The national convention Republicans held last summer seemed designed more to hail Donald Trump as dictator for life than to nominate him as president for a second term. As it happened, though, I knew from the summer of 2016, when Republicans elected Trump their presidential nominee, that he would destroy their party.
But nothing demonstrated the need to form a new loyal opposition party in America quite like Trump being caught on tape on Saturday sounding more like the head of a kleptocratic mafia family than the leader of a democratic political party.
Frankly, you would’ve been hard-pressed to distinguish the conscripted hosannas to this “dear leader” from those we laugh at when we see North Koreans performing them with mass hysteria – stemming from what can only be a genocidal form of Stockholm Syndrome.
Watching Republicans ape North Koreans in this pathetic but all too foreboding, fashion compelled me to call on Never-Trumpers to form a new party. I did so in “RNC’s Parade of Dishonesty” TIJ, Vol. XVI, August 25, 2020:
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It’s a damning reflection of how far Republicans have lost their way that they decided there was no point in writing a quadrennial platform to restate and reinforce party policies and principles. This, because unconditional loyalty to Trump is all that matters now.
Which is why I urge the disaffected Republicans behind The Lincoln Project to launch a rival party — not just to continue championing those policies and principles, but also to give others like them a new permanent home in American politics.
No doubt such a split in the Republican Party would redound to the benefit of the Democratic Party. And that benefit would be immediate and far more than any third-party candidate on the right has ever provided. But it would also give ‘real’ conservatives an opportunity to build a party to distinguish themselves from liberals and Trumpasites alike.
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For the record, I envision this new party being formed by political grandees like Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, and former Governor John Kasich of Ohio, in consultation with founders of The Lincoln Project and other anti-Trump groups.
But I envision it being led by political plebs like Representative Martha Roby of Alabama, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming. By the way, to name their new party, I offer the Centrist Party or the Common-Sense Party free of charge.
That’s why I was so heartened when I read this on New Year’s Day:
Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, a Republican who served in the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton, told CNN Thursday that Donald Trump is a shameful manipulator who will continue to control the GOP behind the scenes even after he leaves the Oval Office. … The former defense secretary also argued that there is a major division in the Republican Party between those who hold allegiance toward Trump and centrists such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah). …
‘Maybe it’s time for a new party,’ Cohen said. ‘One that abides by the rule of law, abides by balanced budget opportunities, fiscal responsibility, but also faithful to the people of this country who vote to elect them.’
(HuffPost, January 1, 2021)
So here’s to these anti-Trump factions banding together to give America a new opposition party that is more loyal to the country than to its leader. And one of its first orders of business should be outreach to Black and other minority communities to make clear that, unlike the GOP, it will not cede those constituencies to Democrats.
In moving on, they can leave it to the likes of Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida to spend the next four years auditioning to become “The Apprentice” in the Republican Party Trump has now completely hijacked.
Except that this version of his reality show will feature them making even bigger fools of themselves. Because Trump will only be thinking of increasingly humiliating ways for them to show that they prize loyalty to him above all else – country and even their wives be damned.
Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina spent much of the 2016 presidential campaign decrying Trump as a crazy con man. Yet they seem to have decided that, if they couldn’t beat him, they might as well join Trump in perpetrating all kinds of crazy cons on the American people.
Trump could be forgiven for thinking that the more he humiliates white Republican men the more they like him. And that some, like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, even like him when he humiliates their wives, which puts a fetishistic twist on cuckoldry that is just too perverse for words.
(“Hey, Democrats, Time’s Up to Out Republicans!” The iPINIONS Journal, February 9, 2020)
In fact, these sycophantic performing monkeys are already auditioning. This, by informing Trump of their intent to challenge congressional certification of Biden’s presidential win on Wednesday.
Of course, these attempts to overturn the election are as doomed to failure as the 60 “Kraken” court cases Rudy Giuliani and his rag-tag team of lawyers filed to do the same since Election Day. And Trump is probably the only person on the planet who does not know this.
Apropos of which, anyone with half a brain knows that, when the time comes, Trump is going to tell each one of them, in his signature fashion,
You’re fired!
Then he’ll announce either Ivanka or Don Jr as the apprentice who should succeed him as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
In the meantime, Trump will continue pretending everyone conspired to steal the 2020 presidential election from him, including judges he appointed. Mind you, this is not because, he so enjoyed serving the American people, he wants to continue doing so. After all, he has spent more time this year playing golf than fighting Covid-19.
No, besides unwittingly admitting that his fragile ego can’t handle the truth that he lost in a landslide, here is why this incorrigible and unconscionable shyster will continue doing so:
President Donald Trump and his party raised $207.5 million in a less than three-week stretch after the U.S. election, fueled by outrage-filled solicitations to donors as he waged an unsuccessful challenge of the results.
Money flooded into Trump’s coffers at a much higher rate after he began to seek contributions to fight widespread voter fraud and election rigging, despite no evidence of either, after his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
(Bloomberg, December 20, 2020)
Or, as a December 1 headline in Vanity Fair read:
Trump Is Wringing Every Last Cent Out of His Supporters on the Way Out:
The president’s supporters have poured in millions to fund his dead-end legal campaign to try and overturn the results of the election.
Enough said.
Well, except for this: American politicians have a long and proud history of traveling the world to lecture other politicians about democratic values and the rule of law. But, after this Trump presidency, when they intone the presumption that “no man is above the law,” dictators of every stripe would be forgiven for bursting out in laughter.
They could then regale these Americans over dinner, namely by citing the many egregious ways US President Donald J. Trump got away with abusing his power in ways that make them look like Boy Scouts. And, just to make clear their contempt, they could punctuate their citations with a polite, “So, f*ck you; er, bon appétit” salutation.
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