I’ve done my share of instant analysis pieces over the years, but I usually prefer to let the dust settle before writing, especially when it comes to legal rulings. Former Dubya speechwriter David Frum indulged in some instant analysis of his own after hearing about the Colorado Supreme Court’s disqualification clause ruling.
I give Frum credit for being one of the OG never-Trumpers, but the tone of his piece is naive and credulous. He still seems to believe that there are decent GOPers who will seize on the ruling to rid themselves of Former President* Pennywise. Frum’s title made me roll my eyes: The Colorado Supreme Court Just Gave Republicans A Chance To Save Themselves.
Here’s the gist of Frum’s argument complete with caveats for when he’s inevitably proven wrong:
“Until now, Trump’s Republican rivals have shown themselves too scared to fight and too weak to win. The question ahead: Are they too scared and too weak even when the win is presented to them by the courts? The immediate reaction of many of them was, as usual, to cower and truckle—to take Trump’s side against their own. This is their last exit; if they drive past, there will not be another before the primaries finish.
The present Supreme Court is highly attuned to the wishes of conservative America. If the conservative majority senses permission from Republicans to save Republicans from themselves, they might do it. If they sense a veto from Republicans, they may not. What is said and done in the next days and hours may matter a great deal. If Republicans want rescue, they must stop pretending they object.”
Why now, Frummy? Short-term thinking has always plagued this country and it’s worse than ever. GOPers have swallowed recent polling data whole and no longer believe that the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian is a sure loser. Like Trump, his followers can only see a few days down the road. The big picture eludes them.
I’ve lost count of how many times Republicans have passed on chances to free themselves from the Trumpist embrace. Mitch McConnell and KMac had the right instincts about the Dipshit Insurrection, but lost their nerve after initially speaking out. Everyone knows that the Turtle despises Trump but he blew his chance to blow Trumpism out of the water by delaying the second impeachment trial and voting nay after giving a speech that sounded like aye. That’s what happens when you try to have it both ways.
David Frum is guilty of wishful thinking. He wants his party to revert to Reagan-Bush-McCain normality. It cannot. Trumpism started as a cult of personality, but it has poisoned the blood of the Republican party to use Trump’s own Hitlerian words. It’s now a bona fide authoritarian populist party. The Kaiser of Chaos has even found his own Goering and Goebbels in Stephens Bannon and Miller.
I believe we’re in for a long struggle against Republican authoritarians: It’s not just Trump. Even if Democrats sweep the board in 2024, the authoritarian forces unleashed by Trumpism will remain in control of the GOP. Poland had an 8 year brush with dictatorship, which ended with the victory of Donald Tusk and his center-left coalition. Hardened by dealing with Brexit idiocy when he was EU president, Tusk has no illusions that the fight for democracy has been permanently won. Poland’s struggle will continue as will ours.
Finally, I’d like to praise the Colorado Supremes for taking this case so seriously. It’s a helluva opinion that includes harsh condemnation of the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian as an insurrectionist. That took courage. That’s something that Republican politicians lack. They’re all profile and no courage.
Repeat after me: It’s not just Trump.
The last word goes to Stephen Stills and Manassas:
I know it’s polite to call it populism but Trumpism fits in quite well with Hannah Arendts characteristics of fascism. it converts the classes of corporate titan, country club bourgeoisie and corner bar conservative into a mass in the same sense that Lenin or Mao would describe the masses. another important characteristic of Trumpism to use terror, a particularly the fear within of the individuals in their mass, to suppress any opposition. and his entire platform going into the selection is one of the general terror he promises for much of the population. please don’t call it populism. at this point it is full-blown fascism and should be called out as such.
You seem to have missed my Nazi paragraph as well as past posts where I’ve called them fascists.
sorry if I missed it. I’m in a post Fogo de Chao meet and caprahina, we’ll go back and read it again more carefully. tomorrow.