Forget about an organizes crime family, even a school yard bully learns two things from the minute he gets to the top. The Top is definitely the place to be, but that means that somebody else will want your place. The first thing that they learn is to cuff around their stooges regularly, to keep them weak and compliant. And the second is to occasionally pull them aside, one at a time, and whisper nasty shit about the other stooges, to keep them fighting with each other instead of you.
Donald Trump spent a 35 year career in New York real estate development company exclusively using those principals. For one thing, there was no one upper level executive, save the slavish Allen Weisselberg, who knew enough to be able to pose a direct threat to Trump. And he reveled in selecting mid range and upper executives who literally couldn’t tolerate each other, and then almost constantly played them off against each other, for both held amusement as well as self protection.
But there’s a risk there. Did you ever see what happens to the gang if the bully gets grounded for a couple of weeks by his parents? They hang around the corner, giving each other noogies, and trying to slip in a wedgie here and there, bred out of their minds. Without the boss, there’s no focus to their activities, and nobody wants to step too far over a line, and risk retaliation when the bully comes back out to play.
From the day that Trump successfully co-opted the RNC in the fall of 2015, that schoolyard bully brigade is what the GOP became. By sheer force of will, effective rhetoric, and an unending thirst for revenge, Trump became the sole fount from which GOP orthodoxy flowed. But, and this is the critical thing to remember, because Trump had such pitch perfect tone in pedaling this bullshit to his base, everybody else sounded good parroting that same bullshit left and right.
Which brings us to the current day GOP dilemma. The GOP could have survived a Trump loss last November. Just so long as Trump was the dominant trumpet in the orchestra, the GOP faithful could continue to have a coherent message. As long as Trump was on far right media like OAN, FUX News, and The Patriot Network, as well as daily assaults on social media, the GOP was still in business.
But Trump has been permanently grounded by social media. And as a result, the entire Trump loyal GOP has been reduced to nothing more than a bunch of stooges, standing around the corner horsing around. Trump was the GOP’s Oracle of Delphi, his words were liquid gold. And without them, nobody knows what the fuck to do!
The GOP no longer has a coherent message, and here’s a perfect example. Trump, whether in power or out, has always modeled himself as pro law enforcement. If he had a social media bullhorn, Trump would have been all in on having congress give medals to DC Metro and Capitol Hill police for their heroic defense during the insurrection, it would have been rue to his brand. But Trump’s muzzled. And the GOP House knows full well that the January 6th insurrection was Trump inspired, and so the majority of them vote against giving the cops medals for heroism.
Another perfect example is the days old tragedy in Atlanta. While Trump himself has, and always has had the empathy of a Tasmanian Devil, nonetheless, when called upon to do so, could make some false, conciliatory coo-coo dove noises to try to separate his racist words from their ultimate effect. But without Trump’s guidance, the GOP House response is to double down on the anti AAPI rhetoric, a growing voting bloc that will have an impact on the 2022 elections.
This is what the once vaunted Party if Lincoln has been reduced to. They sold their souls to the devil, and now that Beelzebub is silent, they’re bouncing off of each other like the zombies in the mall parking lot in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. I have searched my wellspring for a proper political simile corollary, and the best I can come up with is this. We are literally watching a current day, political Jonestown. A bunch of sodding fools follow a charismatic maniac out into the middle of nowhere. And now, when it’s finally all coming down around their ears, they’re going to drink the Kool-Ade simply because they have no idea of anything else that they can do! The entire GOP is hell bent for leather to piss off every non Trombie in the country, and somehow or other this is an advantage for them going into 2022. Knockez vous your socks off, guys.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
You would think McConnell would have a clue, what direction the party should go, sans Trump, but no. I guess all he knows how to do is obstruct dem-led legislation, pack the courts and kiss up to the fat cats that put him in office and keep him there. You’re right, without their fearful leader, they are clueless.
McConnell was never more than a middle manager with delusions of grandeur. It’s probably why he’s freaking out so badly and pathetically right now. He’s lived long enough to watch it all slip away.
Exactly…McConnell had the same chace that every Senate Majority Leader does to slap the new President’s dick down, and let him know how Washington works, but he abrogated that…
Strange but true. The Rs didn’t have a coherent platform then, and even less so now.
Look at the Democrats…After 2016, they went into the wilderness, but it was without Obama, he was no longer the head…The GOP went all in on Trump, and now they have no exit strategy…
More importantly, Obama WILLINGLY stepped away and Trump can’t. For all the latter’s antipathy for the Bush family, he mirrors them in one specific way. Neither tolerates rivals; they are subsumed or destroyed. That works great for kings, be it Hapsburgs or the Kim family in North Korea. But it is a formula for disaster if you’re working in American politics.
The repokicants only want to obstruct by ignoring all and every thing that has nothing to do with The Orange God. They’ll obstruct and go home. Their constituent population needs to toss them in the toilet.
Totally agree, Teri. And your name prompts me to inquire: are you Mrs. Murf? Whether you are or not, welcome, haven’t seen you around these parts before 🙂
Have you ever watched an actual vehicular demolition derby? Because that’s what the GOP is starting to resemble. Except that in one of those old derbies the drivers tried to destroy each other’s cars or trucks by BACKING into them, so as to keep their own vehicle’s engine running. More and more of these GOP idiots are driving front-end first into other vehicles and wiping themselves out with the other guy!
Yes, because when I was a kid, they used to hjave them every few months on the infield, or what is now trhe football fielfd for the Chicaago Bears at Soldier field…And you’re spot on…
Hell, I’ve been saying Jonestown for months when it comes to the Trumpistas. Another handy image comes from Pamela Coleman-Smith’s fabulous image from the Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck, The Tower. A crowned structure of the title is struck by lightning from a black sky, setting it on fire and sending two crowned figures hurling off a cliff.
As a general rule, I try to aviod hyperbole, feeling it makes for a cheap opoint, but I can’t think of another simile!!!
Hey, it’s all good, Murf! If I could think of a more obscure historical reference myself (and NOT just because everyone overused the Nazi example during the W AND Trump years), I’d bring it up myself. But in terms of pathetic, pointless self-immolation, Jonestown is hard to beat.
Yeah, but Rev. Jones didn’t charge exuberant prices for his Kool-aid.
Sure, he did. It was just in lives rather than money.
I moved to San Francisco right before Jonestown and the Harvey Milk disasters. They were truly horrifying.”This one I like a lot more.
Republicans are now completely beholden to right-wing media, which are desperately trying to out-crazy one another. Voters who get fed up with their nonsense are getting fed up with the GQP, too.
I agree with your point, but where you write : “the GOP House knows full well that the January 6th insurrection was Trump inspired, and so the majority of them vote AGAINST giving the cops medals for heroism.” — Fact is, only 12 GOP reps were moronic enough to vote against the cops: Louie Gohmert, Michael Cloud & Lance Gooden (TX); Marjorie Taylor Greene & Andrew Clymer (GA); Matt Gaetz & Greg Steube (FL); Andy Biggs (AZ); Thomas Massie (KY); Andy Harris (MD); and John Rose (TN). Credit where credit is due.