It looks to all intents and purposes like Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee for president in 2024. If they had to do the nomination today, in all events, that is emphatically how the numbers line up.
Trump raised $1.5 million dollars since last Saturday when he went into a screaming meltdown on Truth Social, where he did his usual dirge about the “stollen” election, how the United States is now a third world country and claimed that he would be arrested on Tuesday. The Tuesday date was his speculation. Nevertheless, the MAGAs opened their wallets and gave the putative billionaire $1.5 million, which could surely go to local school lunch programs, animal shelters, all manner of good. But no, it became Trump grift.
Since then, Marjorie Taylor Greene wasted no time demanding the arrest of Alvin Bragg. Three House Committees are talking about subpoenaing Bragg to testify before Congress. One can only construe all this major Trump support as validating that he is indeed their standard bearer for 2024. Why?
I’ll tell you why. It’s because the GOP has given up. They believe they can’t win anymore and so they have decided to reject democracy. This was predicted by author and Atlantic journalist David Frum in 2018, when he published the book “Trumpocracy” and made this viral comment. “If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” Five years later we are seeing what sounded then like dystopian prophecy become simple fact.
The focal point this week, as Trump himself pointed out, is the impending indictment/arrest of Donald Trump for falsifying the business records pertaining to the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Political historian Heather Cox Richardson puts this issue in its proper context.
The pending issue of the hush-money payment is not just about 2016, and it is not just about Trump. That today’s Republican leaders have not condemned any of his attempts to cheat speaks volumes about the party. As Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) pointed out today, when “Cohen was arrested, indicted, convicted, and went to prison for participating in an illegal hush money payment scheme to Stormy Daniels, not a single Republican leader complaining now said a thing about what happened to Michael Cohen.” So why the rush to defend Trump in the same case?
It appears Republicans have gotten to the point that they don’t believe they can win a free and fair election, and in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country, they believe cheating to win is justified. They cannot condemn Trump because he delivered what they wanted: a victory.
This is it. This is the point of no return right here and now. Victory is all that’s important. Victory means power and power must be obtained at all costs, including the destruction of democracy. If power has to be stolen, if cheating is the only way to obtain or hang onto power, then do be it. The only problem is, that is not democracy. Democracy dies with a mindset like this. This is autocracy, plain and simple. PoliticusUSA:
In a democracy, the way parties are supposed to win elections is by making a better case for being in power than their opponents do. Losing elections is supposed to make leaders think deeply about how better to appeal to voters. That system keeps all parties constantly honing their policies, thinking through problems, benefiting their constituents.
Our election laws are designed to try to hold the playing field level, and a party should want to keep the system fair in order to keep itself healthy. But if a party is willing to cheat to win, it no longer has to work on policies that appeal to voters; it can simply game the system to dismantle the competition on which democracy depends and instead create a one-party state.
There are many legal problems in Trump’s front yard these days. Some, like his theft of documents with markings bearing the highest level of classification and his attempt to overturn the Georgia results for the 2020 presidential election, are heating up fast, and their significance is clear.
But for all that the case we are currently hearing so much about seems less serious on its face than the other things charged to Trump’s account, a hush-money payment to silence someone whose story might have affected the 2016 election is no laughing matter.
It is no laughing matter. It is the linchpin to our democracy, ironic as it may seem, that a sex worker having the courage to come out and tell the truth about a presidential candidate who sought to cover up their dealings should have such power. But it does. It exposes the corruption of Trump. It’s not the sole expression of Trump corruption, not by any wild stretch of the imagination, but it may very well the source of the first indictment handed down to this malefacto, who would once again be our commander in chief. And therefore it will be historic.
The GOP is all for it. The only problem is, the handwriting is on the wall and has been for some time, that staying with Trump is a losing proposition, but it looks like that’s the one they’re staying with. PoliticusUSA:
Republicans can’t quit Donald Trump. They have now gotten to the point where they know they will lose in 2024, but like an addict, they can’t break free.
However, suggesting that they are hostages in some form to Trump isn’t entirely accurate. It isn’t that they can’t break, but that many of them don’t want to. […]
There are lots of Republicans who are worn out by Trump and want something new. The former president’s base of support has shrunk, but as long as Republicans continue to cater to his supporters, it is more than enough for him to win the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
The nation has rejected Trump and Trumpism in three straight elections, and it will continue to do so in 2024, 2026, and 2028.
The Republican Party had a chance to break with Trump after the 2022 midterm, but they didn’t have the guts to do it.
The GOP has had many offramps to get away from Trump. They won’t take any of them. Why? Because they see him as their only possible path to victory. And they are utterly unconscious to what that says about them. What it says about the Republican party, is that if your only conceivable hope of victory lies in a defeated one-term, twice impeached former president who is facing state and federal indictments for a lifetime of misbehavior, then you need to seriously look at your party. And they can’t do that, despite reality screaming at them to do that very thing, since 2018.
So be it. Take as many licks in the ring as you need to. As Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth.” If the last three rounds didn’t teach you anything, GOP, by all means, go into round four. And five and six and whatever you need.
America sacrificed 400,000 boys in WW2 to stop a fascist trying to take over the world. Although I don’t believe violence settles anything permanently, what makes them think they can support a fascist to destroy and take over our democracy? With 400 million guns on the streets, thanks to them, if they ever succeeded, then I’m fine with a violent revolution to overthrow them here. The country didn’t lay down 1861-1865, and I doubt it would lay down for them. So what the fuck do they think the end game is? A note to all you comfortable rich fascists: what makes you invincible to a bullet? In the Godfather 2, Michael hears no one can get to Mr Roth as he would be guarded by the agents taking him into custody. Michael states: if history has taught us anything, its that anyone can be killed. Keep that in mind you fuckheads living in Georgetown. Hopefully the vote will endure so we never face the terrible choices of the American Revolution or the Civil War. That being said, those events did happen. I would die fighting to keep my children in a democratic society. I would bet I’m not alone.
Very well said, Scott. Thank you. And thank you for your ongoing commentary in this space. It is appreciated by all of us, meaning writers and readers alike. Seriously, other readers have mentioned your name to me.
Scott, I agree and appreciate your comments on this fine forum.
What I have been hearing is a lot of this about the Rs.
What I would like to hear more about is: What are the “good guys” doing to stop the evil bastards from pulling off their next election theft BS?
I’m sure it can be described without giving away any secrets.
I heard that South Dakota outlawed ballot drop boxes recently. This is so stupid. What the Republicans need to do and even Kellyanne Conway said this, is get a “ballot bank” like the Democrats have. Obviously, because so many Democrats vote by mail or drop box, they prefer to cut off our efforts and in doing so, totally savage their own.
I don’t think the attacks against Alvin Bragg are about Trump per se. Allegedly, most GOP politicians privately despise Trump. Rather, Republicans are saying, “Anyone who opposes us is the enemy, and we will intimidate and crush our enemies because we can.” Just watch any of the GOP-led House committee hearings, and you’ll see this plan play out.
Absolutely. The politics of grievance are the only politics left to the GOP. They are truly a ruined party. I have to believe that some new party is going to rise from the ashes, as the Republicans rose from the ruins of the Whigs in the mid 1800’s.
Mr. Bragg simply needs to state he doesn’t recognize their authority and simply ignore Gym-strap Jordan and his band of howler monkeys just like Jordan ignored the Jan 6th investigation.
That’s exactly what he did.
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2023/03/23/bragg-responds-house-republicans
Thanks Ursula for the comment. Of course I really hope the American public increasingly realizes ALL of our votes over our lifetimes have been paid for by the sacrifices of others. We should honor them by using the best nonviolent tool we could ever have…the right to vote. If we don’t then the fascists WILL do the unthinkable. Thanks again.
Like I’ve said before, the GOP did the same thing back in 2010 with the “Tea Party Rebellion.” Instead of standing up to the “mass” of “conservatives” threatening to bolt the GOP and form their own political party and saying “Go ahead and do it; you won’t win any more House or Senate seats than we do and the Dems will control it all,” the GOP leadership fell to the floor, whimpering and saying, “Whatever you want” because the “old guard” GOP was so afraid of losing elections.
If the GOP had stood up to the fanatics and accepting a couple of election cycles (maybe even a full decade’s worth) of losses, we wouldn’t have seen Trump’s takeover of the GOP . GOP primaries wouldn’t have devolved into the circus they have–certainly the level of “he’s not as conservative as I am” wouldn’t have spiraled the way it has–and we might still see “reasonable” GOPers in office.
Not disagreeing Joseph, except when did the GOP ever care about the 95% of us, except as consumers to make them richer, as soliders to go get killed to protect their assets, and as gullible voters to keep them in power? Nixon was a criminal who created tens of millions of political prisoners with his lies codified into law. Reagan was illegally double dealing with the Iranians and contras, while jailing Americans for smoking cannabis. Both Bushes were criminals, the latter knowingly lying about Iraq, getting thousands of Americans killed, and God knows how many civilians in Iraq. Trump we all know too well. The last republican president worth a damn was Ike, who warned us and the world about the suicidal madness of the military/industrial complex. Truman took us down the road to nuclear holocaust. I know nothing is black and white, but the Republicans have no interest in building anything worth having that I’ve seen in my almost seven decades. Now that democracy is on the chopping block, they are ready to swing the axe.