There is No Republican Party; There is Only Trump
No Issue Unites the Current GOP; The Only Consideration is Fealty to King Don.
Nothing epitomizes better what the Republican Party stands for now better than what occurred on Tuesday. In the early afternoon, Tom Emmer was elected by a majority of the GOP House Caucus to be the next Speaker-Designee. Less than an hour later, Trump posted his disapproval on Truth Social.
Within hours, Emmer withdrew his nomination for Speaker. He didn’t last a single afternoon. With margins so narrow in the House, it was apparent there were more than the margin who would reject him and never vote for him based on Trump’s veto alone. No amount of glad-handling, compromising or coalition building would counter it.
Which underscores the one thing that has cobbled together the Republican Party in its current incarnation since 2016: There are no issues that are important, no constiutency worth defending and no principle worth holding other than total and complte fealty to Donald Trump. What Trump says is the only issue that matters. It is a complete and total Cult of Personality.
One could say it started at the 2016 Republican Convention, when for the first time in modern political history, the party didn’t even try to create a party platform. They basically just put their hands in the air in surrender and said “Whatever Trump says is right, is right,” just like Boxer assenting to Napoleon and the pigs in Animal Farm. Since then, while in some amorphous way he has stayed within the lines of what Republicans typically stand for, his word has become the word of the Party. Like Stalin. Like Mao. Like Pol Pot. In the Republican Party’s hive mind, whatever Trump says goes. There is no dissent. Any attempt to stray from the line a little gets you branded an apostate and a RINO. Thing is, you can be spouting what Republicans have always spouted, but if you say Trump has the issue wrong or doesn’t go far enough, you still lose— Trump will cut your legs out from under you.
Which works fine when you have a governing majority but when you don’t and are forced to compromise to get what you want, it fails miserably. You don’t have to think back too far, it’s the same conditions as the second half of Trump’s term which most recognize as a complete disaster.
I mean, Republicans had long been the pro-military party, the party appealing more to nationalist instincts. Trump negated all of that. He called top Generals “traitors” and thought those that sacrificed their lives for their country were “suckers.” He sided with Russian Intelligence over that of his own Intelligence agencies. He’s undone generations of foreign affairs and global trade to turn the party into an isolationist, cowardly sham. Trump was no Republican, but the party has calcified around him.
What you are watching now in the House is a national party in complete genuflection to the Orange one, kowtowing because they know they have to. Issues don’t matter to the party. If you’re not defending Trump 24/7, you’re a RINO. Political movements without principles underlying them rarely turn out so well.
As Jonathan V. Last noted here,
Last likened it to this scene from The Dark Knight, when the Joker walks in on a mob meeting and asks them if their balls had fallen off.
Like a bunch of eunuchs who HAVE had their balls cut off, they’ve decided putting their heads down and going along to get along is more important than revenge or standing up for themselves. They’ve chosen to be pathetic than be a leader.
They should have gotten rid of Trump when they had the chance(s).
So now Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker of the House. Among the many things he is known for, is the fact he was a large proponent of Trump overturning the 2020 election and pushing the lie that he won. So naturally, Trump gave him his stamp of approval and he is now in charge of the House. Johnson is known as a hardcore Christian Conservative. He didn’t give Trump a pound of flesh or 30 coins of silver.
Merely his soul.
PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner
I can’t type “Cult of Personality” without posting this classic. Vernon Reid is one of the all time most underrated guitarists.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
I’ve been told my literary references can sometime be obscure, so my reference above about Boxer from Animal Farm can be explained like this:
But did you know that it was actually based on a real person?
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
F**K Trump. This needs to be said on repeat over and over again to every Republican until it sinks in.
I am struggling with what to say, but I got nothing.