Originally published at: It's official: Donald Trump "still leads the party" according to the RNC | Boing Boing
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It’s “official” because 45 is still grifting and because Ronna McDaniel said it?
M’kay…
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seems to be the game plan. every crackpot statement, covid denial scandal or fucked up thing the GOP does (hello FL gov) can be turned into an opportunity to raise some coin. what a world.
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As much as a US political party can have a leader during the time between losing a presidential election and the next primary? I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that Trump still leads the Republican party since he hasn’t ruled out running in 2024 and he is still popular among Republican voters. If it’s not Trump leading the Republican Party, who is it?
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It’s pathetic(and of concern to everyone in reach of the possible consequences); but not terribly surprising. Can anyone think of a more plausible candidate?
Anyone in the “surely we can still be the party of ideas and respectable, gentlemanly, plutocracy” camp potentially has a role shovelling policy behind the scenes; but is irrelevant if the visible strongman is being selected; and Trump is currently the most talented showman in the “being a terrible person is a virtue” camp.
There are certainly substitutes available were he to keel over; but nobody has bested him at his own game as yet.
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All the more insane considering that Trump wasn’t even a member of the Republican Party a decade ago. His most recent change in voter registration was when he switched from “independent” to “Republican” in April of 2012.
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Oh, bless their cold, atrophied hearts, they think the tRump crime family is going to share that money with them.
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If half of their voters are death cultists, what else are they gonna do? Not surprising in the least, and I doubt this will get any “principled, moderate Republicans” to leave the party.
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All in all, Trump “leading” the GOP isn’t that bad.
While I shiver at the thought of even a hint of the possibility of Trump II, we know he doesn’t have the votes to win (especially with tens of thousands of his followers dead from COVID) and he’ll grift the rubes out of every last dollar along the way to that eventual loss. The party will end up with an unelectable candidate and the coffers will have been pilfered dry.
Still, Trump will do everything he can to sow diversity and animosity among the population at a time when we need to heal.
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…off a cliff.
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He doesn’t have to share. All he has to do is get morons into a wasting money move, and the other grifters can pick up the scraps as co-grifts to the big lie.
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One man, one vote.
oops.
One dollar, one vote.
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The GQP’s problem is that Trump voters only like Trump. When Trump isn’t on the ballot, they stay home. The party elites need the face of Trump out there to fundraise because he’s the only person who can get rubes to empty their pockets for the party. They don’t like Mitch McConnell, they don’t like Kevin McCarthy, they don’t like Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Just Trump. Because it’s a personality cult, not a political party.
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I wished I shared that optimism. With the GQP working overtime to disenfranchise voters and change voting laws to allow state legislatures to outright steal elections, I am concerned voting won’t matter in four years.
I lived through all sorts of election shenanigans when I was in the FSU, and it can happen here.
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i’m not sure i buy it, but if he is, the cracks are showing: despite his direct opposition to it, enough republicans ignored him and signed on to the infrastructure bill. they are doing it because they know they need to have SOMETHING successful to run on next time, and they can’t let the dems have all the credit, but still. cheeto was (and is) very much against it, and ordered everyone to toe the line.
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Cheeto is only against it because he doesn’t want Joe Biden to have a “win.” It’s the same reason he’s refusing to tell the 30 percent of Americans in his thrall to get a vaccine: if Biden succeeds in getting most of America vaccinated, that’s a “win” for him. Trump can’t allow that, even if it would save lives.
Back in reality, Republican lawmakers have discovered that it’s in their best interests to vote for a bill that could do positive good for their constituents, whether or not it gives Biden a “win”—because it gives them a “win,” too. Trump, on the other hand, sees everything as a zero sum game. It’s one reason why he was a failed one-term president.
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Very optimistic of you to think republicans are brave enough to defy an authority figure they look up to.
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Well, who did you think it was?
I don’t think the party elites (as compared to the party’s voters) “look up to” Trump. They see him as a means to an end. Once he outlives his usefulness, or his costs exceed his benefits, they’ll start ignoring him. There are a handful of QAnon-friendly representatives like Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boehbert, and Madison Cawthorn (possibly also Matt Gaetz) who I think do genuinely believe what they say and do look up to Trump. But McConnell, McCarthy, etc.—the supposed adults in the room—aren’t stupid.
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