It was a moment in time that came and went without enough notice, but spoke volumes. Marjorie Taylor Greene actually presided over the House of Representatives Monday. That’s right, the day before she went full Cruella Deville and jeered that the POTUS was a liar as he delivered his State of the Union Address, MTG was granting lawmakers permission to speak. The Saturday Night Live skit practically writes itself. Might as well laugh at the preposterous rather than cry at the tragic. Either way, the Wicked Witch of the South with the gavel should end once and for all any doubt that the normalization of MAGA is complete. Six plus years in and it’s a done deal.
The Koch network, a web of donors established by the billionaire industrialist brothers, provides blank-check sized contributions to Republican candidates it embraces to do its bidding. What that looks like never really changes much. Staunch support for business and upper-bracket tax cuts, a State of Nature regulatory regime that sticks it to women, minorities, unions and the planet in equal measure, and trade policy that fits its definition of a “level playing field” have always been the quid pro quo to receive Koch largesse.
This week the Koch network made news by joining a wide array of other GOP party elements in stating its intention to openly oppose Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination. Slipping comfortably into the role of innocent bystander, the organization issued a statement that rebukes Trump’s influence, charging he has led the GOP to pick “bad candidates who are advocating for things that go against core American principles” and “are being rejected by the American people.”
Whatever those core principles may be it is certain that, unless the list includes disdain for democratic governance and the ceaseless nihilist obstruction it demands, the new House majority never got the memo. Like its rising star MTG, now a member in good standing of both the powerful Oversight and Homeland Security committees, the caucus is determined to remain seditious in plain sight, scoffing at any notion that governing should be a meaningful part of its mission statement.
Thus, the mainstream storyline now asserts there is “a civil war brewing” within the GOP between its House majority and establishment money machine. It’s rank and file versus the elite, who happen to be invaluable contributors to the former’s war chests. But is that assessment accurate, or simply more guff to the normalization paradigm? So it’s only House Republicans who still chug the Kool-Aid? The big money is intent on putting Trumpism in the rearview, not just its namesake? If Republicans are successful in ditching their lord of psychopathy and clinical narcissism – still far easier said than done – what exactly will they then be offering the country instead? How much of the devil will actually be exorcized from the details? What of those “good candidates?”
How much do current Republican darling Ron DeSantis’ priorities and talk track essentials differ from the standard Fox/AM fare Trump has trademarked? Vaccines? China? Treatment of immigrants? Reckless disengagement from global leadership? The Big Lie and 1/6? Climate change denial? Transphobia? The right to own a bazooka? Does anyone believe DeSantis wouldn’t shut the government down to enhance his xenophobia bona fides? Exactly where does he veer off significantly from a Stephen Miller-authored stump diatribe? The line of billionaire benefactors prepared to let him fill in the zeroes don’t seem too worried about the answers to such questions.
Mike Pompeo is a Koch creation made good, their gofer from his political origins in Kansas. It is certain if his White House prospects gain any traction at all Koch cash will be squarely behind Pompeo. Is there anyone more tied to Trump’s hip? After all, on his first day in office, during his shocking ramblefest at the CIA, where he attacked his predecessors for not seizing Iraqi oil, Trump made clear “Mike” was his “gem.” From that infamous start through Trump’s 2020 defeat – when a reporter asked Pompeo whether refusing to provide timely transition access to Biden’s incoming State Department team hurt national security and he responded that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration” – nobody carried more Trumpist bilge.
What about the other “contenders”?… Rand Paul? Marco Rubio? Ted Cruz? Josh Hawley? Tom Cotton? Glenn Youngkin (Mr. CRT)? Who among them has uttered anything that Tucker Carlson would take issue with? When has any deviated from Mar A Lago basics? The 2024 primary debate stage is going to sag under the overflow field’s weight, but almost all will be saying the same thing… arguing about who hates migrants more while praying not to endure the ire of the OG boss who will claim to have “made” them all… the entire disloyal lot.
Finally, there are the outliers who actually have demonstrated a desire to serve the public interest and proved capable of genuine leadership. Maryland’s Larry Hogan, New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu or perhaps Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson, even Liz Chaney face very long odds indeed. This GOP is a panderer’s paradise; good faith governance is not rewarded at the national level, or even in one’s home state. Hogan’s chosen successor for governor was soundly stomped by a devout Trumpie in MD’s GOP primary. Ditto for Sununu’s preferred candidate in the NH Senate nomination contest; the MAGA victor ended up losing the general election by double digits, hardly a portent for winning the base’s allegiance.
Yet and still, given the near certainty that Trump will run a third-party campaign if the GOP does somehow deny him the nomination, a standard bearer who does little more than plagiarize Trumpist toxin will from the outset be fatally redundant, with a general election ceiling of less than 30% of the vote after Trump takes his cut. Meanwhile, a sensible moderate with a constructive platform could poach from both the left and right, offering a much wider path to victory than either Trump or a wannabe successor. An uphill battle to be sure, but far more doable than the alternative.
Trump has become isolated and unintelligible enough to encourage the many eunuchs within the GOP to overcome their cowardice and challenge his power. In addition to his plethora of legal distractions, even the most servile understand Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee will hold the party hostage as never before to his hastening deterioration. While Trump does still control a bloc of zealots who can’t imagine relevance past blind loyalty to him, the larger MAGA political class is unfocused, its bottom feeders bickering among themselves and open to new leadership. Indeed, there is a tangible sense that Republicans are ready to dump Trump. Of course, he will never accept a gold watch and move along; Trump will have no problem at all adding the GOP to his list of enemies and equating ungrateful RINOs with the “radical left.”
However, in terms of what constitutes the party’s platform moving forward, what it means to be a Republican, Trump’s legacy is secure. Whether the party of Trump or a replacement the .01% PACs end up coalescing behind, MAGA is here to stay, now the right side of the binary choice US politics offers us. That’s a continuing civic crisis whoever captains the vessel. BC
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