There is little doubt that the January 6 Committee hearings and everything surrounding them are piquing Donald Trump something fierce. He says, on the one hand, that he doesn’t watch them, that nobody watches them, but he watches every minute. He reportedly asks his confidants when the hearings will end.So it must be painful.
It’s also reported that the hearings are doing more damage to Trump than anybody in Trump world thought could happen. It is amazing all the detail that is coming out now and that should have come out during the second impeachment process. Probably in that instance there was too much time pressure. The January 6 Committee has done an extraordinary job in bringing all this information to light.
But probably the most interesting thing that is going on now, is that Trump is reacting in a counter intuitive manner. Rather than trying to do damage control and focus on 2024, he’s hell bent on relitigating 2020.
Trump may actually be the one person who can do what all the rest of us have been trying to do for years now and that is stop Donald Trump. He may just self immolate. He’s too immature and reactive a personality to get some detachment and start to think about the long game. He’s not a long game kind of guy, he’s an impulsive, short term gratification person.
Right now his gratification is in lashing back at the Committee.
His Truth Social feed is indeed getting nuts. If you go over there right now he’s attacking Paul Ryan, Elon Musk and saying that he should become the new icon of the Republican party in lieu of Ronald Reagan. So a guy who wasn’t too tightly wrapped to begin with is now unravelling even more than usual.
So it looks like George Conway may be right. If that’s the case, the GOP really does need to dump him for its own survival. Or, and this has been said before, maybe the GOP will split into two parties, MAGA and neo-GOP, or some other catchy name.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. And a house that a madman has set fire to is one that anybody sane will flee.
I can’t disagree with former guy becoming the face/icon of the ‘pube party. His words and actions are 21st century g.o.p. through and through.
If you are black and unarmed with a broken tail light you can get killed w a hail of 90+ bullets…
but if you are white and named Trump you can break any laws (including insurrection) for years with ZERO consequences.
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It is absolutely disgusting but you’re right. That is how it is in this country.
A steaming pile of dogshit describes the insurrectionist cult known as the GOP. Reopen Alcatraz & put all of them on the rock.
Granted, I’m not nor have I ever been a Republican so my impressions are open to criticism and even ridicule. However, I got the sense twenty years ago that the Reagan worship of the GOP had greatly diminished as Bush43 and his gang of neocons took over our government. It’s worth remembering there was no love lost between Bush World and Reagan Land. Going all the way back to 1980 and the elder Bush’s branding of Reagan’s economic policy as “Voodoo Economics” their alliance was nothing but one of convenience and when it came time for Bush to mount his 88 campaign there was actual conflict between the two camps. One thing that annoyed the Bush’s and their people was that he actually was so many of the things Reagan only claimed to be or allowed himself to be portrayed as.
For damned sure Bush Jr. took note of all that, and once he was in the Oval Office he knew better than to out-and-out trash Reagan but there was a subtle campaign to “move beyond” the guy. And when you think about it and some of what Reagan did (including tax increases) would he have ever gained his iconic status had he rose to national prominence in the 21st century? I think not. Of course, Bush Jr. turned out to be not at all a new figurehead (he might as well have been in Witness Protection during the 2008 campaign and he wasn’t received with “warm fuzzies” during the Obama years either. Trump however grabbed the GOP by the gonads and made himself the face of the Party.
I think a lot of the establishment, especially the older ones (retirement age or approaching it) would like a return to Reagan being the one and only “standard”/icon of the GOP and conservatism, flaws (on Reagan’s part) and all. I for one found it interesting that recently Liz Cheney did an event at the Reagan Library and talked up the J6 committee and trashed Trump, as well as offer some pointed criticism of those who say one thing in private but in public appear to be still guzzling orange Kool-Aid by the gallon. It will be interesting to see if more old-school Republicans start using the Reagan Library as a venue for speeches that try to get the GOP to break away from its subservience to Trump.
IF we see a slow yet growing string of such events I think maybe there’s a chance we will see a return to the “good old” days of a ruthless, heartless (except for uber rich people and THEIR “problems”) but at least sane Republicans controlling the GOP. It isn’t much, but it would be a damned sight better than where we are now (and have been for too long!).
If the former guy insists that he won in 2020, he shouldn’t be allowed into primaries in 2024, because the 22nd Amendment says you can only win twice, after which you’re automatically disqualified from running again.