Leader Of The Pack

The drift of the Republican Party away from partnership in producing positive legislation began with Newt Gingrich (“a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like”), if not before. DeLay, Ailes, Limbaugh (Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump, unremembered in death), Breitbart, Jones, Carlson, Hannity. The list goes on. All of them facilitated Trump’s emergence as the personification of their party’s decline.

Rather than detriments, his lying, gaslighting, ignorance, fake Christianity, and narcissistic nastiness became vehicles for success. It released what must have been building for years among Republicans (as opposed to conservatives, of which there remain, uncloseted, but a few); namely, a preference for electing people disinterested in legislation but committed to “sticking it to the libs.” Performative outrage and constant denigration were necessary and sufficient for MAGA candidates to be elected.

A few decades ago, it was beyond imagination that the party of Dan Evans, Mark Hatfield, John McCain, Barry Goldwater, Margaret Chase Smith, Everett Dirksen, and dozens more, would nominate for governor such an awful human as North Carolina’s self-described “Black Nazi,” vile social media poster Mark Robinson. Nor would they have countenanced a presidential candidate of that party who referred to Robinson as “better than Martin Luther King” and “Martin Luther King on steroids.” To Trump, skin color defines a person.

The presence of Trump as head of the party has freed red state voters to unlock deeply-held resentments of all people unlike them, to elect people like Boebert, Greene, Gaetz, Fox, Cruz, Cotton, Hawley, et uck, who contribute nothing to the common weal, but make a living appearing on rightwing media, pleasing themselves and their voters by attacking and lying about liberals.

Trump is the template for all but a few Republicans serving in Congress. Under Trump’s influence, the Republican Party elects the worst of the worst. It’s what they want. Old-school conservatives are tossed aside like Trump’s rumored adult diapers. 

Trump’s business failings, his lies and serial adultery, his bragging about sexual predation were well-known. Millions were fine with it and voted for him. (Many millions fewer than for Hillary Clinton, let’s not forget.) To North Carolinians, Mark Robinson’s Holocaust denial, misogyny, and anti-LGBT diatribes were known, too. Nevertheless, he was elected Lieutenant Governor and is their current choice for Governor. The logical conclusion is that MAGA Republicans want their candidates to be horrible.

Placing Jim Jordan and James Comer as chairmen of important investigatory committees, successive Republican Speakers of the House stood by appreciatively as their undisguised weaponization of government became routine. Having struck out with impeaching President Joe Biden, they’re moving on to “investigating” Tim Walz and his family. Vice President Kamala Harris’ tenure at McDonald’s is surely next.

And they’re doing it out of obsequious obeisance to Trump, such an unworthy candidate that, knowing it’s false, he continues his lie that Haitian immigrants are eating their host city’s pets. But, next to his stolen election lies, all others pale in damage to our democracy. As evident senility increasingly takes hold, some are becoming simply laughable. 

His latest, but surely not final outrage is preemptively blaming “the Jews” if he loses the election. Notwithstanding how ignorant he is about nearly everything, from Bitcoin to tariffs and windmills and alliances, he knows the consequences of such a detestable statement, virtually asking for violent reprisals. Which we can be sure there will be. His flock will feel called upon to do it. Because they were.

After the second assassination attempt, which Trumpworld blamed exclusively on liberals and their truthful rhetoric, Trump and Vance and every rightwing screamer demanded liberals tone it down; by which they meant stop accurately pointing to the dangers that Project Trump 2025 represents. No one should call a political opponent a fascist, Vance hypocrisized.

Within moments, Trump and Vance (“Trance”) were back to lying about Haitian menu choices and claiming Kamala Harris is a "radical left Marxist, socialist, communist fascist." There’s been no moratorium on their inflammatory prevarication. Who’d have predicted otherwise?

Trance wants the facts about them buried while they continue to lie about Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz. Because he’s smart enough to know better, Vance’s lies are worse than Trump’s. 

If, first time around, some voters didn’t fully understand who Trump is, after four years in office and four even more horrifying years out of it (both senses of the term), there’s no excuse for pretending he’s fit for election (by the Electoral College) to a second term. Given what’s been seen from him since his ejection, it’s inconsistent with decency that a decent person could vote for him again. We know why anti-Semites do. Homophobes and racists. Xenophobes, for sure. (Prepare to be disgusted). But decent? No.

By now, remaining undecided (one bad word, but excellent link) is like having a fire in your house and demanding more information about their hoses before letting firefighters in. 

The Man Who Would Be ... President

 

One takeaway from the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump is the annoyance of articles that promise “(insert number) takeaways from (insert event).” Here are three of mine: 1) fact-checking is a waste of time, 2) fewer people are paying attention than one would hope, and 3) focus groups confirm 1 and 2.

A worthwhile online destination is “The Bulwark,” consisting of current and former Republicans, traditional conservatives, always brilliant and, therefore, never-Trumpers. All have impressive resumés, as advisors to past Republican candidates, campaign managers, commentators, writers. Founder of The Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol is one. Former RNC Chair Michael Steele is another. Unlike MAGA Republicans, they also have a sense of humor. For those seeking current information and thoughtful opinion, there’s a YouTube channel and a website. Their publisher, Sarah Longwell, is a cogent political analyst and leader of focus groups. Her post-debate sessions have been somewhere between reassuring and disconcerting.

One “undecided” voter said she hadn’t known that Trump pressured Congressional Republicans to block the tough, problem-solving, bipartisan border bill so he could continue to use immigration as his central campaign issue. That act of seditious skullduggery is perfectly revelatory of what he is (deplorable) and who he is not (a patriot).

At this late date, remaining unaware must be due to derelict disinterest in politics or getting one’s news only from Foxish sources. Which suggests, given how closely divided our country is, that November’s election could be decided by people who know approximately nothing about the candidates or what’s at stake. Whether Trump wins may depend on people who believe his lie that he’s unaware of Project 2025, for one example, or who are unfamiliar with it. For the latter, here’s a helpful primer.

Most of the participants in Longwell’s focus groups agreed Vice President Kamala Harris prevailed in the debate and were put off by Trump’s claim about Haitians in Springfield Ohio eating neighborhood pets. How many of the sixty million viewers of the debate believed it, though? Enough that there’ve been dozens of bomb threats to Springfield’s government offices and schools. True to form, Trump refused to condemn those threats. JD Vance let slip that they know the claims are groundless, but push them for political advantage. MAGA.

Denying, but knowing he got trounced in the debate, Trump now claims that V.P. Kamala Harris was given questions in advance. Trumpists are sure she received coaching through her earrings. Perennially incapable of actual governance, House Republicans plan to investigate. But the explanation is obvious: diligent preparation for anticipated questions on predictable topics. Purposeful – let’s call it presidential -- preparation. Something with which Trump, who famously refused to read his daily briefings as “president” and didn’t bother to prepare for foreign visits, is wholly unfamiliar.

Since the debate, we’ve seen other examples of who Trump is. He’s been traveling with and pawing the most deplorable of MAGA women (there’s plenty of competition, with one of whom she shares a first name): Laura Loomer. A Holocaust denier and 9/11 conspiracist, she’s a racist xenophobe whose vile rhetoric makes Ann Coulter seem like Emily Dickinson. She claims the Ohio Haitians aren’t just pet-eaters, but cannibals. Not unlike a local Republican candidate, reportedly, she calls for Democrats to be executed.

Even nasty Marjorie Taylor Greene finds Ms. Loomer offensive (jealous, Marge?), saying the lady isn’t what MAGA stands for. But MAGA is Trump and Trump loves Loomer, so it most definitely is. Also included in his current coterie is Pizzagate conspirator Jack Posobiec. Trump pushed Loomer- and Posobiec-level conspiracies long before he inner-circled them.

The man MAGAs trust with America’s future is showing us the kind of people with whom he’d surround himself if elected.

After Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump posted on Truthless Sociopath, colloquially known as “Truth Social,” I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT! That’s the entire post, fourth-grader level from the man who would be president; so easily triggered by Taylor Swift and V.P. Harris that he descends into madness. Like his recent promise to deport those Ohio Haitians to – wait for it – Venezuela. But they’re here on Temporary Protected Status, making deportation illegal. Not that legality matters to a convicted felon, sex predator, and fraudster. Or his besotted believers.

Corollary to Trump’s psychic fragility is the ease with which he succumbs to flattery. If Trumpists don’t see it, the world does. Here’s a link to Australian Prime Minister Malcomb Turnbull describing Trump’s puppy-dog behavior around Putin and other dictators. All Americans should be appalled, because appalling is what it is. For America, Trump needs to lose. By a lot.

Underscoring the need, a letter has just been published by over a hundred Republicans, former members of the Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, Trump administrations and Congress, stating Trump’s absolute unfitness to be president. They expect, they wrote, to disagree with Kamala Harris on many issues, but gave full-throated support to her integrity and qualities befitting a president. If Taylor Swift’s endorsement won’t affect conservatives, maybe this will.

Undecided

I can't decide what I'd do if my house were on fire: get outside or watch TV. After exercising, if I were thirsty, I haven't figured out whether to drink water or go into a sauna. Some stuff just is too hard.

What constitutes the undecided voter, this far into the election cycle? Maybe they've been too busy creating jobs or collecting food stamps to give it proper thought. Or perhaps they're so deep into research, going to original sources, comparing the information they've gathered from Fox "news" and MSNBC, reading Daily Kos and Breitbart, weighing the pros and cons, waiting to hear from their college professors to whom they've submitted questions, simply overwhelmed with the data needed to make a properly informed choice.

Or they could be fucking idiots.



I mean, sure, choosing between Scarlett Johansen and Amy Adams might be tough sometimes, or strawberry jam versus blackberry. But Mitt Romney and Barack Obama? Today's Republicans and today's Democrats? It's not as if they overlap much, have the same plans, the same attitudes toward, oh, voters' rights, women's rights, gay rights, military spending, education, taxation, student loans, climate change, science in schools, Medicare.... Nor is it the case that how one feels about some of those issues would take one toward different parties: you think one way about any of them, you're in the same party with the rest.

I think it oughta be, like, suddenly there's an announcement: okay, time's up. Everybody vote by tomorrow or you don't get to vote. For one thing, I'm already sick of the commercials from whomever about whatever. For another, I can't imagine what information not yet available would change minds.

As hard as it is for me to understand how anyone making less than a couple hundred thousand a year could vote for Mitt Romney or any teabaggR; as depressing as it is that the lies of R and R, amplified by the RWS™ and Fox "news," are so easily swallowed, I find it even more amazing and incomprehensible that there are still people too uninformed to have made up their minds. TeabaggRs are woefully uniformed, but at least they've been able to form an opinion. But undecideds? Now??? Still???? Are these the ones we want deciding our elections?

(On the other hand, here I am writing this stuff, as if I might enlighten and change a couple of minds. Who's the potato head?)

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