This is going to be a long 2 years for the GOP. Anybody who is a sports fan, a fan of any sport, you know what happens when a franchise sticks with an aging superstar beyond his ability date. It never works out well, and it takes the franchise years more than it should to recover from the misguided loyalty.
When you look over the last 7 years of politics in this country, you quickly realize that the GOP has been nothing if not on a unified message. Which is a longtime GOP given. Over the years, the GOP has been the Law and order party, and the small government party, and the Read my lips, no new taxes! party. These were all old, well established bromides, and none of them actually had to be made good on.
But then along came the era of Traitor Tot. His 2016 campaign resembled an ld Dr Pepper ad, I’m a racist, he’s a racist, she’s a racist, they’re all racists, wouldn’t you like to be a racist too? And it worked. Trump managed to scrape out from every rock every bedsheet bandito, goose stepper, and LGBTQ hating far right Evangelical to ride into the White House.
But it turned into a one-trick-pony. Trump turned out to be such a despicable shit that the entire rest of the country rose up against him. His Lowness took a 40 seat bloodbath in the House in the 2018 midterms, which allowed the House to impeach his dumb ass twice. And the rest of the GOP just sat there staring at each other slack jawed. They were now officially the Party of Trump.
In 2020, Trump reran the same old tired racist and grievance playbook, but it soon became obvious to everybody that the magic was gone. So obvious that the RNC cleared the primary field for him to save him from being humiliated. But by mid September, after the conventions, it was starting to become clear that Trump was a dead duck. And so, a month before the first early votes were cast, Trump started screaming about massive voter fraud from millions of early and mail in ballots rigging the election against him! Trump got his ass handed to him, but The Big Lie let The Trumpster Fire keep his delicate ego intact. But it also left the GOP in a hole, because everybody else new it was bullshit.
Which brings us to 2022. Everybody from McConnell to McDaniel to McCarthy wanted to move past the 2020 debacle, and start hammering Biden and the Democrats for every misstep they made. But The Mango Messiah just wouldn’t let go of the Big Lie. And as a result, the rest of the toadying GOP had to run the 2022 campaign on The Big Lie. Trump made sure of that. And they got their heads handed to them in one of the most humiliating midterms in US electoral history.
Which brings us to 2024. And don’t bother fooling yourselves, the jockeying for 2024 has already started. Which leaves the GOP with a puzzle, wrapped in a conundrum, surrounded by an enigma. What is the messaging going to be for 2024? And here’s the McGuffin for ya. Late in the campaign The Big Lie was polling so poorly that even Trump dropped talking about it in stump speech rallies for favored candidates. The Big Lie is dead, and nobody other than the GOP VP nominee wannabe Kari Lake will run on it in 2024.
So, what’s the GOP messaging for 2024? With Trump on the ballot in 2024, his preferred message is going to overt racism, which tanked in 2020. And even Hair Twitler seems resigned that The Big Lie just won’t float anymore. If Kreepy Kevin McCarthy manages to wrest the Speakership, the agenda appears to be Investigating the investigators on the J6 Committee, and absolving The Cheeto Prophet of any responsibility, along with Hunter Biden’s laptop. From what I can see, that’s pretty much it.
Which is a nightmare scenario for the GOP. Because in 2022, the American people clearly voted that they were tired of partisan gridlock bullshit. They didn’t want to give Biden and the Democrats free rein, but they still want the peoples business to move forward. And nothing that the GOP House pans to do in 2023 and on into 2024 is meant to move the national agenda forward, if fact it is meant to obstruct anything from getting done.
Which is a golden goose for the Democrats heading into 2024. On the House side, the minority Democratic committee members can use their time in hearings to expose the incredible lame ass excuses for investigations, and the lack of substance. And the new stable Democratic majority in the Senate can push out popular public legislation, and both the House and Senate members can hammer McCarthy for not bringing them to the floor.
I’ll be honest. The next two years are going to be a legislative horror show. The Democrats are going to push meaningful legislation that can’t go anywhere, And the House HOP is going to steam forward with useless show hearings to feed red meat to whatever is left of the GOP base. I’m too old for this lame shit. But I’m going to soldier on to report on the insanity with the shining prospect of a brighter future in November of 2024. Hell. It’s my job.
The ‘pubes must be the party of everyone with an I.Q. less than 70. There is no way an under-achieving, moronic, puling P.O.S. like former guy could have hijacked a political party that had anything half way on the ball. They have been chumming for fools for over 40 years and now there is no republican party, only the party of a washed-up idiot.
“Because in 2022, the American people clearly voted that they were tired of partisan gridlock bullshit. They didn’t want to give Biden and the Democrats free rein, but they still want the peoples business to move forward.”
And yet, enough people in swing districts decided to vote for their local GOP candidate to give the GOP that slight majority. Even though every single one of those voters knew well and good what would happen if the GOP got control of either House of Congress, much less both. The local candidates weren’t exactly quiet about the eventual investigations and probable impeachment although they pretended all of that was way down on their list. But anyone who actually looked at what was going on with the GOP would have known that all the “economic crisis” talk was a big nothingburger.
One of the consistent failings of our side is the application of logic to situations where such does not apply. So while you are correct about a good many GOP goobers being there to cause trouble, Joseph, it has to be remembered that this is seen as a virtue to what is left of the GOP base. So what if it throws them into the kind of pariah status the mainstream will consign them once enough conservative Boomers are dead? At least they got to go out “pure” and with a new “lost cause” myth to nurture for what time they have left.
I frequently compare what we are seeing now to the breakup of the New Deal coalition in the late 1970s which led to the horrors of Reaganism. I have heard the tired and myopic argument of “but that was different!” when I do. But it’s really not. Think past your preferred morality for a second and look at the overall dynamics. The cycle has finally turned and the GOP suddenly don’t know what to do. Sadly, far too many of their opposite numbers in my age bracket and higher are much the same…which is a shame, really. Is this not what we hoped for?
The frustration faced every day at home over the breakfast coffee mug, for a majority of REAL people … the people that make things, grow things and keep trying to pay taxes, keep food on the table, also feel inundated by tons of ads for the big money Republican candidates, who, because of the unlimited funding, can present a false claim barrage against the Democrat candidate, who ordinarily has much less funding to provide fact checking rebuttals …
Dumping millions of dollars on the heads of our Grassley for yet another failing stroll in the Senate and our cutesy House member, who pushed out our Democrat Rep, a couple elections ago, huge money because Trump drooled on her at a phony photo op stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa … everything Trump touches turns to cow dung … a given that will be his personal Albatross fighting a prison term …
Hot, buttered pop corn with cool drinks will be the order of the day when the Jan-06 committee releases the TRUE story of Trump and his family’s criminal status … before Christmas would be a fine way to send Trump into a hell fire of catsup bottles and broken TV screens …