Looking back, it’s clear that one of the more fateful moments in the evolution of today’s Republican Party came when Kevin McCarthy made his abject pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago three weeks after January 6, 2021. This was, in essence, Donald Trump’s public absolution, with then-GOP leader McCarthy affirming that the Republican Party would make the construction of a monumental historical lie about the insurrection central to its identity for the foreseeable future.*
The infernal plan was to recast what was the largest outbreak of stateside political violence in memory as a just cause—while transforming the insurrectionists into victims and martyrs. By doing so, McCarthy would keep Trump and his movement safely in the Republican Party fold, ensuring the GOP electoral victories that could not be conceived of without their participation.All of which set the stage for Mike Johnson’s groveling meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. Billed as an event about “election integrity,” their press conference confirmed that the GOP remains as committed as ever to their disturbing post-insurrection path.
It was a deeply weird affair. With Trump hovering watchfully over Johnson, the House Speaker said that in campaigning, he’s discovered that people across the country just happen to be thoroughly obsessed with precisely the same thing that preoccupies Trump. “Everywhere we go, one of the first questions that people ask about is this issue of election integrity,” Johnson said.
Johnson and Trump also announced that the House will pursue a new bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Johnson even rattled off a convoluted theory in which non-citizens are threatening our elections by the “design” of President Biden—a soft version of the “great replacement theory” that has become mainstreamed at the highest levels of Republican and MAGA establishment power.
Trump's authoritarianism and moral rot have taken full control of the Republican Party. Corruption, lies and crackpot anti-democracy conspiracies are the norm. Elections will be subverted into shams if Trump and his GOP get their way.
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The WaPo reports about rock solid rank and file loyalty to DJT:
Jerry Dean McLain first bet on former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social two years ago, buying into the Trump company’s planned merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, at $90 a share. Over time, as the price changed, he kept buying, amassing hundreds of shares for $25,000 — pretty much his “whole nest egg,” he said.
That nest egg has lost about half its value in the past two weeks as Trump Media & Technology Group’s share price dropped from $66 after its public debut last month to $32 on Friday. But McLain, 71, who owns a tree-removal service outside Oklahoma City, said he’s not worried. If anything, he wants to buy more.“I know good and well it’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans,” he said. “I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime.”
For shareholders like McLain, investing in Truth Social is less a business calculation than a statement of faith in the former president and the business traded under his initials, DJT.
Even the company’s plunging stock price — and the chance their investments could get mostly wiped out — doesn’t seem to have shaken that faith. The company has lost $3.5 billion in value since its public debut last month.
As a business, Trump Media has largely underwhelmed: The company lost $58 million last year on $4 million in revenue, less than the average Chick-fil-A franchise, even as it paid out millions in executive salaries, bonuses and stock.
And in two years, Truth Social has attracted a tiny fraction of the traffic other platforms see, according to estimates from the analytics firm Similarweb — one of the only ways to measure its performance, given that the company says it “does not currently, and may never, collect, monitor or report certain key operating metrics used by companies in similar industries.”
If this isn't personality cult reasoning and behavior, it has to be at least one heck of a tribe.
Note that Mr. McLain is 71 and has a nest egg of abought $25,000. His retirement is not going to be much fun, assuming he can retire at all. A lot of Americans, maybe ~50%, are in similar financial straits.
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What about Israel's brazen, vicious attack of Iran's consulate in Damascus? Right, we defend that. Is the US going to get sucked into another one of the endless supply of wars in the rage & hate-driven Middle east?
Hm, today is not a good news day. Sigh. It's a toxic news day. ☠️
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