Ignore the hype of Republicans threatening to 'break away' over Trump

[bullwinkle428]

Over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split” from the Republican party, the New York Times declared on Tuesday. The next day the Washington Post upped the ante, headlining that the 100 Republicans were vowing “civil war”; the columnist Jennifer Rubin proclaimed the beginning of “the stampede away from the GOP”.

Sounds exciting, but what has really happened?

On Thursday, a group of some 150 former Republicans published “A Call for American Renewal”, a manifesto with the stated aim of “building a common sense coalition for America”. The call itself reads mostly like the US constitution but with a distinct anti-Trump undertone. While the former president is never named, the manifesto warns against “forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism”, opposes “the employment of fear-mongering, conspiracism, and falsehoods”, and rejects “populism and illiberalism”. It emphasizes the importance of the constitutional order, rule of law, and pluralism, while implicitly supporting immigration and explicitly celebrating “our diverse nation”. So far, so good; but is this anodyne statement worth all the hype?

...

In essence, the whole manifesto is a real-world extension of the largely online Lincoln Project. Like the Lincoln Project, it offers a psychologically reassuring but ultimately questionable narrative frame for anti-Trump Republicans: the “soul” of the Republican party, which has been stolen or crushed by Trump and his wannabes, is at stake, and honorable Republicans must restore it. This is grounded in an elitist view of the Grand Old Party that rests on very loose empirical and historical grounds. As I’ve argued many times before, Trump did not hijack the party, at least not in ideological terms. In fact, for several decades the views of the Republican base had much more in common with Trump than with the signatories of this manifesto. That empirical fact will not change, no matter how hard the Lincoln Project and Never-Trump Republicans try to whitewash the Republican past – a whitewashing the liberal media happily amplifies.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2021/may/16/ignore-the-hype-of-republicans-threatening-to-break-away-over-trump

[bullimiami]

1. They have no margins nationally. If they lose 10% or even 5% it will hurt.

[abqtommy]

2. I actually chuckled to read the words "honorable Republicans". That's my first laugh of

the day!

[MikeJelf]

3. MY POLITICAL SCIENCE DOCTORAL THESIS for the INTERNET AGE

Last edited Mon May 17, 2021, 05:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Nixon went to Communist China and brought back the demise of American industrial workers for the Republican Party.
Trump went to Communist North Korea and brought back their political culture to do to the Republican Party.
Having an infallible, infantile, narcissistic psychopath as the leader of a major political party can cause comment, but some say it also can bring vital change.
They cite the groundbreaking animal rights activist and Roman Emperor known as Caligula as an example.
He reportedly appointed Incitatus -- his favorite horse -- a consul and senator.
To be fair, that report came from a historian named Suetonius, a notorious "Never Caligula!"-er.
As psychopathic narcissists go in politics (which is pretty far if they put their ambitions on Cruz control) the nation's former Dear Leader showed improved economy over classical lunatics.
Rather than waste an entire horse on the post of Middle East Peace Miracle Worker, he stuck out only the neck of his son-in-law.
To quote one of the best lines from any Bogart film, he "set the son-in-law business back 50 years."
Pundits prognosticating on the future of the G.O.P. under Individual One would ignore the personal cost to Republicans of subjecting themselves to a demigod pervert at their own peril, if pundits ever were held accountable.
Where any honest soul sees a naked, obese, psycho septuagenarian under a clown wig, Republican pol.s see the finest figure of a man seven figures can buy -- and wouldn't you rather have that nice suit than a silly old Constitution?
As long as he doesn't exile them to the corn field and send the flying monkeys with guns after them, the pol.s will speak no ill of him.
Eventually the water will be thrown, the flying monkeys will hail Dorothy, and all the pent up rage of self-degradation will be aimed at the Republican Party by its former enablers and victims.
Eventually, if the current Republican Party implodes altogether, the media will be forced to notice we have one-party rule, and wonder if that's a good thing for Democrats.
They won't wonder that because they're suddenly wise or thoughtful, but from the habit of always seeking Democratic doom in any boon.
But maybe they'll be right.
Opposition parties, like physical exercise, are tiresome but necessary for health.
Some say one-party rule brings fatalistic cynicism, citing such as Mexico's PRI or India's Congress Party of yore.
For six years after Watergate, truthfulness was all the rage.
After the coming Great Shakeout we'll have at least two new parties. One can but wonder whether they'll both, in their own ways, tolerate truth.