THE RUDDERLESS RACIST GOP RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S TRANSFORMATIVE AGENDA

 

The current state of the Republican Party is so shattered that items of news that would have rocked them or created havoc such as the Russian involvement in the 2020 election in favor of Trump and the Republican Party barely raises an eyebrow in the GOP caucuses. Not only is the GOP leadership fighting each other with a force that dwarfs their inane attacks on the Democrats they have lost any sense of direction and don’t even  bother to represent their constituents in their legislative bodies. Currently the GOP believe it should be much easier to buy an AK rifle than vote. Trump who is a shadow of his former self is still in charge with McConnell flailing in the wind. 

The Democrats seemed poised to attempt to bypass the filibustering one way or another so as to carry out their transformative agenda which by and large has the overwhelming support of the majority of the electorate. McConnell understands that would herald a decade at least of Democratic rule, threatening bedlam if the Dems try. Already Biden’s signature legislation the Covid relief bill has been wildly acclaimed and could be enough to keep the Senate and the House in 2022. The Republicans are making a great show of the border mess. If they are relying on Biden to indiscriminately open up the Southern border so as to give them a platform for something, they haven’t been watching or listening to him. 

The GOP’s disparate actions and policies make it difficult to know what on earth their domestic and foreign policies are. They are however united on voting against anything the Democrats propose. Perhaps the most glaring domestic departure from being part of the USA is on how they view the insurrectionists who attempted revolution in the Capitol on January 6 and on the international front how they are backing Putin over Biden not caring too much about the definitive intelligence report that the Russians intervened in the 2020 election in favor of Trump and the Republican Party. Some of them are still arguing, with Trump, that Putin didn’t participate in 2016,

The dysfunction is such that the more Trump abuses his Republican “allies” the more they cringe and worship at his shrine

TRUMP STILL DOMINATES THE SHOW - THAT IS WHEN HE IS INTERESTED AND CAN GET MEDIA COVERAGE

Trump, who as an incumbent lost the Presidency and then the Senate with his crazy narcissistic display in Georgia, is still the most powerful force in the GOP shambles.The immediate Past President has said Republican candidates cannot use his likeness or name on their election material. He has also enjoined his followers to donate money to his Political Action Committees rather than to other Republican fund raising entities. The reason, he claims, for the latter is because money will be wasted on candidates who are Republicans in name only, (RINOS), or fools. The latter classifications just happen to belong to candidates who have opposed him in one or another way. 

Just for a moment let this sink in. The party is so rudderless, lacking in real leadership or policy direction that a “loser” by his own definition is attempting to take control of all the coffers as well as solely nominate Republican candidates and there isn’t a combined response to tell him to go to hell. Or do they believe he can be trusted with the money and his judgement is divinely inspired? In any case at the moment he is locked in between playing golf and preparing for the load of litigation that is about to be dumped on his orange coiffure. 

Trump has declared war on the Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell. POTUS 45 has vowed to put up his own slate of candidates while McConnell has countered he is going to ignore him and back those that have the best chance of defeating Democrats in the 2022 midterms. McConnell’s behavior vis a vis Trump shows only one objective - clinging onto power. After four years of licking his boots and preventing his conviction  twice he then launched into the most comprehensive attack as to Trump’s seditious behavior in inciting the January 6 insurrection. Less than a month later he stated that he would back Trump if he became the Party’s candidate in 2024. McConnell like everyone else in the GOP establishment has not presented a comprehensive policy plan for the party.

WHAT IS THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM?

The underpinning of their electoral strategy is voter suppression. Two hundred and fifty State legislature bills have been introduced by Republicans to make it more difficult for minorities to vote with Georgia being Ground Zero. Then there is the fact that Biden is “senile” and a “socialist”. (The latter assertion being made while they are supporting “socialist” Putin against him). The GOP opposed the nearly two trillion dollar Covid relief package which contains the first decent social welfare policies passed by American legislature in decades. The problem being for them that having passed an act costing a similar amount of money which was for tax cuts for the rich their cry of fiscal responsibility is hollow. More important is that the majority of the Republican electorate are now at odds with their elected representatives.. 

The GOP believe their best bet is being in favor of  the old “culture”whatever that is while fighting “culture change” whatever that is. They are all id idem at keeping all immigrants out and making America white again. After all that is what got Trump elected in the first place. 

With Biden’s election there has been a rush on the Southern border where the wall that Trump promised to build has not prevented mass illegal immigration. Where Biden’s stated policy differs from that of Trump is in the care of children and humanity not cruelty in dealing with the tragedy. With regard to illegal immigration he has made it quite clear that they should all “not come”. In order to stop the recent flood he has closed the border completely. Biden has sent representatives to Mexico and Guatemala to try and look for solutions at the source. Whether this chaos is a result of Trump or not it is Biden’s problem now. 

For those Republicans that are interested they should examine the immigration policy of Biden in the Obama administration. The concern is with the treatment of the children, which is one of the principal reasons that the suburban Republican women deserted the GOP in 2018. Biden also backs a pathway, which again has a plurality of the electorate behind him, of regularizing citizenry for the children brought here, in most instances decades ago, by their parents. So good luck to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who makes regular trips to the border to view the "crisis" which Trump didn’t fix to make political capitol out of it. Needless to say he and McConnell have offered no plan to cope with the problem of children most of whom Trump locked up in cages. 

Before continuing on the moral and policy bankruptcy of the GOP it would be wise to see what Biden is aiming to get through.

BIDEN’S AGENDA AND DEMOCRATIC PARTY COHESION

The seminal Covid legislation did not need sixty votes in the Senate to pass. Biden has on his plate legislation that would if the filibuster law remains in place require ten Republicans in the Senate to pass. He has as a priority to negate the voter restriction activities of the Republicans in the States with a sweeping Federal Law similar to Lyndon Johnson’s in the sixties which has since been castrated by the Conservative Supreme Court. He has two widely popular infrastructure bills which together with building a green energy source would provide the jobs that have been lost in the blue collar sector. In addition he has legislation which would change policing radically by making law enforcement part of the solution not the problem as seen by a large section of the Community. Following the alleged murder of George Floyd police accountability has become more of a front burner issue. The never ending agenda inludes incorcoprating Washington DC as the fifty first state which would give the Democrats two more Senators.

While he has already bolstered Obamacare in the Covid legislation he is looking to create an alternative Government plan for those who are still left without coverage. He has proposed as well a higher tax rate on those earning more than $200,000 a year and families more than $400,000 as well as a small increase in company tax. Then there are a shrove of bills which would fall under his New Deal effort which would be the most revolutionary since Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. Finally and for the millionth time, taking on the urgency of gun control.

Needless to say he could not muster one Republican vote, as matters stand, for any of the above. The problems everyone thought Biden would have had with his Progressive Caucus have not materialized. His difficulty lies with two Conservative Democratic Senators. This not with legislation but whether they will agree to dump the filibuster provision which as matters stand needs only fifty one votes to modify. What makes Jay H. Ell believe that something of that nature is on the way is that House of Representative Resolutions 1 and 4 have just been passed which inter alia stops voter suppression. Jim Clyburn the number three Democrat in the House has made it quite clear that his life long fights for Civil Rights are not going to be blown by this band of white supremacists. Just in case anyone forgets if it wasn’t for Jim Clyburn there woudn’t be a Joe Biden. 

 Biden's relationship with key conservative Democrat Joe Manchin who won in a state that Trump won by forty percent will be crucial in effecting his agenda,

REPUBLICANS - WHITE SUPREMACY IS NOW OK.

What has been so revealing is that while the majority of the Republican Party legislators are not racists or white supremacists they are not prepared to speak against those that are, especially their unchallenged leader Donald J Trump. It is not so long ago, two years in fact, that Representative Steve King was booted out of the Republican Party for his support of white supremacy and removed from his committee positions by his own caucus. 

Two years later Majorie Taylor Greene was not sanctioned by the Republicans for her long standing string of racist, conspiratorial and seditious remarks which ranged from that the Speaker should be executed to the Parkland School shooting was a fake and attacking the young spokesperson survivor as a coward. It was left to the Democrats to axe her from her committee positions. Ms. Greene is one of the dozen or so Republicans that live in la la land. They stick to the “Big Lie” like cement and wouldn’t vote for granting the heroic Capitol police gold medals for their bravery because they claimed that January 6 was not an insurrection nor was the Capitol a “temple” of democracy. 

Perhaps the racist statement of the century goes to Texas House Representative Chip Roy, who claimed that Texas was committed to justice as reflected in their old saying, “Find the tallest oak tree and find all the rope in Texas”. He was speaking in the debate on the Atlanta murder of Asian Americans. Again the Republican response was sparse at his obscene reference to lynching as “justice”. Asian - American spokespeople were audibly shocked as lynchings were perpetrated on the Chinese in the twentieth Century.

All this pales into insignificance at the behavior of Ron Johnson the Senator from Wisconsin. Johnson has claimed that the attack on the Capitol was executed by unarmed peace loving Americans. He initially subscribed to the theory that the whole operation was orchestrated by the left wing Antifa. Then followed that up by claiming that the white “rioters” did not create one bit of fear in him. Had they been Black Lives Matter resistors and Antifa that would have been an entirely different matter, he maintained. Johnson to this day is challenging the legitimacy of Biden’s Presidency. When he was Chairman of the Senate Homeland Committee he, in spite of negative intelligence reports, supported an investigation into Hunter Biden the Democratic nominee’s son. He also backed Trump on his playing down of the Corona virus epidemic and claimed, in spite of the medical evidence, that had they given everyone hydroxyquinolone, the President’s bizarre panacea, the epidemic would be over. He needless to say refuses to be vaccinated. It is a reasonable interpretation to believe that now that Trump is banned for life on Twitter for inciting a riot Johnson appears to be his ventriloquist dummy sitting on his lap.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The GOP is dead and is being dominated by an authoritarian collection of racists, with Trump at the head. The current legislators have to make a decision as where to go with that reality. Currently they are in denial led by Mitch McConnell who sees “no change”.

The Democrats have tactical decisions to make so that they can continue with their transformative agenda. This includes changes to the archaic filibuster rule which makes governance impossible.

One has not heard the last word from Trump as he creates his own social media platform and his court cases begin to roll out. 

One definitely hasn’t heard the last word on Trumpism as long as there are Johnsons, Cruzes, Hawleys and the dirty dozen in the House of Representatives, to mention but a few, hanging around and or voter suppression is allowed to triumph. 

The Republican legislators, who are not comfortable with abandoning democracy, still can speak out and educate their constituencies. Relying on voter suppression and McConnell’s denial that there has been “no change” as well as being associated with the Trump authoritarian fringe, will forever place them on the rubbish dump of history. 

America is obviously very much a work in progress.

WHY THE ROYAL FIRM AXED MEGHAN

With an audience greater than even Donald Trump could engender the British Royal Institution, which Meghan and Harry euphemistically labelled “The Firm” was exposed as being a mob like operation. The gist of the pair’s story was that Meghan was subject to pressure which was opaquely designed to axe her from her position. Oprah Winfrey with clinical precision extracted empathetically and professionally details of The Firm’s operation which visibly shocked her. The couple, exuding authenticity, compassion and honesty, protected the key royals, particularly Queen Elizabeth although, it is highly unlikely that any of Meghan’s treatment could have happened sans the acquiescence of Her Majesty who is the Head of The Firm. If it did, after all  she has been Queen for sixty years, it is time she fired all around her and took control. Elizabeth’s sixty - one word response to her grandson and his wife’s allegations was insulting and paternalistic to say the least and did not jive with the facts or sequence of events. 

However the British seem divided a la Pierce Morgan who has an unshakeable belief in the Monarchy and an unshakeable belief that Meghan is a barefaced liar.  Whichever way this is viewed the Queen is ultimately responsible to provide either a credible response and/or an investigation.  Jay H. Ell believes that the reason Meghan had to be axed as she, with her highly unsuitable biracial pedigree threatened to take over their world like Diana almost did. That is the irresistible conclusion. The only alternative is that every word of their interview with Oprah was fabrication.

MEGHAN AND KATE

The problem directly was not solely racial. Yes that was a part of it but the fact that Meghan was about to dominate “their” world much like Diana did was the real problem. It is almost twenty - five years since the “Peoples’ Princess” was killed in a motor car accident, being chased by the self same paparazzi, that Harry and Meghan were accusing of smearing them off the face of the earth. Diana’s presence still looms over “The Firm”. Harry put his finger on it when comparing his wife’s reception particularly on the South African and Australian royal tours to that of Diana. Prince Charles was noticeably miffed at Diana upstaging him while Prince Harry was extremely proud. Nevertheless the magnetism that a biracial divorcee exhibited was a threat to the establishment which has yet to let go of their colonial past. 

Prior to Meghan’s arrival the Duchess of Cambridge and future queen Kate Middleton, a commoner, had given the Royals cover that they had learned the lesson that their attitude to Diana was toxic. Ms. Middleton was British, very white, a graduate of a a highly exclusive school, undivorced and had been Prince William’s steady for a decade before they married, and obviously knew the rules of the game. Her parents weren’t an embarrassment. She then produced heirs at a regular rate pushing Harry further and further from the throne. 

All in all commoner and affable Kate reinforced the image of the thoroughly modern Royals who were keeping up with the times. However she was completely eclipsed by the arrival of charismatic attractive poised confident but divorced biracial Meghan Markle. The fear was that in the eyes of the British public and the world the union of this oddball couple would become the “optics” of the Royal Firm. Harry himself had barely played by the rules as it was. However in his own right there was a charm, spontaneity and credibility to his persona that had already endeared him to the citizenry. He already was heavily involved in a charitable cause much like his mother was. The magic this couple would conjure up could be explosive. Now if this is obvious to Jay H. Ell it must have been the number one item on the agenda of the consiglieri that reported to the Dons of The Firm.

THE PRESSURE WAS ON FROM THE BEGINNING, WEDDING AND ALL

Not that any of this should have come as a surprise to the couple. Even before the pageantry of the wedding with its carriages and horses and uniforms Harry had been told that there wasn’t enough money to support his bride. It was suggested that she continue acting! At the same time the Head of, dare Jay H. Ell say, The Firm paid for the wedding herself which decreased her eighty - eight billion in assets by a paltry forty - five million dollars. The reason the good cop did this was so that the half African American bride could have her Episcopalian traditions honored at the ceremony. The first African American Head of the Episcopalian Church gave the sermon quoting Martin Luther King. The Negro spiritual Abide By Me was sung and the Anglican purists uncomfortably nodded their heads in approval. The celebration could be held at her beloved Windsor Castle where she had to be dislodged with a crowbar by Prime Minister Tony Blair to go to London where the mob were howling at her disinterest at her former daughter in law’s death.

 

THE FIRM HAD SURVIVED TOUGH TIMES AND THEY WOULD SURVIVE MEGHAN

Most important was that Queen Elizabeth had sent a message to the planet of love, tolerance, understanding and racial equality. Nothing that was to follow nor that had preceded the marriage could be associated with her. What had to be flashing through her mind was that the Royals had come through it all. They had survived the drunken gambling womanizing Duke of Windsor’s abdication of the throne for a thrice divorced American woman, her sister Margaret’s bohemian dissolute life after she had turned down her request to marry a divorced man, Charle’s disastrous ongoing affair with Camilla which had finally been made kosher by his marriage to her and the ending of her three eldest children marriages in divorce. Sordid Prince Andrew and his totally inappropriate wife Sarah Ferguson’s continued abominable behavior and most of all the near take over of “The Firm” in the eyes of the British Public and the world by Diana all were sagas of the past successfully navigated. (It is a wonder that this dysfunctional family is held up as all things bright and beautiful and subsidized by the British citizenry)

Little did anyone know that at that very moment of the wedding pageantry that was being watched by nearly two billion people across the world was the fear that this bond between Diana’s youngest son and an American biracial divorcee produced yet another threat to the image of The Firm. There wasn’t even the hope that there had been with Diana that she had been bred well enough to know that you just grin and bear it and think of England. 

GOODBYE WORLD HULLO PRISON AND TORTURE

As Meghan waved to the adoring crowds in the little town of Windsor did she consciously acknowledge that she was waving good bye to the real world to be totally emerged in the reality of The Firm? What followed and what she detailed to Oprah Winfrey was the total takeover of her life and in retrospect actions that would get rid of her in one way or another. As the Duchess of Sussex outlined, you hand in your wallet, your passport, your keys, your driver’s license at the door of the palace and you become a smiling dutiful prisoner.

It soon became evident on two world tours that Meghan was a star. Harry was beginning to more and more link her persona with that of his late mother. So apparently did The Firm. If the Oprah interview was anything to go by the pressure really mounted during her pregnancy. The message was that her offspring wouldn’t be titled and therefore would not be entitled to security. Meghan was not given permission to go out with friends because the optics were bad. 

Her mental health worsened till she became suicidal. She pleaded with The Firm that she wanted help. They refused because of the bad publicity it might elicit with her at a psychiatric facility. She went to Human Resources and all she got was sympathy because they couldn’t help because she wasn’t on the payroll. However when she was needed to go a function the car rolled up and she had to get in and perform with a smile. The breaking point for Harry and Meghan was when the shade of darkness of baby Archie was brought up and of course the incredible media pressure she was under.

THE BRITISH TABLOIDS 

Harry had obsessed that it was the paparazzi that were paid by the tabloids that had killed his mother. They attacked Meghan relentlessly to the extent that seventy - two women members of  the British Parliament censored the media for their persistent bias against the new royal. It appeared that Prince William’s wife the.Duchess of Cambridge Kate, was the hero and she was the villain. The tell all Sussexes refuted stories that had been headlined again and again. These included that Meghan had made Kate cry when the truth they claimed was just the opposite. In any case the estranged royals said Kate had apologized so why make a deal out of it? Then Harry vigorously denied that he had blindsided his grandmother with his decision to not be a senior royal and would serve the royal mission from Canada. He had had endless discussions about his and his wife’s situation.

What was quite astonishing was the relationship that was revealed between The Firm and the British tabloids. According to the Duchess they held garden parties at the palace with the toxic media. Moreover The Firm would issue denials of stories protecting royals. One can only imagine that there was a kind of quid pro quo so that these two supposedly adversarial entities could exist. The tabloids could be tipped off for example that the Duke of Edinburgh had been admitted to hospital so they could run a story before the conventional media. In return they would shine in a good light someone in favor. As was noted Meghan was hammered for the same actions that Kate would get plaudits for. 

So William’s and his wife’s  mental state, the fact that the media were slaughtering her without any palace denial and that security would not be available for his son drove the couple to their decision which the tabloids claimed was scheming Meghan’s objective from day one to leave The Firm and exploit their royal position in America for money. 

IN CANADA AND THE USA

So off they went to Canada which after all is part of the Commonwealth prepared to continue to bolster the concept of the monarchy and the Commonwealth. Then out of the blue Harry was stripped of his meaningless titles and ribbons not to mention his stipend. But for a couple who had received death threats the removal of security there and then was terrifying. Also their exact whereabouts had been publicized in Vancouver so they had to get out. It was just before the Covid crisis stopped all travel and the African American media mogul, Tyler Perry, lent them a Californian home with security detail for three months. They then purchased a home in Santa Barbara down the road from Oprah and near where the Prince’s mother in law lived. They have secured major contracts with Spotify, Netflix and speaking arrangements which will net them at least twenty - five million dollars per year. (Which the cynics believe that was her objective from day one. She going via Canada one supposes was to not make it obvious).

Meanwhile the attacks on the couple persisted in the British media with no correction by The Firm. As the pregnant Duchess of Sussex exhorted, “Why would they support lies and not challenge reports that were untrue”. Also she claimed that The Firm were still attacking them. Surely they didn’t expect them to remain quiet forever? The one regret she had was she had believed “them” when they promised to protect her against groundless attacks and smears from the media. The Prince had no regrets in what had transpired. He believed he had acted correctly and honestly to protect his family.

WHAT WERE THE FIRM THINKING?

If one believes Meghan and Harry this is an unbelievably shocking story. What would have happened if Meghan had committed suicide? Had they forgotten the storm after Diana’s death? If true the callousness of The Firm”s actions was unconscionable. Did they really think that Harry and Meghan would shut up forever? This could have been leaked by a former palace  employee. Was the bubble so intact and The Firm so wrapped up in their own world that they didn’t envisage that the detailing of this story could bring the whole institution down like a pack of cards. Predictably the same media that attacked the Sussexes are coming out in the royal’s defense - How dare they have this interview while the Queen’s husband was in hospitalL?Loyalty to the institution and the queen was all that matters.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Believe it or not The Firm tried to preempt the bad press they would get with the Oprah interview it was leaked to the tabloids that an investigation was being instigated into Meghan’s bullying of staff. 

The only way any credibility can be restored is if Head of The Firm orders an independent investigation into their grandson and his wife’s allegations. Don’t hold your breath. These matters are settled “in private”.

Whatever happens while Elizabeth II is around the monarchy will survive. How much longer  after that is anyone’s guess. The fact that they need an unholy alliance with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his tabloids cannot be a healthy sign. By definition, by the way The Firm functions, they cannot represent the mores of modern society. 

This will all die down because Meghan is no longer around to be the British Commonwealth’s Princess. She is doing what The Firm suggested -  supporting herself. The Firm should be satisfied the Monarchy can continue as per usual. 

TRUMP AND THE GOP - MARCH 2021

 

The three day Conservative Political Action Committee, (CPAC), was scheduled to be a celebration and blind worship of Trump and his political “philosophy” of populist totalitarianism. The latter includes near absolute dictatorship and an alternate reality to the world. Trump, in what one would have prayed would be his farewell address, did not surprise in the content which was self congratulatory, full of self pity, denial of responsibility, revenge, vitriolic attacks on his successor, very short on policy and very long on lying. However, once there was a secret ballot only fifty - five percent voted for him to be the Republican presidential nominee for 2024 while only sixty - eight percent wanted him to run at all. (Presumably fifteen percent of those wanted him to lose the nomination). On the other hand ninety - five percent were happy with his policies! So what does all this mean in March of 2021?

SIDELINED TRUMP STILL CONTROLS BUT IN SECRET BALLOTS NOT SO MUCH

The crowd that pitch up to CPAC are the extreme of the extreme and by and large are the movers and shakers of what is left of the movers and shakers of the GOP. That this crowd are not that happy with Trump when the ballot is secret could not have filled “The Leader’s” narcissistic heart with joy. In addition to his tepid support at CPAC, the secret House ballot vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Elizabeth Cheney who advocated his impeachment and the fact that after McConnell had called on the Criminal Justice to investigate his incitement no one in the Senate tried to replace him has to signify that below the surface he is not too loved. Cheney and McConnell are on the list that he is seeking to revenge  Not to mentions all those names he spat out with venom that need to be purged from the party for not blindly following him.

Trump has to be finding it difficult without every word of his being headline news. Verbally undressed having been banned from Twitter, with no WhiteHouse press pool surrounding him reporting every syllable, he is very much off the radar. Even his major CPAC rant was the third or fourth story in the majority of the news outlets visual and digital. Only Fox hung in and they have lost their top rating to MSNBC. They are being out righted by Mickey Mouse news organizations. 

However there is a disconnect because on the ground, even though generalized support is flagging, (see Georgia), it is where Trump really exerts his influence. To be more specific the local Republican State Committees and their legislators are the arenas where Trump’s biggest backing lies as well as the base that vote in the Primaries. So it is at the State level in the Primaries where Trump’s strength lies. Translated into political reality he has the potential of putting up a Primary challenger to anyone who doesn’t worship at the shrine and getting his sycophants the Republican nominations for local offices as well as for national elections. The fact that his national nominees chances are far less against Democrats doesn’t bother him but puts the fear of God into the McConnells and the McCarthys of this world.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG WITH THE REPUBLICAN BELIEF THAT THEY CAN CARRY ON AS USUAL WITH OR WITHOUT TRUMP

Lots could go wrong. 

Premise one: The Republican legislators believe that they can publicly back Trump while secretly hoping that in the intervening few years with all his problems he will become history. They have to be pretty confident that Trump will not even stand because of his legal jeopardy They therefore can presumably carry on as normal, even publicly embracing Trump and populist Trumpism. They are wrong as they don’t understand populism.This type of totalitarianism has to have a charismatic leader who needs time to establish him or herself. Trump will not put himself out of the race till the bitter end leaving very little time for someone who hasn’t the name recognition and known entertainment value to draw massive crowds. The  best bet is Don J. Jnr. but he is in almost as much legal trouble as his daddy, But the Republican legislators might find themselves backing a philosophy that without a leader isn’t politically viable.

Premise two: Trump’s legal woes - from rape to defrauding on his taxes some believe will make his base lose faith in him. No, it won’t. It is just the same old same old in spades. It is a witch hunt he will scream. He will attack and abuse the courts as he has done even with the Supreme Court that he chose. Even the Georgia criminal litigation where he is being investigated for his efforts to change the voters’ choice will not offend the “Stop the Steal” crowd cause that was what he was supposedly doing in Georgia.

Where he is extremely vulnerable is in the investigations and prosecutions relating to the Capitol insurrection. These were carried out by his militia and right wing base, all of whom are pleading in mitigation, “Trump sent us”. They have to be feel betrayed that he has thrown them under the bus by advocating for their prosecution when pleading innocence of his own involvement of the storm on the Capitol. Q,Anon are losing faith because he isn’t still President and didn’t arrest Biden. Even March 4 has passed by and he hasn’t re installed himself. 

Trump called the insurgents “special” and that he “loved” them when he addressed them at the Capitol. He then insulted them by saying it wasn’t really his boys that were on the job but the left wing group ANTIFA disguised as his team which was also the story punted by his most ardent Republican Legislator supporters. His mob reacted angrily to this suggestion as if they were being abandoned again. All this in the light of the background which is incontrovertible that he made arrangements for this protest, egged his thugs on for months ahead to be there on January 6 and even promised to march with them to the Capitol, which of course he didn’t. That large chunk of his coalition are not going to vote for Trump or his anointed one.

The real problem is that the full story is still to come out of his role in this matter. Even in the early hours it doesn’t look good. In the initial Senate hearings for whatever reasons the request for the National Guard to come to the rescue was held up for close on four hours. The chain of command for this delay already extends right up to his Acting Secretary of Defense. The General in command of the National Guard said he received a letter the previous day instructing to await consent. Then in typical subordinate understatement he found this “unusual”. He had the Guardsmen already to go in buses hanging around for hours. There is also evidence of a communication just prior to the insurrection between Roger Stone, his life long aide who he had just pardoned, and a leader of the right wing militia, The Proud Boys.

The problem isn’t only for Trump it is for the Republican legislators as well in that they really colluded with the invaders by carrying on after the insurrection voting to obstruct the ratification of the Biden victory. The fact that there is video of some of the invaders being given tours of the Capitol giving them the lay of the land in the two days prior to January 6 is in the hands of the District Attorney of Washington DC. Congresswoman Lofgren has catalogued in nearly two thousand pages the social media postings of her one hundred and thirty - nine Republican colleagues who voted against ratifying Biden’s Electoral College win with a view to assessing the role they played in inciting violence against the Capitol. Representatives Gosar and Brooks made the most incendiary communications the former claiming  that sedition and treason were justified in reversing the stolen election.

Two persuasive civil cases  have been filed against Trump, Trump Jnr., Rudi Giuliani and Congressman Brooks by Congressmen Thompson and Swalwell for breaking Federal Laws in that they incited a riot, colluded with the insurrectionists and obstructed elected officers from fulfilling their constitutional duties. Close on three hundred insurrectionists have been arrested and they are all singing like birds, Besides naming Trump as their reason for being there, there is evidence of preplanning. There is going to be a ton of damning material arising from this lot. 

There are going to be years of this peeling away of this treasonous act and every step of the way is going to be dynamite. The Democrats control Congress and they are going to get all the assistance they ask from the Biden WhiteHouse such as documents and the like, The newly appointed Attorney General has indicated that getting to the bottom of this seditious act will be his top priority.

The suburban and urban Republican voters will be even further disgusted. On a macro level the fact that there is proven actual collusion between Trump and or his surrogates with the insurrectionists will make it impossible for the GOP traditionalists to be in the same party as him. The Party will have to split.

Premise three: McConnell believes by being the party of No regardless of how popular Biden’s initiatives will create the impression that Biden has failed in his bipartisan initiative.This approach is coupled with the fact that the WhiteHouse occupant’s party invariably loses seats in the midterms and so McConnell will regain control of the Senate. Jay H. Ell is sure with Biden passing his Covid Relief Bill and possibly his Infrastructure Bill together with virtually eradicating Covid by summer, sheer obstructionism can hardly be a winning strategy. The fact that over seventy percent polled are in favor of the Covid legislation including sixty percent of Republicans makes this move asinine. In front of the world McConnell and company are using delaying tactics while food lines are getting longer and unemployment benefits are due to run out on March 14. This may have worked with Obamacare because the smear was that you are going to lose your doctor and health care costs were going to up. Over half the electorate bought into the lies. 

Premise four: Voter Suppression. There are currently over two hundred and fifty legislative initiatives by Republican State Legislatures to restrict voting in a manner that will cut the African American vote, particularly in purple states such as Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia. This is one strategy that the two constituencies within the Republican Parties agree upon. This is a disgraceful anti democratic maneuver that has been used since the Reconstruction Period in the nineteenth century by the Southern States. In the mid to late sixties it was reversed by the Civil Rights legislation but it has been slowly whittled away by Conservative Supreme Courts. The Robert’s court even without the Trump appointees was gung ho to acquiesce to its castration and is about to strip away the last vestiges in a case before it at the moment.

 The proposed legislation on the books by the States limits Sunday voting, makes mail in voting and even voter registration more difficult, decreases polling places and giving food and water to voters standing in the sun for hours, to name but a few of the stumbling blocks that will impact minority voters the most. This is the Republicans best bet by far. That with gerrymandering the constituencies has stood them in good stead for many years. This will perpetuate minority government for the foreseeable future. 

The Democrats have passed HR 1 in the House which is a new Federal Voters’ Right Bill, which like the Acts in the 1960’s would override the States’ efforts. The fact that most of the Republican electorate support HR 1 will not impact the Republican Senators. This Bill will need ten Republicans to vote for it in the Senate which is not going to happen. Biden might just have to use the nuclear option getting the Democratic slim majority to abandon the filibuster. Biden a traditionalist will find it hard to advise that and then have to persuade two Democratic Party holdouts to go with it. But that remains an option which as the Republicans become more and more intransigent may become more and more inevitable.

An additional danger to the Republicans is that in several states this type of move has mobilized African Americans in greater numbers to go to the polls and wait for hours in line.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The Republicans split as they are, are united on two issues - oppose every Democratic initiative and minority Government by voter suppression. They are haunted by what is going to arise out of the investigation of Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Government. If the multiple investigations turn out the way they are going there is no way that McConnell et al can pretend that “nothing has changed”. They also are risking losing more “worker” votes to Biden by opposing his financial relief packages. The survival to the GOP at the moment depends on what impact they can make with voter suppression and gerrymandering of districts. As the law stands at the moment the Democrats will get no help in overturning the States’ efforts on the grounds that the actions are unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

The Republicans with the party split into those who want to abandon democracy and those who have no party policy, having ceded it all to Trump at the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination convention, are on the verge of imploding.  If HR 1 passes the Senate because the filibuster is forsaken, they will be out of power for the next decade. In fact two parties may well rise up from the ashes.