of most of them.
it may be a bluff because he's lazy and stupid and starting a new party would take more that rambling, insane rants at rallies and tweeting a bunch of lies. but....i wonder if he could do just enough to suppress the republican vote enough to keep them in the minority for another few election cycles. it could make the difference in who controls congress in 2022.
Agreed. Making a new party is too much work for the Donald. He would likely just hold a bunch of rallies bashing his enemies. It would do just enough damage to crash the party.
Yeah, he'd do rallies against the ones he sees as betraying him the most, and if they made him enough money he'd do more of them against more gop "enemies." He can't resist fervid adulation from even a small crowd, or those small contributions (preferably recurring).
This would destroy gop pols in a lot of districts and in many state parties, where the all-in trumpites have all the energy and in many cases are the margin of victory at the polls. If trump tells them to turn their backs on gopers they'll do it and leave only the habitual republican voters, who are shrinking in numbers anyway and might just sit on their hands out of confusion or disgust.
I agree trump himself doesn't have the focus to set up his own party. But there are people around him who do if they can make enough money off the grift, and that would also put the hurt on regular party animals, mostly at the national level. The question there is whether promoting a guy who'll viciously turn on them at some point would be worth their effort. Bannon skated away but he probably had his escape route planned and stocked. Others didn't do so well.
ETTD, as somebody once said.
Except grifters like Doug Logan can keep the narrative going and affect local elections. There's money to be made in resentment and it already is changing school boards, city councils, etc...
If anybody could find it, I think El Jefe's WordPress Mini-Twitter on his personal site would prove the feebleness of MAGA. El Jefe promised a glibertarian facebook for his side, where free expression would reign, unencumbered by ((( censors ))), & what did we get? "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump".
It's laughable.
Meanwhile, El Jefe's campaign genius Parscale -- who should be in jail right now -- is off to California to milk Golden State Q for whatever they've got with Caitlyn Jenner.
I don't see it, but accepting it arguendo, it just means they're following him off the cliff, because they're cowards choosing party over country rather than true believers doing the same.
But I still really want to know what Don has on Lindsey.
I think that Joe Biden got this exactly right:
“ We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future and direction of our world. We’re at an inflection point between those who argue that, given all the challenges we face – from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic – that autocracy is the best way forward, they argue, and those who understand that democracy is essential – essential to meeting those challenges.”
The Republicans believe that autocracy is the way forward for them. The Republicans rejected inclusion and Democracy as their path forward. They decided that the best way to win was by appealing to their “base” and below. Trump rules that wing of the party. The Republican elite will accept him as their autocrat until a younger version of him can replace him. They plan to fix it so elections are as meaningful as they are in Russia. Does anybody think that a Republican controlled Congress will certify a Presidential election won by a Democrat?
This is the correct take.
Hawley-Gabbard 2024 will retain enough of the Deplorable Hillbilly Elegiac MAGA core, plus an even greater margin of Wall Street GQP, & even a goodly number of Jacobin readers & Cumtown listeners, to win in an almost Reagan 1980 type walk.
you scare me
😉
Walker Bragman & Meagan Day are already preparing their "the Democrats made me turn fasc" pieces.
If Kevin McCarthy blinks Marjorie Taylor Greene will be Minority Leader in a heartbeat.
Can you picture it?
Any day I expect her to just take out a bat and start smashing stuff and half the Republicans will start smashing things along with her.
What will happen when they throw a riot in the chamber and refuse to leave and claim they're being abused? And then do it again the next day?
America's People's House will have become Italy/Israel/Taiwan/South Korea/Russia in that moment.
The questions become: how can we encourage him to do so? And when is the best time for it to happen, not too soon nor too late?
Spring of 1945: Adoph is hold up in his bunker in Berlin, moving imaginary divisions around on the map, planning his come back.
Spring of 2021: Donald is hold up in his bunker in Mar-aLago, totaling up imaginary recounts on the electoral map, planning his come back.
sadly , Trump probably wont kill himself, though
Maybe Barron will prove to be the Bran of the Trump Family's Game of Thrones.
How dumb. He has already destroyed the party. The republican party is dead, replaced by a cult.
Unfortunately, this "dead" party runs most of the states.
I guess it could be Trump's revenge, but I think that gives him too much credit. His supporters... our neighbors, co-workers, and family are all nuts and, in my opinion, despicable people. They are the real enemy. The political class and even the right wing media have nothing on these whackos out in the real world.
I think the lefty / main media is doing a disservice by focusing on the political class. They are the symptom. The real disease lives next door.
Oh my goodness...
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/in-the-wake-of-jan-6-families-are-searching-for-ways-to-deradicalize-their-relatives
"The idea is that for people who are lonely or suffering from personal problems, family frequently remains the only way to break past the worldview and sense of community that far-right extremist groups can provide for their members."
They aren't lonely or suffering from personal problems... they are evil. Good grief.
How's Ashli Babbitt's family's wrongful death suit against the Capitol Police going?
You can't take right wing media out of that equation. I have relatives that were just normal Republicans you could have interesting arguments with. We never agreed, but they were open to discussion. Now, after decades of Fox, that are wackadoos.
This.
It's the funhouse mirror of "We are the change we've been waiting for."
And unwritten in Kevin's post, is the self-serving shallow corruption that is implicit in everything here. In other words, the fact that the modern GOP is devoid of actual principles or even a passing loyalty to the nation of even their own party, is now a given.
The "Base" is part of Trump's "appeal." There's also the money. He can pull in money from small, foolish donors like nobody's business. He had even floated the idea that he would collect ALL the money, and dole it out (sure he would) to "deserving" Republicans.
Even after the scams of his online contribution site(s) were publicized, and thousands of his fervid followers cheated into "giving" on a weekly basis when they thought they were making a one-time big contribution, they're still with him, and some have even resigned themselves to losing all their retirement money and emptying their bank accounts for that old fraud.
The Republican Party is not just about power. It's also the money.
I'd say tiger-by-the-tail....but wouldn't want to equate tiger with Trump....
Scorpion by the stinger? Then you have to deal with the "Scorpion King" imagery.
Any suggestions???
Bannon-Stephen Miller-El Jefe Subhuman Centipede?
They knew he was a snake / before they took him in . . .
Responsible Republican leaders would let the party blow up, and then start a rebuilding process. That is best for the party long term and best for the country. But they are stuck in a cycle of short-sighted self-interest. That path entails cowardice, amorality, and being brain-dead. That is where we are.
The new party is a hollow threat. At least now, with elections still far away enough for the GOP to watch Trump and his incompetent buffoons - all he has left - selfdestruct. The more since this would be the opportunity Rupert Murdoch has been waiting for to get rid of that ungrateful pest once and for all. No, Republicans don't take Trump seriously when he threatens to create a new party. For all his money he can't even get a halfway decent blog made.
IMO there is no collective strategy at work. Each congressperson and senator is just looking out for themselves. It's the prisoner's dilemma on a grand scale: they'd be better off working together to put Trump past them, but they don't trust each other and so won't.
Not so fast! Carlyle Group Chairman Glenn Youngkin, now the Virginia GQP gubernatorial nominee, is further evidence of the Republicans's rebrand as a Worquers Party.
The Democrat Party won't know what hit them when their eight years blue collar base, dating to FDR, finally deserts them.
Today, we are all Nixon 72 - Reagan - Bush - Dole - Bush - Mc Cain - Rmoney - Trump Democrats.
Terry McAuliffe will clean his clock. It's the battle of the white dudes and Terry has the advantage of being a former popular governor who due to Virginia's stupid term limit rules couldn't run for reelection.
They say this will be the most expensive state race ever in Virginia but guys can fundraise like nobody so it's going to be a turn off the TV and radio to avoid the onslaught of highly annoying political ads.
Hala Ayala at ye girl.
If there was any justice, the orange clown would drop dead and things would change overnight (I wish). But we live in a world where justice is averaged out, and enough of us have created/abetted/gone along with the train wreck the Anerican democracy has become...so the justice we have to live with that awful mess...so we choke on it.
Are they even talking about the election being stolen anymore? They are talking about reasonable measures to secure ballots and prevent the kind of loosey-goosey, six month of voting before and three days after, we'll can't the votes a slow as we damn well please, don't worry about chain of custody or voters at residences that don't exist, make up the rules as you go elections.
And the Tooth Fairy! What about the damn Tooth Fairy! We need Congress to investigate that, because people said it was breaking into people's houses and taking stuff!
/s
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