Tho conviction fixes Donald as “rapist” and defamer, the immoral right per Charlie Sykes “scarcely blinks”
Early on Trump exposed zero guard rails, whether assaulting women, financial cheating or political bluster. But even “bottomless” pits evolve such steep sides they trap the dumb and the reckless who fall in. Though on his ninth cat life, the Trump grift rift still holds enough slavish cult – despite playing the whiniest, crybaby-ist “strongman” ever. Never has so much bad smote such purity – and the daily indictment torture drips and drips. Forget plea bargains until the bitter end: that undermines the ludicrous contradiction here’s the most “victimized” multi-billionaire and/or sacrificial lamb since the old time religion corralled white superiority, religious fundamentalism and scorn for legal, Constitutional elections.
Eventually, the remaining absurdist inversions will play out, the twisting, last hurrah wherein the more blatant the Trump criminality, the more predictably his desperate cult embraces its cornered, defenseless scapegoat. Of all the malicious, lost cause earthlings meriting no third or fourth get out of jail free card, Trump grinds away, residual momentum advancing his ass-backwards nomination. How bizarre that a certified loser has-been, having failed across three straight elections, keeps his suckered gang in line! Are Trumpers so benighted they dismiss other more mentally stable Rethugs, better at dodging crimes, and with demonstrable management skills? Despite time, planning and White House resources, Trump couldn’t even pull off, let alone sustain a one-day election protest, crushed by its own befuddled blockheadedness. Or have a clue how to keep committing crimes without invoking a Trump Tower of scandalous baggage that makes him nationally unelectable.
Even this optimist is staggered by Trumper “loyalty,” unflinching, whatever blistering crime spree is fully displayed at least twice – when first reported, then re-dramatized by endless indictment waits. When “loyalty” turns willful blindness, that’s when bad lying, bad faith and bad crime avoidance define a political death march. Momentum sustains an upside-down world, even where nakedly guilty mobsters cry innocence, then max out the hypocrisy by running for the nation’s top “law enforcement” post. Criminal-in-chief in charge again, right.
Insanity is repeating the same lawbreaking masquerade but expecting a different law enforcement result. Say what? Why not nominate felony convicts directly and save court costs? Even, like Jared, hand out security clearances. What could go wrong?As Charlie Sykes puts its, GOP politics – against a rape conviction and mounting felony charges, has “fallen down a bizarre rabbit hole of insanity.” Or more hopefully the endgame of an epic fissure.
Better grifters play chess
Yet, at what point do such extended, absurdist farces impact the quality, let alone the standing of a country? The longer that one-third of America holds itself in thrall to sleazy, thieving Trumpian authoritarianism, it stays afloat. Can’t Trumpers find any better renegade, or deep down do these permanently aggrieved losers identify with his creepy, break all the rules, I am the all-powerful king mentality? If Trump bothered to apply his “genius” to legal basics, or good advice from now overpaid attorneys, he’d stop jamming both feet in his own loudmouth. Having a convicted criminal as nominee is wild enough; but having a rancorous, repeat defendant forever screaming down the indictments, character and legitimacy of prosecutors explodes the very Constitutional system capable of empowering him. What a dead-end laugher: elect Trump and there may be no going back; nominate the creep and the base only keeps the rigged, fu-ked up Trump scam going. Something has to give.
I get how fundamentalists yearn for a “good warrior to battle evil,” but how does raking over the Constitution protect anyone from the most selfish, insatiable, worst Seven Deadly sinner at large? What sane country tolerates a career mobster whose over-reactions just to criminal allegations make him sound like the innocent Jesus facing the Romans? Does Donald not presume his own innocence, even distrust the legal system he looks to head? Are indictments equal to unappealable crucifixions?
If so, start the revolution now, not run for re-election. But then Trump (no Putin) has always been better at conniving and committing crimes than defending himself against predictable axes. Big fail, missing lessons from his slicker pal, Roy Cohn, who also faced “vendettas” and escaped four serious indictments unscathed. Not dim Donald, rewarded for novelty, frequency and daring, not escape smarts.
So instead the great Trump madness is to make himself the greatest, most visible renegade criminal possible, thus dramatizing his own, vicious outlawry. That’s like acting the populist Jesse James but publicizing what you’ve done, how and where. On tape. So do ordinary, seething Trumpers, if they think at all, reckon themselves better off with no prosecutors or courts of laws against corporate or election crimes, let alone traffic, military, police, building codes, health or pollution codes? What happens when rapists (or muggers, blackmailers, murderers, whatever) parallel scofflaw mafia bosses? If Trumpism defends a champion who scorns all laws in his way, whether on elections, fundraising, national security, theft of federal property, or screwing over vendors, staff or lawyers, how does that answer to any daily Trumper grievances – or their children’s chances for better lives?
Only one Trump benefactor
The only way Trump survives (let alone wins) is for everyone else to lose, including donors, enablers and supporters. The Losing Trump Torrent gushes on, already bloodying Pence, DeSantis, McCarthy, Flynn, Bannon, Manafort, Barr, Eastman, Giuliani, Meadows, countless disgraced advisers and chiefs of staff, slammed appointees, cornered RNC officials, insider Alan Weisselberg, disloyal evangelicals, perhaps even Ivanka and Jared before it’s over. Certainly the arm-waving noisemakers at the FOX snake pit are in shambles – with law suits apace. Are average GOP taxpayers living better or better off than the richest billionaires? Are Jan. 6 suckers thrilled with their riot outcomes? Except for wily McConnell, what party leaders survive the Trump garbage run? Not the dozen rogue House wackos – dumped alongside Trump.
Is the world so corrupted that chronic public skewering means nothing? Does the truism, “never let them see you sweat,” or never get buried by felony indictments, no longer apply? No politician survives endless, humiliating court cases (results or timing aside), and no third-rate PT Barnum fools more than a shrinking minority over time. How does Trump return next year as the strongest ‘24 Republican against Biden? Who won’t be less hated, with less baggage? If Rethugs don’t replace their 10% lost voters since 2016, what chances does their party have against a tested campaigner whose biggest downside is his age? Unless obsoleting a century of presidential politics, Trump goes down simply as the greatest self-made fu-kup, who simply refused to take no for an answer.
History won’t repeat. By hook and by crook, Trump’s ragged ‘16 campaign outmaneuvered the play-it-safe, low-charm Hillary’s, but no pitifully tarnished, confirmed loser is competitive against an incumbent president with multiple legislative wins, an improving economy, no new wars and unlimited campaign input and resources? Biden already has twice Trump’s cash. Biden beat Trump and Obama beat Romney and McCain in the same terms: they were cleaner candidates who ran more focused, competent races. Bill Clinton’s campaigning was far better every time out than his wife, despite more personal scandals. Being male helped. Because Rove skill-sets compensated for Dubya’s manifest flaws, they won twice. The best campaigns win out in the end.
No re-runs, only broken norms endure
The steady, low-key Biden – the complete opposite in the best sense to the Orange Demon – is already ahead by five pts and will gain as Dems and centrists accept his age and style, then gasp at the horrific alternative. The only way for Trumpers to stop this upcoming, “repeat steal” is destroy the election – and all of the cult’s horses and all the cult’s men can’t pull off that Humpty Dumpty ploy. Rethugs must be re-elected, too, after all.
As with his first run, who really believes Trump wants to (or expects to) be president: he’s always had other fish to fry, either ego and image (“I can do this”) or, more relevantly now, deflect convictions, sentences and unspeakable fines. Hey, it’s a plan – and no worse than other scams he’s concocted. It all comes down to whether Americans will again back a fu-k-up – and let a rampant, criminal ex-pres get off easy. These trains have left the station.
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