In the final stages of the Trump era, Hair Furor is proving to us once again that nothing less than total obedience will be tolerated. Even a failure to insufficiently fawn will be punished and severely. With that in mind, take a look at what the Child in Chief tweeted out to Lisa Murkowski after she endorsed Mike Mattis’ remarks against Trump on Wednesday.
…Unrelated, I gave Alaska ANWR, major highways, and more. Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don’t care, I’m endorsing. If you have a pulse, I’m with you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2020
This tweet conveys the essence of Trumpism. Trump says he will endorse “any candidate,” the plain inference being, any candidate who will bow to him unequivocally. The equation is very clear. If you want Trump’s support, you worship and you don’t say a word against him, ever. Plus, you recant or ignore any previous lack of fealty. You become Lindsey Graham, in essence, and you drink the Kool-Aide. (Enough Trump Kool-Aide makes your hair change color, by the way, go check out Graham.)
Meanwhile, if you take a stroll down memory lane, McConnell primaried Murkowski back in 2010. She won the senate seat, anyway, with an impressive write-in vote.
Plus, and here’s the killer: the way things are going, Trump endorsing you may be the kiss of death and not the benediction that his delusions tell him it is. This is precisely the quandary that keeps incumbent Republicans tossing and turning in the night. To flip or not to flip against Trump — that is the only question. They don’t know how things are going to go down in the fall and they can’t judge whether to stay on the Trumptanic or flee while there’s still a lifeboat.
And here’s the Catch-22: they’ve all been indoctrinated to go along with a sitting GOP president, no matter what, and the fact that this one is a clear and obvious lunatic is something that none of them ever anticipated and they don’t know what to do. This puts them in a position of having to think for themselves and make responsible decisions based on their own integrity and sense of right and wrong — and that’s where their circuits start to overload. They’re not geared to think that way. They’re geared to get in line and toe the party line. That’s it.
It will be interesting to see how many of them wash out in the fall. Donald Trump may have been right, ironically. He may end up draining the swamp, only not the way he thought.
We can hope.
The cat’s out of the bag. Let the fight begin.
I think it’s more like the rats are in the bag. I love intra party GOP strife.
It’s like DJT doesn’t realize-he’s the one that will lose. I guess he will never admit it publicly.
He realizes it, I think. It’s just now dawned on him. The only question now? How badly and how much damage before he goes.
Yes, please, burn some more bridges, Babyfingers. We need you to be as much of an island as possible. You nailed it on the central dilemma of the GOP, Ursula. Their system only works with a guy in charge. The problem is that their leadership has atrophied to the point where they’re having to settle on someone as deranged as Trump. Guarantee that he’ll pull another move before the month is out to remind folks why he needs to go.
This is why they don’t know what to do. The Democrats function on a code of ethics, the Republicans bow down to the guy in charge. They’ve never been in this spot. They haven’t a clue.
Perfectly and succinctly put Ursula. Warped obeisance v ethical expectations.
They honestly don’t know how to go against their programming and think for themselves. This is the essence of Republicanism, I’m telling you. The Democrats may be a herd of cats, and God knows we don’t when to stop the purity b.s., but at least we can think. The Rethugs can only follow.
Welp, I think he just did shoot himself in the foot a few hours ago during what was supposed to be a press conference. But he talked for about 40 minutes and allowed no questions from what I determined when I heard Chuck Todd mention it. He said, Trump not Todd, that George Floyd is smiling down on us from heaven. I infer from this sentence he meant because the economy is better today, with jobs numbers on the rise. Problem is, and here is the reminder he has to go: the jobs numbers for folks of color is even higher than it was a month ago. This merits a sheesh. Or twelve.
If you’ve seen the same chart I have, Carroll, you’ll also know we’re STILL in a damn deep hole that’s likely to worsen on the job front. 13.3% unemployment is NOTHING to celebrate.
It’s not the bridges in the GOP that I worry about. He can destroy the entire Party and I won’t lose any sleep over it. So what does actually worry me? Think about all the destruction to our institutions and our place in the world he’s already caused. Now imagine the meltdown he will have if he loses in November. And loses big. He will do everything in the considerable power he unfortunately has to burn down the entire country and that of our NATO allies (and other allies) along with it. Daddy Vlad won’t even have to threaten him with pee tapes.
So if you think the damage is bad so far, you ain’t seen nothin yet. The spoiled little rich kid he has always been will use the childish “if I can’t have it nobody can” attitude to destroy in ways we can’t imagine in our wildest fears. We can only hope that if in the few days before the election it’s clear Trump will lose that serious pressure is brought to bear on Pence and the rest of the cabinet to be prepared to invoke the 25th Amendment as soon as the election has been called.
The 25th Amendment is likely not happening, Denis. In fact, I’d put it at the same odds as an actual fascist takeover or him resigning. All those scenarios are way too late in the timeline to consider serious possibilities.
As to him doing more political room trash when (yes, I’ll go ahead and put my neck on the line and say “when”) he loses, worrying about it strikes me as pointless. The damage already done is, well, already done. Him doing some more as an FU to all of us was always going to be a gimme. All we can do is fix it where we can when he’s gone…and there will be a lot.
“This is not the America I signed up for.” https://thebulwark.com/this-isnt-the-america-i-signed-up-for/
A sentiment everyone in America can get behind, Dana.
Well, we would think, but not over there at that propaganda mill at the Federalist.
I don’t count the Federalist as American these days but I’m mean like that.
If there’s any justice, in two years, Donald Trump will be known as “inmate” and serving out the rest of his unnatural life in federal prison. His oldest hell-sprog along with him.
And the best part? Whatever time he DOES get is functionally a life sentence.
Actually I’m thinking Letitia James is gonna get him first and he will serve his time in a NY state prison. Which isn’t going to be pretty.
Or the Lompoc federal prison, the “country club” of prisons for the wealthy.
Make no mistake, The Donald IS THE DONALD, period, no less … EVERYONE IN THE WORLD, is by now, aware of his symptoms and dribbling non-nonsensical crap from a mouth chapped and worn by continuous contact with Putin as his god-in-heaven leader/financial angle advantage … how many others have bought out Trump’s failing golf courses, in a money laundry system second to none, at least, according to Trump’s own sons, in a less than careful instant, saying the Russians seem to really be into golf courses, meaning direct cash from Putin to Trump Industries, I suppose we will be forced to wait until after the election to see all the found evidence from our hero, Mr. Schiff …
He said, his committee would remain silent on their massive investigations, until after the elections so no connection with vote tampering could be assumed, from the report, only one way tickets to prosecution and jail/prison time …
The results of which may sink Trump Industries/Trump’s family and all their criminal dealings in one fell swoop into the deepest sink hole ever ….
****
It will be posted on that brass plaque, dusted and waxed by the local custodians in the US Capital, “In the year 2016, a pretend president was ushered into the Oval office, Donald John Trump … he was eventually tried by the Republican dominated Senate, lorded over by Mitch McConnell …
With a failing, irresponsible GOP, no longer interested in Constitutional rules and limits, nor even rule of law, they kept this person in office in spite of many horrible actions and destruction’s of the common good this country had always shown before … as soon as, “president”, Trump was given his freedom by the Republicans, his cruelty and non-presidential actions accelerated, until one day in 2019, after he had already destroyed all the Pandemic lab crews set-asides and sent the whole bunch of them home, and, because President Obama had warned him of Pandemic problems, given him a plan to handle the problem, the, “president”, in his malignant narcissism way, ignored the plan, and now totally unprepared, the first notices of the oncoming COVID-19, (in 2019), he chose to ignore everything, he should have been doing, went golfing for the nth time ….
Then, true to form, DJT, promoted a non-hazardous virus stance of doing NOTHING for several weeks, time enough for the virus to kill many US citizens, and establish itself as the true “Trump”, Pandemic, a stance he had earned by non performance of the office of a true President … even as he was struggling with his run for re-election in 2020, with over 100,000 US deaths from the Pandemic looming over him, his statement was, “If I had not killed over one hundred thousand people with my non-performance in controlling the virus, there could have been millions more, because I had stopped travel into the US from China” … [Not an acceptable argument]
This stain on our country history should ALWAYS be treated as the worst presidential fiasco EVER …
****
Since the message is so long, with so many letters and words it should be made as large as a normal presidential portrait so as to be easily read by an interested citizen, far into the future …
I love this line – “The results of which may sink Trump Industries/Trump’s family and all their criminal dealings in one fell swoop into the deepest sink hole ever”. I will treasure it and hope to see it pass.
Donald only likes those who kisses his fat rump. Please God take this evil demon from among us.
And even then, he doesn’t like them the second they step out of line or embarrass him, which they inevitably do on either count.
Trump’s argument that any positive thing he does should create enough gratitude to overlook his illegal actions is invalid. Besides, I doubt if Trump gave Alaska ANWR, major highways, or anything else. Didn’t they already have that stuff?
Or somebody else gave it to them. Same difference.