As a rule, I’m not a man given to a rosy view of the nature of politics and politicians. Thirty years of experience electing them has demonstrated that even the “good” ones have a gnawing desire for love and adulation that is essentially boundless. “Don’t fall in love with the meat” was a lesson I learned watching a few great, some good, and a lot of average pols live down to my lowest expectations. (Yes, Rudy, I’m looking right at you.)
The Republican defenses of Trump have evolved slightly since I wrote the number one New York Times bestseller (sorry, but that’s never going to get old) Everything Trump Touches Dies. When that book hit the market, Republicans still had enough members of the Republican branch of the Republican Party to occasionally speak up about Trump, even if it was in the furrowed-brows and deep-concern mode.
Now? The GOP is sunk even deeper into the muck of Trumpism, slowly losing its ability to think, move, or respond to even the most obvious moral questions surrounding this president. The resemblance to a cult becomes more pronounced with every passing day. Many of my former friends and clients who served as a silent resistance in Congress and in elected offices across the nation are gone now, either retired or defeated in the 2018 beatdown.
The wipeout in the House increased the percentage of true believers in Esoteric Trumpism. Centrists and moderates simply quit or lost in blowouts across the suburbs. Before 2020, the last few moderates—Will Hurd of Texas, most notably—pulled the ejection handle, knowing there was no place for them in Trump’s GOP.
Fox News has amply rewarded the opportunists—particularly former Trump-skeptics and hustle monkeys like Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy, now favorites in the Fox lineup. These are men (and they’re almost all men—the jury is out on Ann Coulter) who live and breathe for the positive tweet, the ride on Air Force One, and the pat on their blocky heads from Trump. Remember, opportunists can work without moral consistency, and these folks prove it every day.
The king of this soulless class is Lindsey Graham. Graham, who in May 2016 tweeted “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…and we will deserve it”6 has become Donald Trump’s attack lapdog and is among Trump’s most eager Washington cheerleaders. He spent decades as John McCain’s political wingman and as a center-right Republican. Graham now routinely shits on the late senator’s legacy with his every waking action in service to Trump.
Graham does everything but beg to shave Trump’s back in his public statements, all for the sweet connection to a man who consistently and revoltingly insults the memory of an American hero. Graham argues it’s to influence the president, but we all know who wears the gimp suit in this relationship. His obedience to Trump is so abject, so complete, and so cringe-worthy that when Trump inevitably fucks him over, the national supply of schadenfreude will instantly run dry.
The Trump-world Javerts like Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and Doug Collins engage in performative deep-state dipshit japery every time a camera is nearby. This fake deep-state panic has become essential for the continued maintenance of the myth that there is a massive conspiracy inside the Justice Department and intelligence community against Trump. The people behind this Big Lie continue to stoke the corrosive strategy of protecting Trump by shattering America’s faith in the people on the front lines against hostile foreign powers. Expect many, many more Fox stories about Hillary’s goddamn emails, imaginary deep-state villains, and lurid conspiracies by the evil Never Trump establishment (hey, that’s me!) against Donald Trump.
Mitch McConnell is, as always, Mitch McConnell. Love him or hate him, McConnell spanks Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats on the daily. He is now without question the most powerful and effective Senate majority leader in history. He’s dethroned Lyndon Johnson, and that’s saying something.
My Democratic readers are reaching for their smelling salts, but I’m giving you nothing but the truth about Mitch; he’s better than you at all of this. He’s better at Senate business. He’s better at elections. He’s better at shamelessly raising fucktons of money. He looks like a turtle, and he behaves like a great white shark, constantly prowling, feeding on the dreams of the Senate Democrats.
His desire to protect Trump will lead him to be a powerful ally of the president in 2020, and if you’re not watching that flank, Mitch can and will leverage his unparalleled power to devour you. His deal with the devil took a simple form: President McConnell would be in charge of the federal judiciary from top to bottom. When I asked a McConnell aide how a pending federal judicial appointment of a Bush-friendly nominee could have possibly emerged from the Trump White House, he responded, “Oh, he’s one of ours, not theirs. They’re almost all ours.”
The reasoning according to some close to the majority leader is simple: Trump is a reality congressional Republicans must accept, and they fully expect an apocalyptic political backlash to follow him. The only way they see to secure the gains of the conservative movement from before and during Trump is to flood the federal bench with Federalist Society hard-ass constitutionalists (is there any other Federalist Society type?).
The shame elected GOP leaders feel about Trump is generally about one inch behind their bluster on his record. The combination of fear and ambition will make them even more determined to defend Trump until the bitter end. His power over the mob has broken them, even in the wake of the spanking they received in 2018. It’s Trump’s party now, and the postconservative moment rewards obedience over ideas, ass-kissing over principle, and forelock-tugging deference even to Trump’s most egregious behavior.
Heroism should be its own reward, but in Trump’s Republican Party it is punished, and swiftly.
For congressional Republicans, it doesn’t matter what happens in the 2020 election. They will lose their seats before they cross Trump, so great is their terror of his mob. No revelation will split them. No behavior will stop them from towing Trump’s line. It is now well beyond the typical partisan loyalty we’ve seen in the past. They will not stand up. They will not speak out. Expect no heroism. Don’t even expect passive-aggressive asides. Lyndon Johnson always sought his opponents’ abject submission, and he got there by intimidation, threats, power plays, and horse-trading. The GOP lined up to give Trump full control of their destiny without so much as a fight.
Trump could say “Yeah, the Russians are going to elect me again and the payoff is I get to build a tower in Moscow when I’m done. What about it?” and they’d praise him like the second coming of Lincoln. He could admit every conceivable sin, and his elected GOP cohort would redefine them as virtues. “Well, adultery is a problem, but a man as virile and powerful as Mr. Trump needs…”
The Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump, a weak, cowardly, amoral, and faithless husk of a once-great party of ideas and leadership. They’ll follow him into a political graveyard, red hats, tawdry nationalism, dumb policies, cruel tweets, and all. Their cult-like obedience to him has consumed their honor, and their souls.