How Trump Sealed the GOP's Suicide

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://thebulwark.com/how-trump-sealed-the-gops-suicide/

I first wrote about Donald Trump in a September 2015 column predicting his political self-annihilation:

Slowly, inevitably, Trump will crack, flooding the maws of an avid media with a tsunami of whining, petty feuds, and overblown grievances. His audience will be watching, and not kindly—some out of sheer fascination with his self-destruction, more because most Americans are, at bottom, sensible. They want an optimistic leader who imbues them with hope, not a self- obsessed whiner whose endless psychodrama is, in the end, exhausting. Not only will they not want Donald Trump in the White House; they won’t want him in their living rooms. And one by one they will switch the channel, until Trump is left alone on a soundstage, and the lens into which he stares becomes an empty mirror.

Okay, so I was five years and one presidency off. Still, better to be premature than to miss the inevitable end game: Because Trump can only be himself, a critical mass of Americans have become sick of his pathology.

The Bulwark’s Tim Miller cites responses from a fresh poll of independents, a crucial voting bloc Trump desperately needs. Their shorthand descriptions beg analysis: “horrible human being,” “incredibly rude,” “terrible representative for our country,” “unfit to do the job,” “sexist and racist,” “idiot,” “arrogance,” “slimebag,” and, of course, “lies.” I merely summarize the implications for his campaign: Unpromising.

Because Trump is immutably pathological, he’s incapable of growth as a politician or president. As pollster Sean Trende told the New Yorker:

One of the big failings of Trump’s Presidency—and there are many—is that he never made the transition from an insurgent candidate to a President. I think he had a very effective insurgent campaign, and it was hard for Hillary Clinton. But, once he became President, he had no reason to listen to people who actually know stuff about politics, who would tell him, “Hey, you’re the President now. You need to put down that Twitter thing.” That’s great for your initial election campaign, but people don’t want their Presidents yelling at the Prime Minister of Denmark because she won’t sell him Greenland. . . . COVID was absolutely a layup for him. . . . People want to hear Presidents give moving speeches, even if what they do isn’t that effective. And he just couldn’t do it.

*snip*

[CrispyQ]

1. This: "...a critical mass of Americans have become sick of his pathology."

He will never change. Never.

"I've seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are."
~Michelle Obama

[Midnight Writer]

2. Kristol forgets Reagan's "strapping young bucks", "welfare queens" and campaign kickoff in

Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Reagan was the master of the dog whistle.

You can blame Trump for a lot of things, but "unleashing white identity politics" is an odd one for Kristol to hone in on.

[Statistical]

3. "COVID was absolutely a layup for him. . . . And he just couldn't do it."

As horrible as Trump was for 3+ years if he had delivered on a COVID response I have zero doubts he would be the favorite to win the eleciton. Incumbents usually win even bad ones (Bush Jr). COVID could have been Trump's 9/11. All he had to do is let the experts help and maybe throw in a few "Be a patriot wear a mask" ads.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't stop being terrible at everything long enough to win re-election.