Monthly Archives: August 2020

Covid-19 and the Republican Party

Philosophy, Politics, ,
The GOP elephant is on his deathbed.

After the first full day of the R/TNC (Republican/Trumpian National Convention) I think it is time to talk about the Elephant in the ICU room. The GOP is now on life support caused not only by the Covid-19 Pandemic but also by its pre-existing morbid condition(s), of which selecting Donald J Trump as its “Leader” is just one symptom. And just what symptoms am I talking about? Well let’s just start with the latest and work backwards.

Monday, the first day of the R/TNC, instead of having the Nomination of Trump as their candidate and the ‘roll call of the states’ to elect him, the R/TNC did it in the middle of the day. They also passed what they, the R/TNC called their “platform” which just said “What ever Donald Wants, Donald Gets” (With apologies to “Damn Yankees”) until 2024. To my knowledge this is the first time a major American political party has ever not had a platform. So what does this mean for the “Old” GOP?

Just this, what we saw last night in prime time is what the R/TNC wants every Republican candidate to run on. You get to pick your speech and run on that. You get to run on hate, or you can run on fear, or you can run on “Those Were the Good Old Days” (again with apologies to “Damn Yankees”) or you can run on any combination you wish. You will probably be able to run on anything that comes up for the next three days as long as you throw in “Trump” every now and then. The one thing you will not be able to do is run on anything that used to be core Republican principles. Those are things are of the past and not allowed in the GTP (Grand Trump Party).

There is one other thing you will not be allowed to run on, the new guiding principle of the GTP. You can’t mention that it is all about one thing . “POWER”. Who has it. Who doesn’t have it. Using it as you will, without any restraint. As once was written by George Orwell “The purpose of Power is Power”. An yes I’m talking about “1984” but what most people forget is Orwell was an anti-communist Socialist, as strange as that might seem in this day and age. What most people don’t know is that an unrestrained authoritarian state is the same whether it calls itself “Communist” or “Fascist”. An what MAGA is selling is an authoritarian state dressed up in “Free” enterprise lipstick.

And now here we are on Thursday waiting for the closing act. It is as a shame that the R/TNC doesn’t seem to have a director like Leni Riefenstahl to create a masterful production like “Triumph of the Will“. Instead we have gotten something more like a four day “infomercial”. An once again we see what the dreadful effect of abandoning their principles has had on the Republican Party. I cannot think of any single speaker who was able to sound a hopeful Theme. The GOP media masters seem to not have studied what is considered by those who study propaganda to be one of the greatest works of the art.

So just remember this the current Republican Party has only hate, fear, and loathing to campaign on, not a principle one.

A Nightmare for MAGA and Pres. Trump

Politics, Rants, , ,

Another Thought Experiment

Once more we are diving into the dark and murky waters of the coming Presidential Elections. In this one we will be looking at just what might be facing Donald J. Trump once he has lost the election and is out of office. We will not concern ourselves with just how he is removed and just concern ourselves with just what he might be facing.

Postulates:

  • V.P. Biden wins the election decisively in both the popular vote and the electoral collage
  • The GOP is decisively defeated in both the House of Representatives and the Senate (the Democrats do not loose a single seat in the Senate and gain all possible tossup seats)
  • Donald J Trump does everything he can to confuse the election, including getting contested delegations of Electors from several states.
  • All of the ‘criminal’ investigations being conducted are investigating actual activities and actions that have taken place, and have available sufficient evidence to bring charges against Donald J Trump.
  • Trump knows and understands just exactly what the previous postulate means for both him.

The above is not the results of what some may call a “Blue Tsunami” but is still a crushing victory. While the Democrats do hold control of both houses of Congress they do not hold such a large majority as to be able to do what they want without any votes from the GOP. That is, they hold less that 291 seats in the House and less than 67 seats in the Senate. But their control is such that there is very little the GOP can do to stop any investigations into both the activities of the Trump administration or the actions of the Senate while they had control.

What would be facing the former Trump administration is an set of investigations that would make the investigations into the Harding Administration look like a child’s Tea Party. Just to name a few of the possible investigations:

  1. The ICE “Detention” of minor undocumented imagrents
  2. The Actions of the A.G. Barr in regards to investigations into activities of “Friends of Trump”
  3. Was the Roger Stone Pardon given for unlawful reasons?
  4. The actions both on and off the bench of all of the Judges appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate who were rated as “Unqualified” by the ABA

To add a little hate to the game I even tho the Republican defeat was not a “Blue Tsunami” it still would be quite devastating if few non-MAGA members of the party are left. Those GOP office holders would be faced with a very hard Choice in the coming elections. An some of them know enough of their political history to recognize just what may happen. The GOP may go the way of the Federalist Party and the Wig Party. To find this off they will have to take control back from the MAGA GOP and this will not be easy. They will most likely face the same problems the Democrats faced with their Dixiecrats staged their rebellion. An that will mean a very long time in the wildernesses with out any assured victory at the end.

It will also be painful for the Republicans because they are going to have to face a “Paradigm”shift in their thinking. They will have to stop thinking that “Victory isn’t everything, It is the Only Thing” and start thinking “What are our principles?” They are going to have to accept the idea of compromise and stop believing that the only position is “My way or the Highway.” They are going to have to accept the idea (With apologies to Oliver Cromwell:

“Please in the Name of GOD consider the Possibility that you are Mistaken.”