OMG, has it only been
200 days since Donald Trump seized
the White House. As I—and others who get paid for such insights—have pointed
out for months, it was Independent voters who first abandoned Trump. The
latest polls show that now, finally,
Trump’s lunatic “base” is faltering. With increasing erratic and difficult to
ignore tweets, statements, and actions, Trump’s
profound mental illness gets harder to ignore by the minute. And with
no legislative successes to distract the voters, their selfish, short-term
vested self-interests are
not being
served either. Even a fake or real
international
crisis, like North Korea’s accelerating ballistic missile and nuclear
weapon development programs, is
not
enough to distract an aware and skeptical electorate. [See
Trump
at 200 days: Declining approval amid widespread mistrust]
Having attacked the entire national Intelligence Establishment,
the Forth Estate [a Free Press and other legitimate mainstream media News
outlets], the Creative Class, the independent Judiciary and Legislative branches
of the Federal Government, the Rule of Law, and just about every other sacred
institution or norm that serves as a counterweight to the exercise of illegitimate Presidential power, the
only “trick” this one trick pony has left to fall back on is the echo chamber
of his adoring lunatic supporters, enablers, and apologists. This shrinking
support network does not provide a plurality
that renders the Nation governable.
As people on the Left, in the Center, and even on the Right
of the political spectrum agree that Trump represents a real danger to our very
way of life, coordinated actions to correct this abomination and protect the
Republic grow. The Trump Resistance, already broad, grows daily. And now,
deliberate countermeasures and plans are taking shape. [See
Naomi Klein: The Worst Is
Yet to Come with Trump, So We Must Be Ready for Shock Politics.]
Our Republic has faced dangers before, foreign and domestic.
The threat posed by Trump is unprecedented, but the remedies are
at hand. The Nation is already ungovernable and none of either Trump’s or the
Party’s agenda can pass the House and Senate. Republicans enjoy a 2-vote
majority in the Senate and 24-vote majority in the House. Once Trump’s support
deteriorates to the point where House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, a Senator or two, and even just 30 Republican Congress members
are facing likely defeat, not to mention a possible blood bath, in the 2018
Mid-term elections, they will cooperate with Democrats and the pace of the
various Congressional committees investigating Trump will quicken.
Even if they can Impeach, Convict, and remove Trump [and
probably Pence too, as his head has been so far up Trump’s ass] from Office in
disgrace before the 2018 mid-terms,
it will be too late for the Republican Party. It has been too late for at least
100 days. The best they can hope for is that a President Ryan can: (1) form and
lead a coalition bi-partisan government with Democrats, if he assumes office;
(2) put some bi-partisan wins on the Legislative board; and (3) redeem the
Party before losing the 2020 Presidential election.
The Republican Party needs to purge its lunatic Freedom Caucus and Fundamentalist Christian wings, which have
poisoned the Republican Primary process and make it impossible for the Party to
govern when they win. Once it does, the Party can return to its rational and productive
roots, as the successful minority loyal opposition small-government,
pro-business, low-tax Party occasionally controlling one House and/or the White
House. This worked well for decades.
It is only when Republicans control the White House, Senate,
and House, that they—the lackeys of the Rich and Corporations—get
into trouble and expose the bankruptcy of their ideas. As the Nation has known
well, at least since FDR and the Great Depression: Capitalist Greed and the
selfish interests of the Rich do not further the Common Good. In
fact, they don’t even serve the long-term interests of either Corporations or
the Rich. Occasionally, enough voters forget this lesson to elect Republicans,
against their clear self-interest and better judgement. Fortunately,
Republicans—usually effective and ruthless in serving the needs of the privileged
few, at the expense of the rest of us—quickly remind the majority why they
should not vote for them.