The transformation of the Republican Party into an anti-government populist movement has been a bottom-up phenomenon: conservative voters, radicalized by right-wing talk radio, Fox News, social media, and opportunistic demagogues, rose to seize power from the Tea Party . Then the greatest demagogue of them all, Donald Trump, channeled those voters into making the party their own.
That fusion of man and movement has been Trump's superpower for almost a decade. Party leaders, fearful of his influence on voters, became spineless, bowed to his orders and let Trump indulge his worst impulses unchecked by him.
The “boneless wonders” of the party made Trump’s election possible in 2016. They resurrected him after his post-January victory. 6 decrease. And now, it seems, his revival to aid his 2024 return is almost complete.
opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical look to the national political scene. He has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
I was reminded of the invective “boneless marvel”: Winston Churchill's description of a British prime minister from an opposition party a century ago: Based on the childhood memory of a circus monster. – for recent news about the two Senate Republican leaders, who have been among the few parties holding out on endorsing Trump for re-election.
The Republican leader, South Dakota Senator John Thune, transferred on Saturday, after Trump won his fourth consecutive nomination contest, in South Carolina. Then the New York Times reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who announced Wednesday that he will step down as leader this year, could be about to endorse it as well. McConnell reportedly has not spoken to Trump since 2020.
That's depressing. Certainly neither McConnell nor Thune have shown a profile of courage regarding Trump. In February 2021, McConnell engineered the former president's acquittal in the Senate following his impeachment trial in the House for inciting the January 6 insurrection. Both men have mostly tried to ignore Trump. But at least they haven't echoed and excused his lies, like former detractors turned Senate sycophants Lindsey did. Graham from South Carolina, JD from Ohio advanceTed from Texas CrossFlorida Frame blond and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Why not remain silent? No one should be fooled that McConnell or Thune think Trump is fit to be president.
Indecent Republican wonders pack the Senate, the House, and state capitols across the country, deaf to Trump's divisions, silent about their indecency, and with no principles to support. We will never know what would have happened if a phalanx of Liz Cheneys, Adam Kinzingers, and Mitt Romneys had formed to counter Trumpism.
I would celebrate Nikki Haley for her. decision to remain in a losing race against Trump and for his belated truth about why he is unfit, except that I am sure he will eventually support him.
I'm not the only one who channels Churchill when considering the cowardly politicians of the Trump era. Early on in the 2016 Republican nomination race, conservative columnist George Will noted that Trump's rivals, “misguided by their fear and envy of him, are making the Republican Party look like the party of the useless wonders.” And this week, conservative pundit and never-Trumper Bill Kristol similarly evoked Churchill's pejorative comment in one piece for the Bulwark website lamenting the surrender of Thune. “The capitulation of the decent is particularly demoralizing,” Kristol wrote.
I share Kristol's disappointment that the likeable and pragmatic Thune, who hopes to succeed McConnell as Senate Republican leader, endorsed Trump; Thune's two rivals for the leadership had already done so. As for McConnell, I'm disgusted that he's even thinking about it, especially now.
McConnell has called himself one of Ukraine's biggest supporters since Russia invaded two years ago, and Trump, the de facto speaker of the MAGAfied House, is right now Block congressional approval of more aid to the desperate Ukrainians. One would think McConnell might be considering condemning Trump, without considering endorsing Vladimir Putin's admirer.
And let's go back three years to February 13, 2021. After securing Trump's acquittal in the Senate that day for his role in the storming of the Capitol, McConnell delivered a speech This remains one of the most damning anti-Trump accusations ever made by a Republican not named Cheney. Trump’s actions, McConnell said, “were shameful, shameful! -dereliction of duty. “Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the violence. “He seemed determined to overturn the voters' decision or burn down our institutions on his way out.”
Would McConnell want that man back in power? In his speech, he characterized the January 6 protesters as terrorists. He would now help re-elect Trump, who calls them “hostages” and promises to forgive them.
McConnell denounced Trump's “crescendo” of conspiracies, his “rumbling” about a stolen election to galvanize his supporters. Has McConnell observed a MAGA rally lately? Trump continues to shout about that Big Lie and warn his faithful that the Democrats – “thugs, tyrants and fascists, scoundrels and rogues” – will steal the next election. unless they stop them. Does McConnell believe political violence is a thing of the past?
At the end of that Senate speech, McConnell assured Americans that the former president “was still responsible for everything he did while in office” in our civil and criminal justice systems. “He is not immune,” the senator said. Now Trump has gone all the way to the Supreme Court to argue otherwise.
The judges are not expected to side with him, but Trump has another plan to avoid responsibility: get re-elected and make his cases disappear. Which is exactly what endorsements from people like Thune and McConnell will help happen.
For a political operator like McConnell to endorse Trump wouldn't be a big surprise. Still, you'd think a legacy-minded octogenarian wouldn't want to seal his reputation as a boneless wonder.
