Three of the five priorities listed are not policy priorities, they're basic functions of the federal government. https://t.co/77F9JXMUpE pic.twitter.com/B48MHkVxGv
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 1, 2017
This is like me saying that my personal priorities are eating, writing another book, sleeping, teaching, and breathing. https://t.co/ONfMWa7Prt
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 1, 2017
Alexandra Petri, in the Washington Post — “After the president’s tweet, I must withdraw my support for everything but his agenda“:
… The president has at last done the unthinkable: He has insulted a morning television personality in crude and ghastly terms and I must — in consequence of this hideous and vile breach of the dignity of the office — withdraw none of my support from his legislative agenda. (If you can call it a legislative agenda and not a ragtag collection of bad ideas quickly stapled together with a dead pigeon in the middle.)
His remark about Mika Brzezinski is absolutely shameful and I do not stand with him, except insofar as it is necessary to stand with him so that we can make sure infants get access to pesticides, as the Founders would have wished.
I am shocked and appalled by his behavior. And I am not afraid to say so. At a fundraiser. For him. Before asking for more donations.
Everything else the president has done is fine — the continued attacks on the media’s legitimacy, the carelessness toward history and diplomacy, the harmful rhetoric about Muslims, the — well, it is all fine. This is too much, though, and I am putting my foot down, here, on my way to vote against icebergs…
I am glad that at long last we legislators are standing up to President Trump by going to Twitter and typing stern words into a little box… Some have even gone so far as to stand up in front of reporters and offer the ringing denunciation that, “Obviously, I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan did. Fiery rhetoric, and appropriately so!
By God, this is not what George Washington would have wanted, and I am thus withdrawing my support for everything but the legislation Trump would like us to pass. His words are a shame, but it is too important that we end health insurance for indigent seniors in Ohio….
(I privately imagine Tom Cotton reading about the ‘dead pigeon stapled in the middle’ and thinking, Huh, so that’s where my lunch ended up.)
Is there nothing the Combover Caligula can do that would cause the Repubs to break with him?…
This is the idea that would convince Paul Ryan to impeach Trump https://t.co/pDJKmmDMGt
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 2, 2017
Villago Delenda Est
The GOP must go the way of the NSDAP and the CPSU.
Oblivion.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yes, there is one thing that, sooner or later, will lead Republicans to turn on him. He could behead a baby and rape a nun in the Rose Garden and they’d stick with him. But when his numbers get down below 30%, that will spook them, and they’ll begin naming all the awful, awful things he’s done and said (that were never enough before) that have led them to the sorrowful conclusion that it’s time to cash their chips in.
Mike in NC
Just read where Trump and his henchmen are discussing eliminating federal funds that have for years assisted mostly poor and elderly afford to heat their homes during the winter. Scrooge himself would’ve cringed at their complete lack of empathy for non-billionaires.
Bruce K
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Yeah, that’s my feeling too – the GOP will turn on the cheeto as soon as they perceive him to be a net liability to their power, and not one moment before. The fact that they didn’t reach that point months ago – hell, back at GOP convention time last year – is enough to condemn them for eternity, but they sold their collective souls years ago when they embraced the Southern Strategy, so I have no sympathy for them.
Jeffro
@Villago Delenda Est: Seconded. Ash heap of history and all that.
Drezner’s pretty spot-on: the GOP is feeling the fierce urgency of…what, exactly? Obamacare just needs a little tweaking, the debt ceiling just needs to be raised like usual, and the budget can pretty much hold where it’s at (unless the tax code’s going to be made even more progressive, as it should be). They’re in a panic and a rush because almost no one agrees with their sick agenda.
Bruce K
@Jeffro: Thirded. I’d say “damnatio memoriae” to the lot of them, but then I remember Santayana’s warning about those who forget history (which is probably a good partial explanation for how the US is in this mess).
I suspect the problem for the GOP is that they’ve got paymasters who are uncoupled from reality, or are the sort that think that reality can be bent to their will. It’s almost as though they’re more afraid of their paymasters turning on them than of their constituents turning on them.
Lurking Canadian
@Mike in NC: If they would rather freeze, then let them freeze and decrease the surplus population.
sdhays
@Bruce K: I disagree. The only thing that could trigger a revolt would be the “President” having a stroke and then deciding to veto Trumpcare and trying to raise taxes on the wealthy. They’d shut him down real quick after that. Otherwise, I don’t think they’ll turn on him even if they lose both houses of Congress in 2018 (something which seems virtually impossible given the Senate seats currently in play) and his national support is 15%.
The thing to remember is that Trump doesn’t really have an agenda – the Republican Congress does and Trump is along for the ride. He’s too stupid and too low energy to actually lead. As long as he’s going to sign that agenda and appoint their judges, they don’t care what he does or how unpopular he is.
Jeffro
@Bruce K:
Oh, so you’ve met the Kochs and Mercers already…lovely folks, aren’t they?
These guys can throw so much money around that they not only buy votes, they can actually buy the politician out, as in, “if you lose your seat due to your vote for the BCRA or AHCA (or whatever the hell they’re calling it) we’ll just set you up with a cushy ‘lobbying’ job for life”. I have no doubt whatsoever that’s what they’ve promised Toomey, Portman, etc.
Brachiator
@Bruce K:
The Republican leadership are caught in a bind. Trump’s supporters may love him, but they don’t particularly care about Republicans (or Democrats) in Congress. If they dump the Trump, they are going to have to work hard to blame someone else for what they might do. Thing is, the GOP base is just dumb enough to fall for another big lie.
Tom
@sdhays: I have a scenario for the Democrats retaking the Senate which I don’t think is all that far fetched. 1) Win Nevada (quite doable). 2) Win Arizona (less doable but not out of the bounds of possibility, especially if the Arizona Republicans successfully primary Jeff Flake and replace him with Joe Arpaio). 3) Susan Collins retires from the Senate to run for the governorship of Maine (and please let her lose that!) and Paul Le Page is the Republican nominee for the Senate seat. 4) None of the Democrats lose (and given the Republicans will have had another year and a half to reveal their utter despicability, not out of the question).
sherparick
@Mike in NC: Well, as OMB Director Mulvaney would say, “that is why God created ice flows!”
sherparick
@sdhays: I disagree, because Trump does have an agenda 1) Get Even with everyone he has grudge with for the last 70 years and counting; 2) Bash Muslims and “Mexicans” (e.g. all Hispanics); 3) bash the environment; 4) get even with all the “foreigners” who have gotten over on America the last 60 years (e.g. the whole period that will be know in the future as the Pax Americana”); 5) put the Black people back in their place in the back of the bus; and related to (5); 6) try to obliterate all traces of the eight years that a Black man was President of United States and restore White Supremacy (which is what MAGA means as a very loud dog whistle). Through DHS and EPA, he is vigorously prosecuting this agenda and the majority of the Republican voters, 40 million love him for it. He made them promises and he is keeping them in this regard to be as mean and vicious they are. These are the people who elect as representatives people who believe that Earth and the Universe was created 6,000 years, and when you ridicule them for their insanity, claim you are “suppressing their Freedom of Religion.” The other 23 million voted for him because of tax cuts and he was not the Democrat who would take their money and give it to “those People.”
Elie
@Bruce K:
The dilemma I see is that while Trump is past horrible, the Congress is truly the creeps who are enacting the horrible health care and budget changes! What process do we use to dump ALL of them! These are ALL of them, mean, horrendous people!
Frank Wilhoit
They just might actually raise the top rate, if that could be combined with other, more obscure changes (cough passthrough cough) that would either counteract its effect or vitiate enforcement.
jl
Bannon’s supposed idea for good move on taxes is interesting except:
The WH bald face lies all the time, and should be clear this is a standard part of their routine communications policy,
McConnell and Ryan will kill any move, with overwhelming support of their reactionary geezer millionaire Congresscritters and donors, Or thy will invert the policy for more regressive tax cuts, and Trump will declare victory and sign it while lying about what the bill does.
Bannon and Trump are insane and so ignorant they’ll screw it up even if it actually moved forward to Congress.
So, kind of like cold fusion, check in to see a news blurb once in a while but don’t expect anything to happen, at all.
No Drought No More
“Is there nothing the Combover Caligula can do that would cause the Repubs to break with him”?
The rubber will hit the road after the Mueller report is submitted. Republicans that stand by Trump at that point- and there will be more than a few- will render their names and worthless asses infamous in U.S. history. And all for nothing, too, because the SOB will still be driven from power by Constitutional process… Unless and until each and every congressional republican proves an unrepentant traitor to the country, and are prepared to betray their sworn oaths of office in defense of the indefensible, Trump will be irredeemably finished on the day the Mueller report is released.
And if congressional republicans do prove disloyal? Beats me, but that’s a good question, isn’t it?
DaddyJ
A Going Postal reference? Moist Von Lipwig — a nation turns its lonely eyes to you!
Anne Laurie
@DaddyJ: Ya gotta admit, Bobblethroat Tom looks a LOT like a Discworld gargoyle…