By Dan K | 13 October 2024
Daily Kos
Yes, that sounds crazy, given all the damage Trump has done to our country, going back even before he glided down that (fake) golden escalator. But hear me out.
Ever since Reagan, and perhaps ever since Nixon, the Republican party and its overlords have been plotting the demise of American democracy. They figured out that there was no way they could persuade a majority of Americans to accept their plutocratic-oriented platform (Christian nationalism came along later), and they were right — GOP candidates for president have won the popular vote only once since 1988.
The Repub party is broken beyond repair and is no longer a viable part of our democratic government. They have become totally radical. The shift in policy during the Reagan administration started the downfall of the party in my opinion. I was a Republican at that time and voted… pic.twitter.com/XtDNonqv2q
— Sheryl with an S (@beachblond52) August 2, 2023
So they evolved a multi-pronged attack on our institutions, including the courts and public education. Their tame media hid, ignored, or outright lied about their actions. They also seized on abortion as a means to stir up their own base — and in the process let themselves be taken over by the religious fanatics, and by the oligarchs who got tired of playing politics and decided to go for an out-an-out autocracy.
They were getting ready to do this in 2016, having spent 30 years demonizing Hillary Clinton, when Trump stepped in and grabbed the nomination. Any other Republican would have beaten Hillary, and any other Democrat would have beaten Trump. But Trump won by the skin of his teeth, something nobody — not even Trump — expected would happen. The GOP made the best of it (as they saw it), getting their tax cuts at least, but Trump’s incompetence and narcissism kept getting in their way.
Then Biden beat Trump in 2020, and Trump couldn’t deal with it. He went even farther off the deep end, and forced Republicans to either go along with him or get out. From the day he sulked away from the White House on Jan. 20, he was planning his return. He has been both ruthless and desperate in this goal, the more so as the law finally started to catch up with him.
Republicans tried to head him off, figuring the country would prefer anyone other than Trump. Trump made that impossible, so the GOP decided to use his ruthlessness and desperation to ride back into power, then find some way to control or even depose him. (Hence Vance, probably because someone persuaded Eric and Don Jr. to push him on their dad.)
But then came Dobbs. I think Roberts knew a complete reversal of Roe would be a GOP disaster, but he couldn’t keep Alito and Thomas from moving too fast and overplaying their hand. The backlash from Dobbs has woken the country up to what has been going on, and continues to hand victories to Democrats that they otherwise would probably not have gotten. I am eternally angry at SCOTUS and the Republicans for the death and destruction of lives that the anti-abortion movement has caused since then, but I will still take advantage of it because it alerted the country to the danger we are in.
The other major factor (well, one of the other major ones) is Project 2025. It has been in the works for a long time, but I think its authors never intended it to come to light until it was too late to stop it. When it did appear, Trump panicked in much the same way he did with the Access Hollywood tape, only this time the country isn’t buying his excuses. The more he blathers — and the more Vance tries to duck and weave — the more the country is learning about their plans for us, and they are NOT pleased. Here too, the GOP overplayed its hand.
This is real.
This is the GOP plan.
This will affect you and people you love.
Please vote to prevent Project 2025.
Please vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and Democrats up and down the ballot. pic.twitter.com/U64pH8AUT5— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) October 13, 2024
Trump’s increasingly open misogyny, racism, and anti-Semitism also having a dual effect: They are making it easier for those of like mind to express themselves, but they are also disgusting much of the country as it wakens to the filthy underside of our society and culture that has always been there but used to be quieter.
The various masters of the GOP have conflicting, even contradictory, goals, but they have agreed to cooperate for the time being, hoping to use Trump just long enough to get back in power. But Trump is not playing along — not because he disagrees with them, but because his narcissism, his rage, and his increasing dementia will not let him run the campaign they think will win but the campaign that satisfies his ego. Trump is the weakness in the Republicans’ schemes, but they are stuck with him until after the election.
If Trump loses, and the loss sticks, he will have done the country a favor, as we will have — finally — woken up to the danger the GOP poses and done something about it. (It will help if we keep the Senate and take back the House.)
Of course, putting Kamala Harris in the Oval Office will be only the first step in a long and difficult recovery from the damage the GOP and Trump have done and the danger they will still pose. Among the many other challenges she will face is the task of making sure the country does not go back to sleep afterwards.
But at least we will have the chance to make the most of the opportunity and the knowledge that Trump will have given us.
Is Donald Trump a Fascist? | Robert Reich
How Reagan Ruined Everything
‘We Have A Plan’: Heritage Foundation President Discusses Project 2025 At The RNC
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