The Trumpification of the GOP marches inexorably onward. When the bombshell dropped Thursday that Kevin McCarthy was a liar (due to audio Rachel Maddow played) and he had in fact told Liz Cheney and a few other Republicans that he intended to advise Donald Trump to resign, it was predicted that that was the end of Kevin McCarthy.
But the Orange Oracle has made another proclamation. He is feeling beneficient these days and he says that he forgives, moreover, he blesses Kevin.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Mr. Trump said he wasn’t pleased to learn of Mr. McCarthy’s comments in the House leadership call, but he said the California Republican ultimately never ultimately advised him to quit. He said that Mr. McCarthy quickly changed his stance “when he found out the facts,” and embraced him fully, a few weeks after the Jan. 10, 2021, call.
“He made a call. I heard the call. I didn’t like the call,” said Mr. Trump. “But almost immediately as you know, because he came here and we took a picture right there—you know, the support was very strong,” Mr. Trump said, pointing to a spot in the room where Mr. McCarthy had taken a photo with the former president in late January, an image seen as formalizing their rapprochement and confirming Mr. Trump continued dominance of the party.
“I think it’s all a big compliment, frankly,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. McCarthy and other Republicans who criticized him after Jan. 6 and then said they would still back him. “They realized they were wrong and supported me.”
That’s the dynamic. J.D. Vance has gone on record saying that very thing, that he was blind before but now he sees. He sees Peter Thiel’s money. But meanwhile, it’s amusing to listen to Vance talk about how he saw the light, just as the Apostle Paul did on the road to Damascus. Intelligencer:
“I think there are so many reasons I was wrong about Trump, but I’m happy that I was wrong about Trump,” Vance said by phone on Thursday, while driving to a campaign town-hall meeting in Findlay, Ohio. His opponents have attacked him as a flip flopper and painted him as an opportunist and a secret RINO, but he brushed off the criticism by portraying himself as an honest convert compared to others in the party. “Something our voters respond to on the campaign trail is being told the truth,” he said. “‘Yeah I had one beef six years ago and I have a different view today, this is why it changed’ is a hell of lot better than trying to pretend that you didn’t say something you said.”
Vance contrasted this with other candidates in the race “who all go down this rabbit hole” in trying to explain away their prior deviations from Trump. He was apparently referring to rivals Josh Mandel, the former state treasurer, Jane Timken, the former state party chair, and businessman Mike Gibbons. (A fifth candidate, state senator Matt Dolan is explicitly running to appeal to the Trump skeptical wing of the party. He is not expected to win.) Several candidates made repeated pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago to beg for Trump endorsement, but none dealt with their apostasies head on in the way he has.
You must deal with your apostasies head on, or the Dreamsickle Deity will label you a heretic and excommunicate you from the cult. And then you will be consigned to Republican purgatory, possibly for eternity, at least in what’s left of your political life, where Donald Trump, Jr. will call you names on social media and mock you.
As Vance tells it, there is an ongoing “war for the soul of the Republican Party” with Trump on one side and “the old guard” on the other. “The reason Trump’s endorsement matters so much is that it signals to our voters who is on the right team,” he said. In his view, Trump was standing alone as the only check preventing the party going backwards to days when it was led by figures like Paul Ryan and John Boehner and “that that has to change. He needs allies personally and again the agenda needs allies or we go back 5-10 steps over the next ten years.”
“These people all try to say the MAGA words but [Republican voters] can tell they don’t actually believe it, they have no real view of what American trade policy should look like, they have no real view of what we should do with big tech,” Vance said. “They just know our voters are kind of pissed off about it and it is very obvious that they just try to mouth the slogans.”
You mustn’t just mouth the slogans, you must bee-leave. You must kneel to Donald Trump and kiss his ring and his ass and mean it. Yea, verily so it is written.
Maybe Vance made the right choice. Or, maybe not.
This was taken yesterday. It doesn’t look like he’s packing them in. But maybe tonight will be better. Tonight the Great Orange One rises and holds a rally in Ohio.
I wish they’d stop asking the former guy for anything but a plea.
The way things are headed now is that the GOP is convinced that they cannot move on from Trump. So they’ll going all in. I don’t know if they’re reading their electorate properly. I tend to think that the MAGAs do not represent the majority of the GOP. I think there is a “silent majority” to quote Ronnie that is not MAGA. I could be wrong. But if MAGA does represent half of this country and it may, then we are going to see fascism replacing democracy. I don’t see any other way. That’s going to be the battle.
Well, as always, the GOP primaries are populated by the most extremist voters. A decade ago, they were the Teabaggers and all had to pay homage to the Teabagger philosophy. Now, they’re all Trumptards and must pay homage and fealty to the Trump Turd.
Then, when November rolls around, the average GOP voter simply goes in and pulls the lever or checks the box that contains the name of the candidate with the “R” by the name and THAT is why we keep having this descent into fascism.
Until Republican voters recognize what’s happening in (and to) their “preferred” party and get out to vote in the primaries and vehemently reject the extremists, the cycle will never change. And Republican voters will NOT recognize that because they prefer living in a world that doesn’t challenge them or their narrow-minded, low-educated perspective.
With these goobers it’s a case of “I was blind, and STILL don’t see. (There was eye surgery that would restored my vision but I had to prove by loyalty to Trump by gouging out my eyes)”
“Please Lord, I didn’t mean it – let me keep my job!!”