The Piper Arrives

Last week, right after Tuesday's election, I had an odd thought that expands on a comment I quoted by Joe Walsh.  I didn't write about it at the time, since other news kept cropping up, but that thought has now taken on added import after the events of Saturday when Democrats retained control of the Senate.  In the intervening week, I've seen other discussion of a similar point, which I think serves to help give my gnawing observation at least some substance.

What Walsh wrote was that "if Republicans don't nominate Trump, he'll burn down the party".  He's right, because that's who Trump is, as we've seen for the past six years.  But what occurred to me is that the problem goes deeper.  That's because, and this was my odd realization, whatever they do, even if they do nominate him -- after Fox "News" has said he's history, after Rupert Murdoch and the NY Post called him "Humpty Dumpty" on the front page, after all his candidates have now lost Republicans the Senate and conceivably even the House, after conservatives have expressed outrage at him - the party risks collapsing under the weight of it all.  Putting that in even greater perspective, conservative journalist Charlie Sykes talked about the GOP base that still will follow Trump anywhere, and brought up a scenario where Trump does run but doesn't get the nomination.  "What if he loses in the primaries 60-40?," Sykes asked.  "He doesn't care about the party.  He only cares about himself.  What if he leaves and takes that 40% with him?"

That's the problem Republicans created for themselves, which has been brewing for six years.  Lindsey Graham was actually right - which almost everyone at the time but Republicans knew was true, "If we nominate Trump, he will destroy the party."  It took six years, but if I had to make a leap - though not a flight of fancy, but one based on what is actually being laid out in the news and what we actually know of Trump -- I think the Republican Party is in serious trouble.  And their craven fealty to a malignant narcissist fascist who doesn't care about the Republican Party AT ALL, but only about himself, appears headed to the seriously possibility of destroying the Republican Party.

And further, if Trump doesn't get the nomination and goes about burning it down, there is no savior to put it right.  Because whoever gets the GOP presidential nomination in place of him is tied to Trump at the hip, as all Republicans are, having pledged fealty to him for six years.  There is no one in today's Republican Party who can get the nomination and say "I always opposed him," because not only didn't any of them, but the very opposite, they all supported and enabled him.  All of them.  The only few who didn't were voted out of the party.

But it's worse than even that.  Because if Trump doesn't run, and someone else gets the nomination, he'll eventually hate that that person is now called the Republican leader and getting all the attention, and it will drive him so crazy he'll try to horn his way in and demand he be seen as the Great Oracle who anointed this new person the nominee  and tie the two of them together at the hip and make the GOP still about him, and he'll destroy the party.

Clearly. I'm being subjective and biased about this.  And I don't expect it to happen this simply.  But it's hard, I think, to see where this is totally off-base.  There are certainly nuances and other realities.  But at the heart of it all…that is who Trump is.  So many have long said that Trump doesn't care about the Republican Party, he only cares about himself.  So, that's not a sudden "hoped-for" revelation.  And psychologists have long written that he's a malignant narcissist, and unlike regular narcissists, a core of the pathology of malignant narcissists is that they do try to destroy what's around them in their world.

So, even if this isn't perfect reasoning, I think it points to a deeply-serious problem the Republican Party faces.  And now that Democrats have kept control of the Senate then the "serious problem" of dysfunction, lack of leadership and finger-pointing will go into overdrive.  But worse for Republicans, having already lost control of the Senate, it's difficult to see them winning the run-off in Georgia, which means Democrats will gain a seat and end up at 51.  After all, Republicans now have no reason to hold their noses, spend their time going to the polls. and sicken themselves to vote for embarrassment that is Herschel Walker just to control the Senate, which is not possible.  Moreover, it's hard to see Republican money pouring into the state without control of the Senate at stake - but is just a race that has a pathetically unqualified candidate on the ballot.  Indeed, a horrible candidate who is behind in the race as a starting point and has to play catch-up!  On the other hand, it seems far more likely that money will be coming in for Democrats and that Democrats will go to the polls in big numbers, not just to support Sen. Warnock who they really do admire - but because the concept of Herschel Walker as a U.S. Senator nauseates them.

And if it happens that, on top of this, Democrats are actually able to maintain control of the House - which is unlikely, but not at all improbable - after predicting a pick-up of 60 seats, a GOP collapse full of recriminations at Trump, insurrectionists, QAnon followers, leadership and craven followers, is an even more serious reality for Republicans to fear, to the point of creating a circular firing squad.

Republicans have lived off Trump rent free for six years.  The piper has come to be paid.

Party officials are already doing their best to deny their fealty to Trump over the past six years.  Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) did his best on Meet the Press to try and claim that, no, the GOP not a cult, and that there's no one person who leads the party.  But of course, the Republican is a cult of personality.  And yes, the GOP does have one person who leads the party. That's why so many Republicans are still terrified to confront Trump. And why so many Republicans are now complaining about him getting so many of his losing-candidates to run.  To suggest otherwise isn't just wishful thinking, but evidence of how frightened they are of the profoundly deep hole they dug for themselves.

It couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people.  May they rot in hell.

But it does even further.  After all, lest it be forgot, Trump is in the middle of six separate trials or investigations.  If he's indicted or found guilty in any of them, not only will that cause an even greater split in the part on general principle, but given how many in the party are being clear how much they want him gone, the amount of "outrage" he might have previously expected will be significantly muted, grateful to Democrats for doing the dirty work for them.

Add to this that if the "best" happens for Republicans and they take control of the House, all it appears they are poised to do is vote to impeach Biden, Garland and Blinken, and investigate Hunter Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the DOJ and FBI.  And vote to ban abortion, contraceptives and gay marriage (and who knows, maybe even all mixed marriage).  Meanwhile, inflation will be over by 2024.  And many of the programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act will finally start to kick in next year.  And Democrats will be passing bills trying to help the country, which will be blocked by the GOP House.  And that's if the "best" happens.  

All of which would be an even deeper disaster for the GOP.

See above:  It couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people.  May they rot in hell.

None of this is to say any of it is imminent, let alone easy.  The Midterm results were extremely positive for Democrats, but incredibly close, and there's no reason for immediate optimism.  That's a long road.  But this election showed the path that leads there.

Evangelical Republicans dearly love the End Times, where the world is destroyed in conflagration.  They may well have created it for themselves.  Lead by their malignant narcissist Trump, for whom destroying those around him in a fiery meltdown is second nature.