The DR has vigilantly watched Presidential State of the Union addresses for almost 50 years. Lively support by a particular President’s partisans is not unusual, and sometimes, for example senior Bush’s SOTU following the end of the first Gulf War, the ardor is bipartisan. Yet it is fair to call GOP frat boy hooting last Tuesday shockingly servile, mindless support of a leader disinterested in any agenda past the constant chaos his daily outrages initiate. No subject – with the exception of a particularly idiotic declaration that, were he not elected, we’d be at war with North Korea – was off limits. Even supposed conservative taboos like tariffs and deficit spending, not to mention negotiating with the Taliban, were applauded. Indeed, by the end of Trump’s Capitol Hill recitation, it was fully established, if any doubt remained and well beyond further debate… the GOP is the Donald’s party, completely at his beckon call.
Coming into the speech it was even odds the night would turn absurd. After fiascos in London, Brussels and Helsinki, as well as a plethora of unhinged press conferences and countless rally meltdowns, Trump had eroded confidence in his fidelity to reasonable decorum. Nobody could assure he wouldn’t make a mockery of the proceedings by going off script and airing his visceral resentment before the nation and the world. When a gilded version of Lonesome Rhodes is POTUS, all bets on propriety are off! That keeping to his TelePrompTer and not going shock and awe, whine and degrade, translated to high approval numbers, speaks more to impossibly low expectations months of erratic behavior creates than any triumph of oratory.
Of course, anybody with delusions the address represented a new spirit of reconciliation from the White House, as its final passages professed, was quickly slapped back to their senses by the President’s ensuing tweet storms on everything from “witch hunt” madness to Democrat fondness for drugs and MS 13 to his ugly recognition of “Pocahontas” declaring to run for President in 2020. Nothing Trump says can be relied on whatever the venue.
Either way, the GOP made clear this is their guy, executive time and all. Fear of the base’s 87% apparently carries the day over the nation’s paltry 37% and solidifies loyalty to a patron unlikely to return the favor. What appeared as at least a whiff of reality check after the disasterous government shutdown once again smells of la la land, with McConnell begging the Donald not to go the national emergency route, but at the mercy of Pelosi and Co., who aren’t going to provide anything close to what will satisfy Limbaugh, Coulter et al. It’s useful to remember Trump is as much a product of Fox/AM as his wretched core it created. It’s wall or fall because they say so…. not him. Trump’s simply doing what he does, dancing as fast as he can, terrified of a reckoning.
It would be wonderful if we only had to worry about another government shutdown. However, that’s simply one of a host of self-inflicted maladies Trump has foisted on a nation beleaguered by his minute-by-minute grievance toward whoever or whatever threatens his narcissistic sensibilities. Departing pretend Attorney General Matthew Whitaker’s testimony before Congress provided House Republicans another opportunity to demonstrate how much of Trump’s water they are willing to carry. Six months ago Devin Nunes seemed on the cutting edge of Trumpist subservience. Now, judging from GOP ranking member Douglas Collins’ (GA) historonics Friday, shamelessly equating Congress’ oversight role with a lust for “publicity stunts” and “character assassinations,” it’s no longer outlier but norm. Listening to Collins hold forth about “fishing expeditions” he was enthusiastic to join as recently as last October, it’s hard to envision anything Mueller’s team may uncover that will modify unified GOP coddling of the President.
Worse, word out of the White House is morale has never been lower, and virtually all of Trump’s senior staff, including Chief-of-Staff Mick Mulvaney, Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow and even yes-man Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are looking for the exits. It’s becoming increasingly clear nobody of stature and/or any hint of competence wants to work in this Administration, an unprecedented crisis. This West Wing offers nothing but the certainty of high lawyer fees and backstabbing; that’s not going to change no matter how hard the GOP cheers Trump on. You can’t fake until you make a Presidency; and this regime is simply a lit fuse fizzling toward disaster, pretenders without a clue, led by a fool with itchy little Twitter fingers. Common sense dictates this puts us all in grave danger. Moreover, despite a change in House leadership, Tuesday night clarified the cavalry has not yet reached any visible horizon.
Watching wild-eyed chest thumping last Tuesday evening about never giving in to the scourge of socialism, one was struck by how caught up in the moment GOP members seemed. They were like a football team, amped on stimulants and a pre-game pep talk. It was merely a rally by any other name, us against them.
All in with Trump means never planning to say your sorry, and they surely never will. In other words, doing the right thing is no longer an option, case closed. It doesn’t matter what Mueller discovers. The narrative is infallible and will not be abandoned; facts or the national interest are now ancillary, it’s about Trump and his preservation, come what may. There are no Howard Bakers in this crowd.
Trump is as lame as any duck that ever waddled down Pennsylvania Avenue. Right now he’s reduced to again threatening to shut down the US government over funding of a wall conjured up for no other purpose than to feed a storyline his wretched core, and now a fully beholden Republican Party, place above all else. A manufactured crisis with no solution possible, held out as a panacea worth oblivion to achieve. Past that nonsense Trump offers no vision or plan of any account, and Mueller’s team awaits, along with plenty of House Conmittees. Staying in power is now all that counts, and reaching across the aisle to solve real problems, or hold a corrupt Administration accountable, is the last prescription this bunch aims to fill.
It’s worth 20 minutes of one’s life to watch former Speaker of the House John Boehner recently discuss the futility of leading the House GOP in any constructive direction. His conclusions, though several years too late to do any good, are accurate… the notion Fox/AM is a tool of the GOP is ass backwards… Fox and Friends now calls the shots! Understanding that fact makes “support Trump or bust” inevitable. Those hoots and hollers last Tuesday were first and foremost directed back home, a chorus of nihilism meant to reassure nihilists, who still somehow hold our nation hostage. BC