And it’s going to bite them in the arse. They still haven’t figured out a certain thing about Trump, when it’s right in front of their faces. It’s going to drag them down. It’s going to cause problems starting now with primaries and moving all the way to midterms. They should open their eyes and look at his patterns. This is something we didn’t know about, but it will be very, very useful. With respect to Raw Story:
Former GOP strategist Rick Wilson described a major shortcoming that Republicans have missed — and have been ignoring — since President Donald Trump entered the White House.
The co-founder of The Lincoln Project wrote in his Substack on Monday how Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) “original sin” against Trump in his vote to impeach the president during his first administration was what drove Trump’s revenge campaign to unseat Cassidy in his race for re-election.
Huh. It seems Trump still has something left in his brain if he remembers that far back. On the other hand, he could very well have a list. With all the flopped accusations that barely made it to court, such as AG Letitia Smith, it’s more than possible. With all we’ve seen thus far of the Trump Revenge Tour™, we need to take into account that Trump knows every slight, every action against him, and those are etched in stone.
“Because here’s what Cassidy did next, and this is the part that elevates the story from tragedy to Trumpian farce,” Wilson wrote.
“Having committed the unforgivable, he spent the next several years frantically trying to be forgiven.
He didn’t double down on the principle. He didn’t go full Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger and welcome political martyrdom in the name of principle.”
“He negotiated. He tried to split the difference with a movement that does not do nuance, does not do partial credit, does not grade on a curve,” Wilson wrote.
Despite Cassidy’s best efforts, it did not work in his favor, Wilson explained. The former physician even voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead Health and Human Services as a way to signal loyalty to Trump, “apparently believing this act of submission would buy him a permission slip back into the tribe.”
“It bought him nothing. It was always going to buy him nothing. That is the part Cassidy and the entire cowering remnant of the institutional GOP cannot, will not, are constitutionally incapable of internalizing,” Wilson wrote.
That came out longer than expected. My apologies. Rick gave us a roadmap for Trump. If they do the slightest thing wrong, and he catches it, forget it. He’ll take someone down in an act that will 100 times overreact, just like he did with Cassidy. He lost, by the way. Badly. However, it is something to be considered for the future. If we could only get some Democrats to see this. It would be *extremely* helpful in terms of figuring out at least part of what Trump is doing.
“There is no appeasement price that satisfies Trump’s hunger,” Wilson wrote.
“The bill is never paid, because the debt isn’t financial; it’s a loyalty oath sworn in blood, and there are no installment plans.
You cannot impeach the man and then confirm his cabinet and net out even.
The ledger doesn’t work that way. The ledger only records the betrayal.”
Republicans have missed this signal from Trump, he explained.
“This is the GOP’s terminal blind spot, and it’s worth naming precisely: they keep believing they can transact a deal with Trump, that somehow he won’t turn on them if they ever betray the slightest tendency to principle,” Wilson wrote.
“They think there’s a deal in there somewhere, a position, a vote, a sufficiently groveling Fox hit that squares the account. There is not, and will never be,” he added.
WHAM. And also, ouch. It’s the never will be that’s the worst. They have to do *exactly* what Trump says, or he will stomp them into the ground. They can’t walk anything back because it doesn’t work that way. How much self-respect and morals do they have? Because they’re in or they’re out. Either way, they should still pay attention to what Trump is doing.
See you tomorrow!
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With due respect to Mr Wilson, it’s not so much the politicians who are at fault; it’s the voters. Or, more accurately, the PRIMARY voters.
In general–but somewhat more with the GOP–the people who get out and vote in the primary elections are the ones who form the hardcore party loyalists. So, they vote for the “purest” or the “most extreme” candidate–the one that satisfies THEIR beliefs. Then, when the general election comes along, when the moderates and independents get the chance to have their say, they’ll typically vote for the candidate they *claim* is most in line with their ideals but the reality ends up with the folks who’ve generally voted for the “R” candidate stick with the “R” candidate, no matter how horrible or extreme the candidate is. Apparently, Louisiana went to a new system this year where some offices are subject to a party declaration which sounds like how Alabama handles elections: You have to declare a party preference at the polling station so your ballot only lists candidates of that party; you can opt for a non-partisan ballot which will only have votes on things like amendments and initiatives. If a run-off in a partisan race is needed, whichever party you voted for in the primary race is the one you have to vote for (in other words, if there’s a GOP run-off and you voted in the Democratic primary, you can’t vote in the run-off; however, if you cast a non-partisan ballot, you can vote in the party’s run-off).
If Louisiana had been operating under the old “jungle primary” system, Cassidy might have attracted enough Democratic voters to make it to a run-off.
Now this is interesting! We have to declare a party in Georgia for the primaries. I just figured that was the way it was. I didn’t know about everything you told me. It’s quite something to consider.