Trump the Destroyer
OPINION: Trump has exploited the morphing of the Tea Party into the House Freedom Caucus & the MAGA cult. And he keeps vanquishing his political opponents as he perverts & destroys the GOP.
(Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times)
Trump is a builder. And Trump is a destroyer. And he’s good at both. He has built a political cult and destroyed a political party.
Trump started his political career by vanquishing the heads of two political dynasties - Bush & Clinton. He eviscerated Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential debates and cunningly beat Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College to gain the White House.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
(Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
Trump is clearly good at eviscerating his perceived enemies. Let’s not forget the roster of distinguished candidates whom Trump defeated in the 2016 Republican presidential nomination race. It’s quite an impressive lot.
He beat five senators - Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham & Rand Paul.
He beat nine governors - Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, George Pataki, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Rick Perry Jim Gilmore and the aforementioned Jeb Bush.
He beat two business leaders - Ben Carson & Carly Fiorina.
Trump’s standing in the political polls won him the center stage position in the Republican presidential debates in 2016, an honor and advantage he never had to relinquish. He garnered virtually all of the media attention. He knows how to do that. He stood tall. He stood defiant. He stood victorious.
(Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)
Now, seven years later, Trump has all but taken over the Republican party and brought it to its extremes. He didn’t start the GOP’s move to the far Right. He exploited it. The electorally-successful Tea Party movement in 2010 began the slide into extremism. It brought radical Republicans to the forefront. It brought extremists to Congress.
(Cheryl Casey / Shutterstock.com)
Those elected members of the House of Representatives formed the Tea Party Caucus. It had radical members like Mo Brooks, Debbie Lesko, Martha McSally, Jeff Flake, Ken Buck, Matt Gaetz, Ander Crenshaw, Steve Scalise, Steve King, Michele Bachmann, Mick Mulvaney, Joe Wilson, Louie Gohmert and Pete Sessions. It dissolved in 2015. But it laid the groundwork for the next iteration of Republican extremism.
(Oliver Contreras/New York Times/Redux/Eyevine)
In 2015 came the House Freedom Caucus and Congress took a turn for the worse.
Wikipedia states the ideologies of the House Freedom Caucus as American nationalism, Right-wing populism, fiscal and social conservatism & Trumpism. And, of course, nationalism, populism and Trumpism have become the seeds for MAGA (“Make America Great Again” - a misnomer if there ever was one).
This far-Right caucus currently has a stranglehold on Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, threatening his ouster if he doesn’t kowtow to their legislative and political demands. Today the caucus holds 45 seats in the current House.
(Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy/Tom Willisams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
The former Republican party is in the corrupt grips of the former 45th president of the United States and has metastazied & morphed into the MAGA Party. (Or as Joe Biden has coined, “Ultra-MAGA.”)
Two former members of the House Freedom Caucus became Chiefs of Staff in the Trump White House - founding members Mick Mulvaney & Mark Meadows.
(Mick Mulvaney)
(Mark Meadows)
Right now, the vice chair of the caucus is Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. He is also chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. In those powerful positions he is conducting aggressive but unsubstantiated investigations into President Joe Biden, his family and administration, for purely cynical political purposes. Ironically, ‘weaponizing’ his chairmanships.
During the Trump administration Jordan said that the Freedom Caucus shifted focus from passing legislation to defending President Trump. Today, they are ‘all in’ on advancing Trumpism & MAGA.
(Rep. Jim Jordan)
In fact, there is now an informal faction in the Freedom Caucus called the “MAGA Squad.” Its members include Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Andy Biggs, Madison Cawthorn, Scott Perry & Lauren Boebert. They too are ‘all in’ on Trumpism, America First & MAGA. And they have their sights set on Speaker McCarthy to get done what they want to get done. Which is mostly impeach President Joe Biden and reverse all of his bipartisan legislation.
(Rep. Lauren Beobert (R-CO), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
The MAGA Republicans are adept at phony investigations, false insinuations & opportunistic loyalty to Donald Trump. Like Trump, they are building coalitions with the intention of destroying the Republican party and forming an America First MAGA movement.
Their goal is to take over the American government, lock, stock & barrel with a second Trump presidency becoming more powerful and autocratic. They might succeed. They endorse the Unitary Executive Theory being advanced and developed by far-Right think tanks and the Trump campaign.
UNITARY EXECUTIVE THEORY - Annenberg Classroom
This theory holds that Congress cannot limit the president’s control of the executive branch because the Constitution sets up a hierarchical system whereby the president has the most power. Supporters argue that Congress can’t set up independent executive agencies and counsels that aren’t controlled by the president.
The so-called moderate, centrist, ‘regular’ Republicans are being forced out of office and out of power. No longer walking the halls of Congress and contributing to debate & deliberation are Trump critics Liz Cheney, William Hurd, Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake & Adam Kinzinger.
Today, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted twice to convict President Donald Trump of high crimes & misdemeanors has announced his retirement at the end of his current term.
And this time around, the twice-impeached and quadruple-indicted former president is once again thrashing his political opposition in the Republican party. He has an ungodly lead in the 2024 Republican presidential candidate race over some pretty experienced members of the crippled Republican party and some others who are trying their best to be a Trump substitute.
But, ‘Never Trump’ doesn’t appear to be a winning argument in Republican circles. The ‘Trump Lite’ candidates don’t seem to be getting any traction. And calling Trump out as a liar, an insurrectionist, a con man or a Constitutional criminal falls on deaf (if not dumb) ears in the MAGA crowd.
(The Washington Post)
So, look who Trump is beating. Another worthy lot? A former vice president (Mike Pence). A former governor and ambassador to the United Nations (Nikki Haley). Two sitting governors (Ron DeSantis & Doug Burgum). Two more former governors (Asa Hutchinson & Chris Christie). A sitting senator (Tim Scott) & a former congressman (Will Hurd). Three business leaders (Vivek Ramaswamy, Ryan Binkley & Perry Johnson). And a talk show host (Larry Elder). Trump is beating them all. By a lot. In spite of 91 criminal charges against him. In spite.
(Christopher Lee for The New York Times)
Here’s the sad truth. MAGA is huge. MAGA is strong. MAGA is deluded.
They don’t know that Trump is a con man, a grifter, a fraud, a cheater, a liar. Because, he is also a charismatic leader, one in whom his supporters don’t need to look for solutions, because HE IS the solution. He is their answer. He is their savior. He is their retribution. They believe him. They believe in him. They trust him. They revere him. He is their leader. He is their truth.
The point of this opinion piece is that unless and until so-called ‘real’ Republicans stand up and stand out and speak up and speak out, their party is dead, if it isn’t already.
Now, I have never agreed with the policies and the programs of the Republican party. In my mind they are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the rich and powerful. But, they stood for some ideals that were at least worth considering and debating - efficiency, accountability, responsibility, security, dignity.
MAGA reflects none of those ideals. It is a frightening march to bigotry, fear, hatred, discrimination, demonization, prejudice, oligarchy, autocracy, idiocy & willful ignorance. It is a disease. And Donald J. Trump is its infectious carrier.