Political recklessness is usually the product of either hubris or its opposite, desperation. Many an incumbent has said or done the worst thing merely because he/she convinced themselves big polling numbers equaled invulnerability, risk an unpleasantry of the past. Conversely, when a campaign’s chips are down, and polls are not friendly, hail Marys become more enticing as a bold way back into the game. Neither mindset works out very often, and frequently collateral damage, like legal troubles or impugned reputations ensue.
GOP candidates now exhibit both sides of the coin as November nears, many up against it as a Trump referendum tide rolls in, others blowharding MAGA tropes to ensure their nihilist bona fides in flyover districts that provide general election safety, but also lurking primary threats ready to accuse them of impurities, not to mention the hourly indignity of Trump as their daddy.
When you are a party at war with demographics, pounding a narrative that revises history, everything is sketchy. One minute you’re at a fundraiser waxing nostalgic for donors looking to yesterday as the future, and the next morning you’re swearing to reporters there isn’t a racist bone in your body. One morning you’re puckering up to smooch The Donald’s burgeoning backside, that afternoon you’re all in for covering pre-existing conditions and Medicaid expansion.
If robust debate defines a healthy political party, the GOP is dying day by day. It’s membership now consists of two camps: Trump sycophants, busy fighting over who agrees more; and the rest, busy trying to show they aren’t in the first group without being labeled RINOs and attacked for apostasy.
It’s certain many in the second group will be unemployed soon, perhaps the death knell of the party. After all, it’s hard to envision a bunch of Trumpies in the House, clamoring for a Fox/AM mic, doing everything to get in the way of real governance, and once the Freedom Caucus is all that’s left, there won’t be enough of them to even do that. As for the Senate, Marsha Blackburn is running to replace Bob Corker in Tennessee, nuff said. With no serious partners in the lower chamber, they will become a permanent minority, representing only parts of the south and western flyover states, simply bigger mouthpieces of resentment.
Why would any organization willingly accept its own destruction? They have no choice. Any efforts to broaden the base simply invites its ire, and threatens those reaching out. The GOP wretched core is extreme, with a reckless philosophy, developed by television bottom feeders unconcerned with political or governing viability, even as they currently control both. The purity they demand is lethal to national electoral prospects and fully seditious to government responsibility. And make no mistake, you’re either for or against them…there is no middle ground; that is RINO territory.
Of course this scenario comes with a big caveat… that we survive the GOP’s best efforts to subvert the democratic process and follow what most surely is on its way: Trump’s refusal to cede power back and allow America to clean up its mistake. Republicans have spent more than a decade corrupting the US elections process, resisting the no brainer that more voters is a good thing. Trump, of course, is fully prepared to lead them into no man’s land on that score.
I suppose it’s fair to wonder whether Democrats would seek to ignore Russian meddling if they stood to gain by it. Even so, it’s a preposterous question because the GOP would make life so miserable for all in such a scenario, they’d buckle simply to get a moment’s peace. Yet and still, Fox/AM already has a response for the meek objections of the loyal opposition to the scandalous indifference coming from both the White House and Capital Hill; you’ve been doing it for years, look at all the illegals signed up to vote! Any historian will tell you, truth is the first casualty on the road to dictatorship.
Does anybody really believe the wretched core has a problem with Putin picking our lawmakers, so long as it’s their people ?! I’ll confess to being as clueless as the next guy on just how vulnerable our voting booths are to tampering. Who really knows? It’s like sitting in an hour-long traffic jam only to finally learn they took out two lanes for construction, but nobody’s there doing anything! Who is the person who ordered the cones?! Punching a Chris Christie cut out doesn’t satisfy! You want answers! McConnell won’t even allow the questions.
So, to summarize… if our election systems don’t yield rigged results, and if our civic vibrancy and institutions can face down the coming authoritarian spasms Trumpism will wreck on its way out of power, one of our major parties is heading into the dirt, slain by its own hand. Where will that leave us? A hell of a lot better than the alternative. And that will have to do. BC