The Party is Over!

By David Glenn Cox

I had wondered why so many low-grade Republicans were so anxious to jump into the Presidential race. When obviously, they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the nomination. And they’re pro Trump people for the most part. Odd, don’t you think?

Only Asa Hutchinson has heaved any critical attacks at the Trump Campaign. The rest are benign “I’m nice too” attempts at speechifying and making public appearances. I’m exempting little Ron DeSantis here because he’s the target. This is all about diluting the vote. Every Republican that throws his or her hat in the ring hurts DeSantis and help’s Trump. So conversely, if Mike Pence were to announce a run his candidacy, he would be helping Donald Trump.

I had wondered why Mike “mama’s boy” Pence was making appearances if he had no intentions of running. What are you doing at the NRA convention for?  Just to say hi and see old friends and coconspirators? The Republican Primaries are winner take all. And because of that, every other Republican running creates a drag on the DeSantis campaign.

Trump is obviously the frontrunner and for Ron DeSantis to have a chance he must defeat Trump somewhere…anywhere. He will have to win some primaries. The Republican ringers cover the full spectrum of Republican politics. From milder than Trump to wilder than Trump. (Yes, it is too possible!) Each specializing on a particular Republican pet peeve. So, six or seven candidates each drawing off 1 to 4% of the vote finishes DeSantis and closes the envelope.

Personally, I think that it’s overkill. Don’t push the little horse he will fall by himself. Trump has the nomination in his pocket. DeSantis and his policies are starting to backfire in a major way. Florida has an insurance problem. They also have an affordability problem connected to the insurance problem. Now, thanks to recently passed anti-immigration legislation. Migrant farm workers are afraid to go to Florida, and who’s going to pick those strawberries?

When you live close to the edge, it makes you sort of gun shy about putting yourself into precarious situations. It’s just better to stay out of Florida and maybe miss some work than to get yourself deported or worse. The Russians had the same problem. In their sweeps looking for draft resistors. The cops began calling on their employers to find them. Guess what happened next. Every draft age male stopped showing up for work. Doh!

Plus, Florida is facing a teacher shortage. I bet you didn’t see that coming! Disney CEO Bob Iger asks, “Do you want our money or not? Do you want our investment and jobs or not?” But the DeSantis rubber stamp machine voted unanimously to counter sue Disney. Meaning DeSantis fighting with a cartoon mouse will be on the burner during the primary season. And already, it’s becoming sort of a joke.

They say a court martial ruins two careers. The soldier being court martialed and the officer bringing the charges. Because win or lose is the implication is of an officer who can’t handle his team. And must get others involved and use the law for a job they should been able to handle alone. It is abundantly clear, that Ron “Does not play well with others.”

Trump doesn’t need to put his thumb on the scale. Rookie Mistakes Ronnie will fail from his own paper cuts.  So, the fix is in, and Trump is the nominee. The Party of election security making primary elections basically irrelevant for anyone but the front runner. 51 to 49% runs the table. It doesn’t matter if the turnout is poor, 12 to 8 is a million to one.

Trump crows about his CNN Zombie show live from the Hindenburg as America recoils in horror. The outrage is greater than anything I’ve ever seen. As even Fox News jumps on the bandwagon to bash CNN. Recriminations echoing in the halls of CNN itself. “Whose damn fool stupid idea was that again?”

CNN had to believe that this would be a positive for them and now, it’s Bud Light all over the highway. And it’s not just the enemies they’ve made but their new friends too. Any day now Trump will be telling the audience about how he saved CNN. He can’t call them “Fake News” anymore at least for the foreseeable future. “You know, I was talking to my very good friends down at CNN!” If you didn’t like Trump hostile, just wait until he takes a liking to you!

And every time Trump glowingly speaks about his new friends the more, he stirs the pot for those angry with the cable channel.

I’m sympathetic to CNN. I don’t see how they could say no. But just bringing the monster in and giving it an audience was misguided. It’s been called a Trump Infomercial, but I consider it a “Scared Straight” event held with a future orange Excon. Only you can prevent forest fires. Don’t let this happen to you!

The recoil and the recriminations illustrate Trump’s un-electability. The Republican budget show down will damage the Republicans just as it has every time before. The bill is loaded with perks for the fossil fuel industry, “Give us what we want, or we’ll shut the government down!” Any day now the Republicans will charge Joe Biden, just as any day now they were going to charge Hillary Clinton.

But the tide is going out for the Republicans and the wave has broken. There was a time that they kept it under wraps. The Republicans hid their racism and sexism and xenophobia, but no more. This is a Party of anger and hate manipulated and funded by the people who collect Supreme Court Justices like Nazi memorabilia.

This is the end of the road for the Republicans. Their extremism is an example of their failing empire. Each one more extreme trying to catch the last rays of support. Trump says racist criminals are fine people. DeSantis is at war with his state’s largest employer. Jim Jordan fights state courts and the Republicans want to shut the government down for just one more grift.

The Tehas governor Bubba Abbott solves his problems by shipping migrants around the country in chartered busses. Using people as props careless of what happens to them. Just dumping them out on the side of the road. Inadvertently showing their hand. They don’t care about people period. They don’t care about anything but themselves.

The Party of gun murders and sedition. The Party of polluters and rapists. The Party of killing Social Security and Medicare. The Party of cutting the VA. The Party of banning books and underfunding schools. The Party of made-up scandals and inquisitions where everyone is guilty but them. The Party of indifference to the suffering of the people they pretend to work for. But the Party is over.

“How many times do you have to get hit over the head until you figure out who’s hitting you.” ― Harry S. Truman