Trump Eating GOP Alive

Surely there are dozens, probably hundreds of cartoons depicting Trump as he continues to single-handedly destroy the Republican party, but this one really spoke to me for its cleverness and simplicity.

These are outrageous times in which we live.  The vast majority of Republicans in Congress, and about 70% in the electorate itself, cling to the myth of the stolen election, or at least claim to.  Trump himself is almost as present in these people’s lives as he was when he was president, and he has near total control of his party in Washington.

Of course, it’s unclear what this means for the GOP, but it doesn’t bode well. What seems most likely:

• Biden’s approval rating, already in the neighborhood of 60%, will continue to rise, as the pandemic gets further under control and the economic picture improves accordingly, assisted by the infrastructure bill.

• Very few of the 30% of Republicans who don’t buy the rigged election narrative will support Trump going forward.

• The defamation lawsuits brought by the voting machine suppliers against the Trump campaign and the extreme right-wing news media continue to reveal that the narrative is completely bogus.

• The prosecution of the now-600 stormers of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th stays in the news, reminding the nation of how criminally insane these MAGA people are.

All this will get a huge shot in the arm if indictments are brought against Trump.  Some will maintain that such criminal charges are politically motivated, but many, when they review the evidence, will come to realize that they have been duped by a clever felon. Some of these folks will also realize that a great deal of the rest of this insanity, e.g., QAnon, is just that: insanity, and eventually the GOP will return to its traditional platform.

Yet that could take years, or even decades.

Fine by me.