Once GOP savior, Don the Con stumbles as a wildly unpopular pariah, endangering his own lackeys, party domination and malicious policies.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, says Yogi,
But what if scores are all triple-bogey?
How tricky to tell when frauds are toast
While scheming devils still take the hindmost.
Must voters wait for the nuclear flash
Before spitting on MAGA balderdash?
Chaos rife, cruelty reigns, laws upturned –
Yet elections signal what’s crashed and burned.
Again, MAGA drinks its self-induced doom,
‘No kings’ struck the right with a sonic boom.
The loudmouth snared by sinister dead ends,
A senile klutz clueless to make amends.
There are times, pace Yogi, that self-inflicted collapses are kaput before inept, guilty thugs are dragged off the stage. One may call for the hook before we ultimately confirm disaster after the fact, You remember “facts,” those quaint, obsolete measures of reality before 2015.
Did the forced MAGA Trump 2.0 takeover not begin to implode from the start—when the full scope of its scorched earth horror reared its head? Did the rational public not get very queasy after the worst cabinet appointments ever, the DOGE disaster, the slew of absurd executive orders, contempt for Congress (and legislation plus decisive, intrusive judges), infamous tariff catastrophes, gross violations of legal/civil rights (beyond immigrants or sharp critics but frightened law firms, media and universities)? Plus, indisputable, explicit theft riven by corruption—and never forget outrageous, ongoing pardon abuses.
The big public wakeup call was the crude shock of Trump unilaterally bulldozing the entire WH East Wing for an unwelcome, gaudy Mar-a-Lago “upgrade.” Certainly, invading northern cities with ill-trained military soldiers offended right, left and center. And for a true cropper with cosmic force, how about Trump the newly-enriched multi-billionaire’s outrageous demand that tax payers reimburse HIM for a quarter of a billion dollars, to repay what any citizen spends against legitimate indictments? Far more than the court costs the DOJ is unjustly inflicting on Comey, Schiff and Bolton. Did the interminable government shutdown not add insult to injury, a testament those in charge of all branches can’t do basic governance?
In a rational world, what president would escape censure from this record suspension, let alone DOGE, irrational incoherence on wars and foreign policies while fawningly deferring to more dictators than ever in our history? Or from despicable saber-rattling against Canada, Greenland, Panama, Venezuela and Nigeria?
Tuesday’s elections confirmed that abysmal Trump approval ratings well below 40 percent were hardly fake news—and more of the same addled-brained Trumpism only amplifies exploding public resistance. The curtain is striped off the phony cult, leaving both MAGA Trump and the hijacked Republican party on the ropes. Only a major shift in tone and policies can redeem what’s going down hard—and that requires a brain transplant—or endless transplants. Old time cult charisma and performative TV schlock have been exposed, with its core of cruelty, avarice and unbridled negligence on display. Dumber than dumb defenses by the least popular president constitute the least convincing of any statements in modern politics.
Tipping scales beyond the critical mass
There is a (now lost) critical mass for minority extremism when trying to control the will of the majority. When I say MAGA is kaput, I mean as an effective governance force to sustain followers or formalize more inhumane, lawless policies. I expect Trump to get trumped by the Supreme Court on mass tariffs, with more losses to follow. That doesn’t mean MAGA won’t snarl like a cornered, wounded beast; it still has fangs (a function of power). I just don’t see any plausible path by which it can repair its irredeemably perverse, wrongheaded political arrogance. Even the least aware MAGA cultists understand the withdrawal of legal government food and health cre funding two weeks before Thanksgiving (whatever the crude fixes to come). It’s Yankee sacrilege to ruin the Holiday season for the bottom half of the country. There isn’t enough propaganda, bullshit, wicked promises, or betrayed trust to offset the damage already completed.
Thus I have few worries after 2026 when Dems retake the House, maybe the Senate. I have low confidence that Trump, in physical or psychic terms (even as a demented puppet), will be coherent in three years (even three or six months). Because far too many slavish Republicans have no choice but stick with the Trumpist collapse, they will be dumped by 2028, however red states war against voting rights.
The goose is cooked, ready for the next era
By what logic do we assume MAGA Trump approvals won’t descend further, nearing 30 percent. That way lies a permanent minority party. More centrists will turn on Don the Con, even a few Rethugs refusing to go down with the ship. What was always the phoniest, bad faith, billionaire populism hasn’t changed, magnified because Trump 2.0 has no mass, positive, life-improving deliverables worth their salt. Do Trump or his thuggish gang have the sense or savvy to keep the phony con going—that demands something other than abuse, mendacity, and manipulation? How likely will this Lamest of Lame Ducks, deflated badly by the week, become a dictatorial strongman when distrusted as the greatest Hypocrite-in-chief ever to lie himself into power? Trump promised unremitting revenge but that is a sharp, merciless two-edged sword about to redound on him and MAGA.
The end is not so hard to reckon. Unless he escapes the country, or ceases to breathe, Trump will eventually face multiple legal indictments he dodged. A vast majority may well decide this serves justice against malice, cruelty and demonstrably unAmerican decisions. What politician is not punished by history for making America worse, needlessly, much worse? I anticipate justice comes to fake populism, sooner or later. I further posit that Trumpism, just like Hoover or Nixon, ends up a generational disaster for the Republican Party—even disrupting the dominant rightwing era from Reagan to Bushes to Trump. We may even rediscover, miracle of miracles, a second, progressive New Deal. That would almost make all the exhausting pain worthwhile, if one lives another few decades. Almost.
Finally, for doubters or cynics alienated from electoral reality, here are noteworthy headlines this week:
– Election shows ‘voters don’t believe’ Republicans anymore: analysis
– Brutal chart shows ‘grim’ issue that ‘finally’ caused Trump’s ratings nosedive
– Here’s the biggest loser of the MAGA civil war
– Far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes is triggering a MAGA civil war
– Trump mocked after he spent 20 minutes ‘battling’ to keep his eyes open during speech
– America Can’t Afford Trump’s “Affordability” (Michael Cohen on Meidas)
– ‘Tone-deaf’ Trump is in a ‘crisis of his own making’: analysis
– Trump’s incoherent foreign policy defies explanation
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