Cassandra, Congress, Elections, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks

Republicans in Disarray

Earlier this year Rick Scott decided that the Republicans needed a platform after all. The ensuing document was a pile of extremist crackpot views put into writing and available for everyone to read. See, there was a reason that the GOP didn’t write a platform in 2020 and that was it was easier to rack up votes if people only had a vague idea of what you’d do once in power.

Scott further endeared himself to Republican leadership by blowing his stint as chair of the NRSC, spending the bulk of the money by the end of the summer, and as the cherry on top, lost a Senate seat in the midterm election. As a result there’s now a split in the party:

And, because he obviously wasn’t helping enough, on Tuesday Scott threw his name into the leadership hat against Mitch McConnell, leading to this:

You hate to see it.

Not to be outdone, over on the House side seditious insurrectionist Andy Biggs threw his name into the hat for party leadership and lost, as expected, to Kevin McCarthy. However, the Freedom Caucus supported Biggs, which means that right now McCarthy doesn’t—and won’t—have 218 votes come January 4, 2023.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has thrown her support behind McCarthy, so you have to wonder what he’s promised to let her do. The caucus has already waxed rhapsodic about impeaching Joe Biden, investigating Hunter Biden, going after Merrick Garland and Dr. Fauci, and a bunch of other time-wasting nonsense designed to produce sound bites for the various nightly FOX shows.

I wondered about Republican House members who were in purple districts and who expected their representative to actually do stuff to help them. Would they be willing to vote for a Democrat for Speaker in order to hold their seats? Then I saw this from Monday:

You hate to see it.

The white supremacist crowd is now looking to Ron Desantis as their new racist savior. TFG elevated Desantis by mocking him at his rallies, and the Republican Party is beginning to fracture along TFG and Desantis lines. Desantis noted that TFG’s endorsed candidates tanked on Tuesday, but here’s the thing:  so did his. Every candidate outside Florida that Desantis endorsed lost. So did Ted Cruz’s candidates. Oh, and Governor Fleece Vest in Virginia? Yep, his candidates lost too.

You hate to see it.

It’s not just extremist politicians adding to the disarray though. The extremist media bubble is doing its part, too:

Yeah, that’ll convince young voters to give Republican candidates a vote.

And then on Tuesday night TFG announced what we already knew:  he was running for president again. The most schaudenfreude part of that is he and the spineless GOP built Tuesday’s electoral disaster. And there is still one more midterm election, the Georgia Senate runoff where I expect TFG to poison the GOP voter well once again.

The GOP is in shambles. It is unlikely to make a good argument for its return to legislative control in 2024. Its loudest faction is full of extremists whose counterparts were denied office on Tuesday. Trump controls the fundraising apparatus and keeps the lion’s share of what is grifted in. And they’re stuck with him, even as they try to separate themselves from him.

You hate to see it. Make some popcorn and strap in.

This sounds about right: