Many would argue that former President Trump is the apotheosis of the Republican Party. The note he issued yesterday suggests that it may be both true and about to rip out the hull of the good ship GOP:
If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do. [via Maddowblog]
This is Trump’s strike to take the Republican Party private, to make it into another division of The Trump Organization, and, by so doing, boot out all Republican leaders, no matter how extreme, who show the least little bit of independence.
Such as Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), whose approach to the debt ceiling issue enraged Trump. Even Governor DeSantis (R-FL), who owes his current position to Trump’s endorsement in 2018, may not be welcome, as he’s rumored to be maneuvering for a Presidential run.
But it’s the cultural currents which fascinate me here. Republican Party links to the private sector are decades old and well-known. The private sector is often characterized as being based on greed and, to a lesser degree, self-centeredness, and while I think companies and individuals who are emblematic of those claims often become cautionary tales – the Lehman Brothers collapse comes to mind – it’s a fact that the Libertarian wing of the Republican Party has often defended this “philosophy” of greed as being a social plus.
But when these currents bleed into the river of politics, unwelcome results can occur. This is the problem facing the GOP: either they get behind Trump’s childish fantasies, his unbridled greed, his pathological narcissism, his need to be the center and own everything he desires, or he’ll destroy their power by destroying the Party.
Because a Party of Losers will fly apart.
Governance in the United States has traditionally been a work of hand in hand: finding compromises, both intra- and inter- Party, that solve the problems facing the polity. This is not the heart of the private sector, where organizations are more top-down and unwilling to compromise.
But here comes private sector baby Trump and his, uh, diseased intellect. These currents are no longer currents; they’re rip-tides that’ll rip the Party to pieces unless these officials, who themselves possess some imperious egos, submit to the will of Trump.
I suggest they dig in their heels and wait for Trump to implode, because Trump, due to his mental illness and religious upbringing (“name it and claim it“), will keep repeating his claim to have won, but he’ll never be vindicated. By standing firm, they stand for law and order. It’s their best bet.
