I'm starting to think (wishfully?) that the Trump candidacy just might eventually collapse under the weight of its eponymous leader. It seems the collective heap of his garbage is starting to be too much even for our lazy press; and, even more unexpectedly, for a few electeds in his party. Will it be enough? Are there enough Republicans with the self-respect and dignity to draw the line?
Who could have predicted: decades of deliberate dumbification and crafting of the electoral equivalent of an angry mob, pitchforks and torches in hand, led to the choice of a nasty, vengeful, shallow, narcissistic, despotic idiot, an amoral con man who has zero understanding of how our government works, and who plans, by his own words, to use the instruments of government to attack fellow Americans he doesn't like. Meaning those who don't genuflect and profess unconditional adoration.
Too weak to admit their propagandistic guilt, too frightened to face down the mob they created, they're now resorting to reassuring the rest of the country that they'll be able to keep their candidate from going full tyrant.
... “I still believe we have the institutions of government that would restrain someone who seeks to exceed their constitutional obligations,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told the New York Times last week in a piece highlighting how legal scholars are growing increasingly worried about Trump's authoritarian tendencies. “We have a Congress. We have the Supreme Court. We’re not Romania."
In May, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a similar proclamation when he was asked in an interview whether he had concerns about the divisiveness Trump's message evoked even from within the Republican Party.
"What protects us in this country against big mistakes being made is the structure, the Constitution, the institutions," McConnell told CBS News last month. “No matter how unusual a personality may be who gets elected to office, there are constraints in this country. You don’t get to do anything you want to.”...Okay, then. We'll be fine.
Well, gods know they have experience in blocking a presidential agenda. All they need to do is switch from blocking attempts to do good to blocking attempts to do harm. Shouldn't be that hard, other than getting pushback from the Trump clones in both houses of their Congress, elected by the same people who chose the Donald. So they'll need Democrats. Amusing. They stood by for the election of embarrassments like Louie Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, et al, ad nauseum, because they were votes. They had their chance.
As the truth leaks out -- the truth that's been obvious from day one but denied and ignored and both-sidesified by national media -- it might just be that even a few Foxolimbeckified Trumpists will see supporting him as a bridge too far. Lindsey "They'll kill us all" Graham thinks the attacks on that judge provide an excuse for right wingers to rescind their support.
As if Mr Trump hasn't provided excuses daily, since well before he became a politician.
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I wish I could share your optimism, but I think this is going to end badly. To start with, a lot of seemingly reasonable people are voting for Trump as a sign of protest or something. I know someone who surprised me by saying she's voting for Trump. I said "what about the wall? The comments on the judge? Prohibiting Muslims from entering?" Her response was "Oh, he doesn't really mean that. And even if he did, he couldn't do it." In other words these people are inventing a world in which you can run for office and in a paean to reader-response theory the words mean what the listener wants them to mean. And the world will work they way they want, intent be damned.
ReplyDeleteMike T
Their reassurance that they can control a President Trump, when they cannot control a Candidate Trump, is an admission that the front lines are breaking, rifles are being dropped, and the troops are running like hell back to the imagined safety of the fort.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the action by the Iowa state senator is enough to stiffen some of those limp Republican backbones or cause others to join him.
I wouldn't quite describe myself as optimistic, Mike. Just noting a change in tone in the last week or so, as the stuff about Trump U has been coming out, along with his attacks on the particular judge, and any judge, by implication, not a white guy who loves him.
ReplyDeleteAs I've been writing for years, today's R party is anything but conservative or rational. I've wondered many times, many ways, what it would take for voters to wake up to the obvious; so far, the answer seems to be "nothing." But I sense a certain level of buyers' remorse among some R "leaders." It's not that I'm optimistic. Not yet, anyway. Just thinking there's a chance, over the next six months, as Trump inevitably reveals himself to be the scumbag he is, that it'll get harder for some people to deny it. Maybe hard enough that they'll not vote for him, out of what's left, on that side, of self-respect.
It's pretty amazing, isn't it Doc, that the party is resorting to rationalizing their purported leader by saying they'll protect us from him. They deserve the humiliation; it's the direct result of their cynical approach to voters ever since Ronald Reagan. If it becomes certain (one can hope) that he's doomed to lose and to bring enough with him to return the Senate to Ds (can we hope for the House, too?), I'll be able to sit back and enjoy it. Not there yet.
I wondered when the emperor's missing clothes would be noted. Trump is far from invincible and it certainly helps when the media asks relevant questions.
ReplyDeleteI remain guarded, but Trump might just take the Republican plane all the way to the crash site it has been headed toward for so long
Come to think of it McCarthy started out pretty strong but eventually the dogma got old and he didn't have many friends.
ReplyDeleteTrump is charting a pretty tough course, not unlike Ted Cruz, he's going to need a lot more friends than he thinks he does.
Yeah, it's too early to get excited. Republican leaders and Trump are playing a game of chicken with the country at stake. The leaders are trying to convince themselves that Trump will eventually give in, but that sure as hell ain't going to happen. That ADD narcissist had better lose!
ReplyDelete"Are there enough Republicans with the self-respect and dignity to draw the line?"
ReplyDeleteRepublicans with self-respect, AND dignity? (General Laughter)... Good one Sid! What, you're serious? (Riotous, Gasping, Snorting BWAAAHAHAHA Laughter!)
Self-respect and dignity went out with Ike and "The party of Lincoln", transmogrified to the likes of Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush.
I recall, my in- laws (Lyndon La Rouche republicans) anxiously reassuring us, when Bush was nominated,” Cheney will be there to watch him".
Even they were afraid of Bush without Cheney to watch him.
So it doesn't look much as though "Republicans with self-respect, (with or without) dignity" will be trying to "control" Mr. Drumph.
…Except for Lindsey Graham apparently: Wonkette delightfully put it this way: “Lindsey Graham is Two Jameson Shots Away From Shrieking, ‘I’m With Her, Y’all!” (Note to Wonkette: the plural in southernspeak is “All Y’all”). But I digress!
They just don't want him to give the game away, until he is elected. Because if you can say He's a con man, a bigot, a sexist, a racist, a fascistic liar, but I'm still going to support him, then you must be all of the above yourself, just waiting for the opportunity, to be those things, openly: like roaches finally, defiantly ‘standing their ground’ in the kitchen when the lights go on.
EugeneInSanDiego