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BREAKING! The Republican Party [1]

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Date: 2023-10-23  

With the world seemingly on fire and half of one body of Congress self-immolating right before our eyes, the literal trials of a former American President are acting as the backdrop. Recently, the world was graced with the return of world champion gymnast Simone Biles, bringing to mind the chaos in the GOP. Her departure resulted from a phenomenon familiar to her avocation and profession, ‘the twisties.’ A layman’s explanation is that when performing a maneuver, you become disoriented in the air, cannot find the ground for landing, and become overwhelmed by death-defying leaps. Ms. Biles was broken for a while but [literally] righted herself and triumphantly returned to do what she loves.

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Similarly, the Republican party suffers from the twisties but cannot find equilibrium. Tied to a president accused of more crimes than Al Capone and a party base that acts more like a cult than a constituency, their public displays of dysfunction are embarrassing to America. Couple that with two guilty pleas by former Trump attorneys and advisers, the GOP is vaulting into oblivion. Just before Kenneth Chesebro confessed to his criminality, Sidney Powell, the most vocal Trump attorney supporting the Big Lie that the election was rigged, flipped. Powell performed her own ‘Yuchenko’ maneuver, now named after Biles, in a Fulton County, Georgia, courtroom last week, performing a double pike flip on her previous position. The real trick is that, apparently, Powell did it while holding a cup of coffee. Donald Trump is now denying any knowledge of her working as his attorney even after the numerous times she was introduced as such and even after he contemplated naming her special counsel investigating election fraud.

Mr. Trump’s reaction to Ms. Powell is similar to his one-time policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia probe. Once his involvement in the then-Trump campaign became politically inconvenient, Papadopoulos was dismissed as a ‘volunteer’ or ‘coffee boy.’ Although his ostensible consorting illegally with Powell was obvious, the GOP base will ignore his connection as they did with Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, or any of the other convicted members of Trump’s inner and outer circle. Like in The Godfather, Mr. Trump creates a lot of buffers and then denies them once they have outlived their usefulness.

So, not only is the front runner for the GOP nomination for President of the United States spending his days in court under a gag order for threatening court clerks, judges, and special counsels, Congress is at an impasse. Republicans, who comprise just over half its members—giving them the majority—cannot do something as simple as find a leader. After a week-long debacle, the GOP revealed this morning that as many as nine of its caucus are vying for the Speaker of the House job.

There is a significant gain from their tedious self-destruction for Democrats to be had and the public, writ large. The fight between the pragmatists and the MAGA(s) could change the political inaction and violence that the GOP faithful thought it could control and is now a feature of the party. They were warned about leaving the elephant cage open with the rise of the TEA Party but chose to ignore the warnings and elected weak leaders to corral the herd. The zeal for power dispatched the traditionalists and pragmatists to smaller circus tents to be eventually trampled in the stampede for power. I am rooting for the traditionalists; it may be the only way to restore normalcy and stop the headlong race into fascism.

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