Delusional

 This piece by Frank Luntz is pure lunacy. Luntz is the GOP pollster of record and represents to a certain degree the GOP establishment. So, when he puts forth a "plan" for wresting control of the GOP from Trump, it comes with a certain imprimatur of GOP respectability. Like so many anti-anti-Trump Republicans, Luntz wants to harness whatever the hell Trump harnessed in drawing to an inside straight in 2016 without committing to the spasmodic and criminal impulses of Mango Mussolini himself. 

This is the warmed over bullshit that suggested that Ron DeSantis was the savior of the Republican Party. It was DeSantis that was going to provide Trump's populist appeal without his erratic and self-serving kleptocracy and chaos. Except he won't. DeSantis comically patterned his hand gestures and posture on Trump. He picked fights with Disney (that he's currently losing and will probably lose in the future). 

The thing that Luntz and others miss is that Trump IS the GOP for millions of voters. Unlike Dubya Bush who was term limited into the memory hole or McCain or Romney who were losing losers who lost, Trump is a "winner." Because he's such a shameless narcissist, he can embrace a fanciful version of himself and sell that again and again to the eager boobs who think he somehow represents a religious savior and champion of the little guy. It's...bizarre. Trump is the least religious president in our lifetimes and he could not give a fart in a hurricane about anyone but himself.

Meanwhile, Luntz is over here suggesting a messaging strategy to replace him? Bissh please. 

All you really need to know about today's GOP is this: Trump's current and future indictments make it MORE LIKELY that he will be the party's nominee in 2024. In a normal world that people like Frank Luntz thinks still exists, Trump's manifest guilt and legal jeopardy on multiple fronts would be the end of him. 

Normal rules don't apply to Trump because normal people aren't part of Trump's base.

They are the perpetually aggrieved - a miserable collection of people who are defined by what they hate. These are the people destroying Bud Light because they have a trans spokesperson. Who the f*** does that? I'm not going to buy a MyPillow and destroy it on TikTok, I'm just not going to buy one. There's a takeout place near our house that I won't patronize because they had a Trump sticker near the register. But I'm not going to picket or launch a boycott...I just don't go there.

Trump will continue to defy the normal rules of politics. This will continue to flummox Frank Luntz. For that matter, it will continue to flummox the vast majority of journalists. The whole "Alvin Bragg's case isn't THAT big a deal so we shouldn't indict a former president" presumes that Trump is a normal ex-president. Sure, if Bush had a similar campaign finance violation, I wouldn't suggest an obvious prosecution, because Bush has no political future. Trump ain't that. For everyone saying it's stupid that Al Capone went to jail for tax evasion, they forget that the important thing is that Al Capone went to jail.

Pine away for a Glenn Youngkin or Nikki Haley or even a Ron DeSantis, but the GOP will remain in Trump's febrile little hands until he's dead or in prison. Period.