What's Going On Here?
From the day Trump took office, the Republicans have defended him. Completely understandable. Once in the Oval Office, any buyer’s remorse – and I’m sure there was a lot of that going around – had to be swallowed in silence. There was no choice; it was time to settle in for the next four years and make the best of it, come what may.
And what did come was a disaster – a daily, scandal-ridden, unmitigated disaster. Trump’s lies, his ignorance, his incompetence was on display 24/7. And as if that wasn’t enough to contend with, his connection to Russian operatives sparked a full-scale investigation – and the further that investigation delved, the guiltier he, his family, and his associates looked.
Through it all, the powers-that-be in the GOP went from excuse-making to enabling. No matter how detrimental their “pResident’s” policies became, his party stood with him and simply ignored the damage he was causing to the country, and our international ties.
Until now, we have tended to dismiss the Republicans’ reaction as putting party over country – a desperate attempt to defend the indefensible rather than admit their party had elected a traitor. If they could put on a good show pretending their madman was sane, the party might survive the disaster that is Trump. He'd be defeated in 2020, investigative journalists would look elsewhere for headlines, and all would be forgotten by a largely inattentive populace.
But what’s happening within the GOP right now is not about party over country. They know they’re losing ground every day. They know prominent Republicans have left them, that voters have left them, that their base is slowly eroding. They also know that Mueller has the goods on Trump, and the means to prove it.
So why continue the defending, the enabling? Surely the easiest way out of this mess would be to stand up to Trump, and make it clear that support among his party members in the Senate and House would disappear if he refused to be reined-in.
There is, IMHO, only one logical explanation for the Republican party’s higher-ups to continue to support Trump. It’s not about protecting him, and it’s not about protecting their party. It's about very powerful people protecting themselves.
It’s the only thing that makes sense. Individuals within the highest ranks of the GOP are guilty of crimes: bribe-taking, funneling money illegally into the party’s coffers and/or their own pockets, colluding with adversarial foreign powers, enabling Putin’s agenda to be carried out by their own “pResident” for individual fun and profit.
It seemed a simple plan at the outset. No one in the GOP knew that Trump would turn out to be a magnet for unwanted attention. No one knew that accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election wouldn’t fade away after a few news cycles. No one foresaw that Mueller would be appointed, and that his investigation would leave no stone unturned.
So who are the guilty parties? I’d look to old men within the GOP who believe they can outsmart anyone. I’d look to those who inexplicably changed their tune about Trump’s fitness for office, and what they expected in return for doing so.
I’d look to those Republicans who are urging their fellow party members to hold the line – those who are now pretty much threatening the political careers of those who refuse to stick to the party's 'official story' that Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing, and is just a victim of Democratic revenge for having lost in 2016.
I’d look to those Republicans who are disparaging Mueller – and Flynn, and Cohen, and everyone else who decided to save their own skins rather than go down with the Trumptanic – the people who are in a position to let Mueller know exactly where to look, and exactly who to look at.
I’d look to those Republican powers-that-be who hold positions they believe place them above suspicion – those who have already attained political power and are looking at a comfortable retirement funded by money in the bank, the source of that money being overlooked due to the ‘above reproach’ reputations they have spent their careers creating.
Trump is going down, and everyone knows it - including the Republican party. There is now only one reason to protect him from the inevitable, and that’s a last-ditch effort to protect those who put him in the White House - while Mueller determines exactly who was willing to do what in order to put him there.
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This whole operation is being directed by McTurtle. The only evidence you need is the refusal to give PRESIDENT Obama his supreme court nomination.
Latest proof: yesterday after the latest "meeting" with IQ45 to "negotiate" the government shut-down, McTurtle was nowhere to explain why he will not even bring the latest bill by the House to the Senate floor for a vote (a bill that the Senate had already passed before).
Obstruction - pure and simple - but perhaps a better word would be TREASON!!
convinced PRESIDENT Obama to not disclose the reports of interference on the part of McTurtle's financing committee (Russia).
You always do such a terrific job with your well thought-out posts.
Thank you for keeping the heat turned up and the focus tight on these criminals.
que ça c’est vrai.
