America’s party fight is no longer within the framework of democracy. The Republican Party is the party of Trump which embraces populism aka Trumpism. The latter is totalitarianism acting ostensibly within a democratic framework, placing inordinate power in the President. The Conservative Political Action Committee’s, (CPAC), which claims to have the largest Conservative membership in the world and whose annual conference looks to create future GOP policy has embraced Trumpism with all its lumps and warts. The conference also sanctioned Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party.
The Conference’s direction was reflected in its agenda and speakers. They even wheeled around a bigger than life golden statue of Trump which was a centerpiece of the arena. In the crammed three day conference, which examined the world according to Trump did not even include one ten minute segment on the two big crises the country is facing, The Covid crisis which has seen the death of over five hundred thousand Americans and devastated the economy and the frontal attack on democracy itself on the Capitol, for which McConnell, the de facto head of what was the Republican Party placed the blame on Trump. The attitude to the Covid epidemic was reflected in the prolonged boos the injunction to wear masks received.
CPAC devoted a whole chunk of its annual get together accepting the mantra that Trump won the election. They effected this through a series entitled, “Protect the Elections”. All the stars of the Trump cult from SenatorTed Cruz to Congressman Jim Jordan featured. The congress addressed issues from a “Trumpist” or “populist” perspective as the choice of speakers indicated. The closing address of The Congress will be given by “The Leader,”, Donald Trump, which will be on the future of the Republican Party as well as attacking Joe Biden - particularly his amnesty and border policies. Needless to say there are no speakers of the “old” GOP at the CPAP annual conference. Never has a President who has just lost an election been invited to point the direction the Party should go in the future. But with Trump there is never a never.
TRUMPISM = POPULISM = THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The fight between the Romney and Trump factions for control of the GOP is over. They represent two different worlds. Trump’s growth of influence is in no small measure due to the GOP’s five year project of conferring respectability to Trump’s embrace of totalitarianism.
Trump is the Republican Party and in the words of Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post columnist and a Republican Party survivor, anyone who is sane should get out. Trump has taken control of the party apparatus and his most rabid following controls the State GOP committees. For those who believe that Trump’s party supports democracy they should heed the words of Steve Schmidt, former Republican Party strategist and campaign manager for the late John McCain. Schmidt has become a single issue voter. He is joining the Democratic Party because he favors democracy over “populism”.
While Trump is nationally discredited, “populism” aka “Trumpism” is alive and well. Besides the legal trouble he is in he is a “loser”. The danger is whoever might takeover from him needn’t have the same baggage. A Tucker Carlson or a clean cut Josh Hawley may not inject the same revulsion that Trump has and America could finally join Brazil, Hungry, Russia, North Korea and China in its form of Government.
POPULISM - WHAT IS IT?
Populism is the modern day adoption of fascist philosophy to democracies. Central to the movement is that its policies are not based on reason but rather what The Leader perceives are the desires and prejudices of the chosen. The leader is central to the whole movement. He/she embodies the soul of the people. Over half the Evangelicals believe Trump was sent by God. He is not to be challenged. It is his way or the highway.
In this doctrine truth is not objective but subjective. As Kelly Anne Conway, when faced with an obvious distortion of reality, verbalized early on the Trump reign, “We have a different truth”. Also projection is used in the demagoguery hence you attack your opponents to “Stop the Steal”when you are the one doing the stealing. There are superior and inferior beings - Mexicans are rapists, Muslims are terrorists, caravans are coming to invade, immigrants would be fine from Norway…. . The inferior beings always turn out to have pigmented skin or are “left wing socialists”.
The inferior beings are belittled. However the inferior beings are capable of conquering the superior group and therefore need to be curtailed. Trump has a belief that all African Americans live in inner cities where they are no jobs and when you walk in the street you get shot. Then there is blaming the other side for his group’s atrocities, for example Charlottesville and the siege on the Capitol. The latter he told the Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy was being perpetrated by ANTIFA. Then there is an attack on independent institutions such as the judiciary while the press are the enemies. Anything that The Leader disagrees with is “Fake News”.
Also important to populism as it was with fascism is that the superior group or race are the ones being discriminated against, Trump and his following are victims and they are all share the manufactured reality. Added to that is the paranoia that this evokes with the result being the militarizing of conspiracy groups such as Q,Anon and the Proud Boys to protect The Leader, his party and to Make America Great Again. The followers buy into the whole kit and caboodle and The Leader becomes an omnipotent infallible God. If he says that he will be President forever then that will happen.
THE CPAC AGENDA - DOMINANT IS VALIDATION OF “THE BIG LIE”.
While it is difficult to rate Trump’s over thirty thousand untruths the one that stands out is “The Big Lie”, that he won the election. That mistruth is in a photo finish with the claim that Covid is like flu and “like a miracle” will just go away.
With all this in mind the agenda of the CPAC meeting is instructive. The dominant theme of the three days is the validation of “The Big Lie: Under the heading of Protection of Elections there are seven sessions: 1. Voting is democracy. Why we must protect elections; 2. Other culprits. Why judges and media refused to look at the evidence; 3.The left pulled the strings, covered it up and even admits it; 4 Failed states, GA, AR and NV; 5.They told ya so, The signs were always there; 6. Successful States and 7. Pandora’s ballot box - what’s next?;
A glance at a few of the other topics make it even more clear where CPAP are coming from and the Republican Party are going: Senator Mike Lee - Why the Left Hates the Bill of Rights and We Love it; Several symposia including: Tolerance reimagined - Violence in our Streets; The Left’s Assault on Free People; How Government, Big Tech and Media are colluding to deprive us of our Liberty; Sell Outs - The Devaluing of American Citizenship and The Voter Files - The Truth is out there ask your election Lawyers
So the ethos of populism runs through the whole conference: The reality is Trump won the election; The Republicans are still victims; Citizenship is being devalued and big government, big tech and the media are conspiring against them. It is the Left, (the inferior) that are assaulting the people and the violence is in the street protests not in Charlottesville and the capitol. The Proud Boys and Q,Anon are not a problem like Covid isn’t either. With regard to the former the official line is that POTUS 45 had absolutely nothing to do with the insurrection. As for anything Covid it is associated with the taking away of “freedoms”.
GOP DINOSAURS - WHERE ARE THEY NOW AND WHERE ARE THEY GOING?
This is the current populist world that the Republicans are living in - Biden’s approval rating is about sixty percent, Trump’s is in the lower thirties and the GOP legislator leaders like McConnell and McCartney are even less. In this milieu Trump still controls the base of the Republican Party and the State legislators and State GOP committees are doing his bidding. The National Republican legislators are not really supportive of Trump. Even in the House, Lynne Cheney the GOP number three who voted for Trump’s impeachment received a vote of confidence - a hundred and forty five to sixty one in a secret ballot. Mitch McConnell served up the most vicious attack on Trump blaming him for the insurrection and calling on the Judiciary to investigate and there was not even a murmur that he should be replaced as Republican leader of the Senate. Yet the overwhelming majority of the GOP legislators publicly support “The Big Lie” not even accepting of Trump’s role in the “populist” insurrection of the Capitol.
In the present circumstances Trump is still the de facto head of the Republican Party where all he does is play golf, plot primaries against anyone who hasn’t shown a hundred percent obsequious loyalty to him and give audiences to Republicans who want his blessing and come to kiss his ring. He is forming a “Super” Political Action Committee which will him allow him to receive huge donations. He the outgoing “loser” President who doesn’t ascribe to democratic principles nor Republican policy yet is invited to the key Republican policy show piece to give the keynote address on “The Future of the Republican Party”. Trump attacking his presidential successor at this stage is against the unwritten rule but he writes his own rules. In addition the rest of the CPAC program and all the speakers slavishly are in sync with his mantra. Normally, according to Michael Steele, a former republican National Committee Chairman, this show piece would feature all the prospective candidates for 2024 but there is no Larry Hogan, Nikki Haley, John Kasich….
In this mess how do the national Republican legislators respond. Publicly they respond as if nothing is going on - McConnell sees no change. He has even said if Trump is the nominee in 2024 he will support him; McCarthy claims it is ok that Trump is still calling the shots while Cheney reaffirms that Trump has no place in the GOP. In practice their only policies thus far is to make life as difficult for the Biden agenda and hang onto power. It also hasn’t past unnoticed that Biden’s nominees of color are the ones challenged. While seventy - six percent of the electorate are in favor of the Covid relief Bill so far there is not one Republican legislative vote for it. Most important they are ignoring the fact the paradigm has changed in American politics and it is now a fight between democracy and totalitarianism.
Mitch McConnell has made it clear that he wants to win back the Senate. He never has had any policy objectives other than appointing Judges, seeing to it that no Obama legislation ever gets passed and of course being leader of the Senate. To regain the Senate means he has to take on Trump and his base in the Primaries. Even with all the financial backing he will get, there is no chance. Any rate the moneyed business culture is heavily into redressing economic equality and racial injustice. A one hundred and fifty of the largest companies in America have backed Biden’s Covid Bill.Then there are the small set of legislators who have spoken out against Trump. But generally they still have not recognized that the main battle on the agenda is not how much is devoted to Covid relief or whether a Biden nominee has tweeted nasty things about Republicans but rather to ensure democracy. They too should be fighting the fact that the States are introducing over two hundred voter suppression measures. They need to signify that they will support the Democrats Federal voting rights Bill.
While it is acknowledged that by far the majority of Republican legislators are against Trump they still keep their mouths shut. They will just shut up like Stalin’s politburo did and muddle on and pray for a miracle.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN
Trump and Trumpism will keep the Republican Party.Trump himself will be too heavily embroiled in litigation to really run in the election so Don J. Jnr. is your man. Don Jnr. was also a featured speaker. He is already careering around the country campaigning for this Governor or that. Maybe a couple of Republican troglodytes will survive but Trump nominees as matters stand cannot get elected in meaningful enough numbers to take over anything especially if Biden gets through his Covid Bill and then one on infrastructure.
To illustrate the bankruptcy of the Republican Party Trump will be elected as the nominee for the 2024 election in the poll of CPAC attendees.
Trump won’t build a Presidential library because he only has two books.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN
The Republican legislators should as Billy Kristol, another recovering Republican, has argued just help Biden where ever they can. This will ensure that democracy triumphs. They then can regroup and reformulate an alternative policy. For the moment the GOP have deserted whatever they stood for. Even worse they have allowed a tyrant to hijack their Party and throw a giddy celebration of the fact.
NOTE: This blog was written at the beginning of the CPAC Conference so it could not cover in detail the rapture of POTUS 45’s address and the idolatrous adulation that would follow.
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