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Yes, plenty of Republicans want to topple the king -- but he won't go easily
Yes, plenty of Republicans want to topple the king — but he won't go easily
Many GOP voters would prefer a friendlier face for fascism — but they're still held hostage by the Trump cult
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 3, 2022 12:00PM (EST)
(Salon) How many terrifying chapters remain in the Book of Donald Trump? The American people are in the process of finding out as they try to escape a seemingly endless story.
Public opinion research shows that a large number of Americans — for various reasons, not all of them entirely noble or about saving "democracy" — are tired of the extremism, turmoil and chaos of Trumpism and the larger Republican fascist movement. In the recent midterm elections, millions of Americans voted to slow or stop the Republican Party's "red tide" and in doing so won a brief reprieve in the struggle against authoritarian rule.
On a fundamental level, the midterms also represented a direct pushback against Donald Trump as most major candidates he personally endorsed, along with other banner-carriers for the Big Lie about the 2020 election, were rebuffed at the polls. Even Republican voters and previous Trump voters appear to be tiring of him.
Many such voters still support Trumpism and neofascism for various reasons — including racial grievance-mongering, political thuggery, moral panics over "culture war" issues and other anti-democratic behavior — but would prefer those things in a "friendlier" and less "toxic" package. Let's not delude ourselves: Many if not most Trump and Republican and other right-wing voters want to end multiracial pluralistic democracy in America, but want to do it in a more "respectable" or "professional" fashion.
....(snip)....
The mainstream media and its professional centrists are also growing tired of Trump and his movement and appear eager to anoint a new Republican leader who is more "mainstream" and "traditional," supposedly heralding a return to "normal politics" and an end to the existential threat to American democracy. Such a conclusion is premature and based more on hope than evidence. Indeed, it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of political reality and the true danger of American neofascism.
Here is the basic problem: By and large, the American people and the political class are tired of Donald Trump. But he is not tired of the spotlight or ready to leave the public stage. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/12/03/yes-even-are-sick-of--but-they-cant-make-him-go-away/
9 replies
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The GOP is a CLUB. The candidates they back are political entities and their elevation to office give the GOP it's political power but the organization itself is a CLUB.
So you can't tell me that they cannot put their pointy little heads together and expel him from the CLUB.
That does not mean he would be gone. He will never be gone until the MSM stop giving him oxygen, but the GOP could force him to run as an independent and deny him the power of their fundraising arm and their mailing lists.
