While Republican lawmakers are publicly rallying around former President Donald Trump, in private many of them are reportedly hoping he goes down in defeat to Vice President Kamala Harris this fall.Politico's Jonathan Martin reports that "the most fervent private debate" among Republicans right now ...
Just imagine how easy their life would be if that assassin had succeeded. They would have a martyr that would rally their supporters and the undecideds behind them, and they wouldn't have to deal with Trumps outsized ego anymore. I'm so glad that guy did not succeed, that would've been the best case scenario for the GOP.
GOP is going to have an evergreen issue post Trump that is directly related to their dependence on conspiratorial thinking for base maintenance. Because they rely on it so heavily for their own propaganda, there will be a significant cohort of their base for whom "Elvis never died".
And even with out that, the one truly pure signal we have from about 10 years of Trump engaging in electoralism, is that there is no other Trump. His weird ability to upset polls does not translate to other candidates in a meaningful way, because he's never been building a movement that can be handed off; he's only ever been building himself up. When he is gone, all of that goes with him.
Republicans will be in a multi-decade long rebuilding phase post Trump.
I'd be on board with the GOP collapsing in on itself, the democrats shifting further to the right, and a new far-left party popping up to contest them. Basically a reset of the Overton window. I'm here for it.
I mean.. I think the "Elvis never died" crowd might feel differently if Elvis was shot in the head during a televised moment in front of hundreds/thousands of eye witnesses. Harder to argue with missing skull & brain matter than an unceremonious "off-screen" death. Feels like they would have been able to actually whip up a frenzy with the martyr angle, especially if shooter was convenient for demonizing demographics.
That would have been the craziest footage of all time had it hit the mark. Wild how quick that story faded into the background.
You underestimate the absolute idiocy of Trump conspiratorialists. If the man had his head blown off on live television, they would either claim that it was a body double, and he's hiding underground to avoid another assassination attempt by "the Hollywood elite"... or that he faked his own death so he could go undercover and bust Harris' pedophilia ring.
I wish I were exaggerating. The Q-ultists are unfathomably brainwashed.
I guess what I really mean is that I expect Trumpers to be writing his name in for decades to come. When he's not on the ballot. When he's dead and buried. When he's actively telling people to not vote for him.