Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

There Is No Penalty For Hypocrisy, Part II: Electric Boogaloo

 The revelation that Fox News "personalities" and even Don Jr were frantically texting Mark Meadows to get Trump to call off his insurrection on January 6th is one of those typical Trumpistan revelations. I'll quote Josh Marshall:

The whole story of the Trump presidency and post-presidency is one of a series of shocks that drove momentary shudders in his followers before they quickly found a way to explain and justify and get about the business of saying everyone does it.

The presence of his own son among those alarmed by Trump's attempted autogolpe is pretty hilarious. The boy who craved Daddy's love is going to be frozen out when Trump finds out. Trump hates "betrayal" and sees it everywhere.

I "get" that the institutional GOP is terrified of Trump's cultists bolting the party if they hold him accountable for trying to overthrow American democracy. It's craven and cowardly and un-American, but I get it. Outside of a handful of elected Republicans, they have sold any principles they once had to serve their Mango-tinted God. It's despicable.

The question is: will facts ever - and I mean at the barest level - penetrate the blinkered world view of the Trump cultists? Will rank and file Republicans ever revolt against a man who tried to violently overthrow the government?

If the GOP broke decisively with Trump, it would cost them their shot in the 2022 midterms. I do think that's true. But it would set the party up for a return to sanity in the long run. Far too many don't care.

Their choice, I guess, but we will all be living with the consequences if they reject reality.

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