Stepping Over the Big Pile of Slush

 
And so it came to pass that TACO Monday arrived, and reports say that Trump chickened out and will be dropping his $1.8 billion slush fund scam.  It’s actually not terribly surprising, since the outcry was so massive and crossed party lines – in Congress and with the public – that even Trump recognized this was DOA and would be a disaster for his party if it went forward.
 
He still hasn’t said whether he will drop the part of the “deal” that blocks the IRS from investigating him, his company and his family members for any previous taxes, which could net them in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  (What a shock there, right?)  Though that will be challenged just as hard, and will be just as disastrous for his party as long as it does.
 
But at the very least now we know that people who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol and tried to overthrow the government will not get paid for their troubles.  And that’s no small thing.
 
However, there’s another part of this story that I think speaks loudly, even though it’s sort of floated under the wire.
 
It’s that Trump didn’t drop his slush fund scam out of a sense of decency and the goodness of what exists of the muscle that’s considered his heart.  It’s because MAGOPs knew that the slush fund scam was going to guarantee the party would be demolished in the Mid-Terms, had (by all reports) a blistering behind-closed-door meeting with Trump’s Acting Attorney General and personal lawyer Todd Blanche – and raised holy hell and make clear that if Trump did hold on to his $1.8 billion slush fund, the scam would be in deep trouble if the matter didn’t get blocked by the courts and instead had to by voted on in Congress.  Because enough MAGOPs would vote against it (out of recognition how brazenly corrupt the slush fund was and fear of their careers), and it would be a huge public repudiation of Trump.  And they were so furious they said that if Trump didn’t back down, they wouldn’t even bring his immigration bill up for a vote.  And TACO Trump backed down.
 
And so, class, what did we learn today?  Hands?
 
Yes, that’s right.  When MAGOP grow a spine and do their Constitutional duty, even if it has to be in private behind closed doors, they can block Trump from destroying the country and undermining the U.S. Constitution.  And it doesn't cost them a thing.  They don’t get called out publicly by Trump.  They don’t get a primary challenge.  They just do nothing more than simply say – in private – “No.  This is a bad thing.”
 
It should be added that when people feel bullied but finally stand up and push back, and discover that they not only survived but didn’t even have scratch on them, they are more inclined to push back again.

And how do we know this?  Other than life experience since the beginning of time?  Because yesterday, MAGOP Senate Majority Leader said that the budget reconciliation bill will not include the $1 billion for Trump's megalomaniacal ballroom. 
 
Which is why all the justified public outrage against Trump and his con man fascism to destroy democracy is not about Trump, since we know who he is.  And we know because he has no filter and all his actions are right there on the surface for all to see.  It’s about the MAGOPs in Congress who, up until yesterday, enabled Trump, let him do anything he wanted, laid down on the ground and let Trump run his bulldozer over them, then got up on their knees and said “Thank you, more please” and were the ones who then literally voted to literally pass what Trump wanted.
 
And we saw yesterday that they did all that by their own choice, because when they saw their political futures at stack, they did say “No,” and were able to help stop Trump.
 
Which they could have done all the time.  Because we just saw them do it and join Democrats in Congress in living up to their sworn Constitutional duty.
 
What a concept.

Go figure.  Nancy Reagan got this one right, even if it wasn't about the subject she meant.  Just Say "No."