It's Not About Trump

Photo by Gage Skidmore

It’s not about Trump. 

In colloquial and perhaps inappropriate political terms, the Republican party used Trump as a “useful idiot,” who didn’t understand the goals of the party, and who was cynically used by party elites to further their ends. Given the devastating revelations of the January 6 hearings, it’s not if, but when, the party elites turn on him, blaming him for all of the crimes he committed, and which they were complicit. I can see it now, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell among others, will poo-poo, and tut-tut, and in washing their hands of him, they will declare absolution, despite the fact they should all be run out of town. Fox News will eventually turn on Trump too, and it will be seamless--they will act like they were on the right side of history all along. That, or any stories about Trump and the insurrection will slowly fade from existence, to be replaced by stories of their favorite autocrat of the day, along with their standard fare of selective and misleading reporting, lies, exaggeration, countless red herrings, feigned indignity, stomping their feet, pounding their fists, and wailing into the wind. The Wall Street Journal is starting to turn against Trump, as is the National Review. 

Republican members of Congress should have trusted their first instincts in the week following January 6 and distanced themselves from Trump, but they were cowards, still in the grip of not only the monster they created and his unruly and unpredictable group of supporters who would follow him through the gates of hell, and who in the end, just might. In the weeks following January 6, it would have been easy for Congressional Republicans to invoke the 25th amendment, remove Trump from office and move on with President Pence. But given that Trump and the congressional Republicans empowered the worst among us, the racists, misogynists, along with the well intentioned but merely ignorant who went along for the ride, they were between a rock and a hard place of their own creation. They were also betting on Democrats being disorganized and ineffectual in their opposition, which has been proven largely true, until the January 6 hearings.

Despite calling themselves conservatives, there was little conservative about Trump’s administration. Pander to authoritarians, diminish NATO, demonize immigrants, the handicapped, veterans, and the list goes on and on. If there was a tradition, norm, regulation or law in his way? Break it. Trump ultimately convinced the Supreme Court they could too. Take rights away that women have held for 50 years? No problem. Separation of church and state? Ah, let’s make that go away. LQTBQ+ rights, interracial marriage, birth control, and the protection of the environment? They are next. If Trump isn’t going to be held accountable, why should they? Of course, Justice Clarence Thomas led the way with his impeachable conflicts of interest, and his wife Ginni’s alleged involvement in the insurrection, but hey, he’s still rocking and rolling on the court, targeting other rights.

The throughline is they want power and are willing break all of the rules to get it. 

While Trump deserves all of the punishments that will come his way and more, the equally guilty Republican leadership will use him as a scapegoat, when they turn. As needed, other scapegoats will be found--and a likely and despicable group will be sacrificed--those who asked for pardons for their activities related to the insurrection; Rep. Scott Perry, (R-Pa), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and of course, Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Trump isn’t the real problem--it’s deeper. If Trump didn’t exist, Republicans would have invented him. And look who is ready to step into the void once Trump is gone? Trump’s mini me, Ron DeSantis. There are dozens of other likely candidates, a vast smorgasbord of amoral, self-righteous, hateful clowns. Two words. Ted Cruz. Two more words. Tom Cotton. I could go on. Congressional Republicans need to be held accountable. Let’s start with the 147 who voted to overturn the election results.

While every year we all long for the great summer blockbuster movie, there is today no blockbuster movie bigger than the televised January 6 hearings, as dozens of former members of the Trump administratIon and campaign, bear witness to his lawbreaking, incompetence, and ineptitute as he sought to violently overturn an election. And into this void steps a brave young woman, Cassidy Hutchinson, former aid to Mark Meadows, Trump’s Chief of Staff. Like Katniss in the Hunger Games, she takes an arrow from her quiver, draws her bow, aims it at the monster Trump and his petty sycophants, and at the tip of her arrow, is what will save America and our democracy. The truth.

That’s the hopeful take. It’s also possible that Hutchinson is part of a power play, and it isn’t about saving the Union or democracy or the rule of law. It’s about continuing the project of tearing down the power of government to serve the people so that it can serve the economic elite. The puppet masters have built a whole team. SCOTUS, Federal Judges, members of congress, governors. And they are pivoting to tryouts for the new "quarterback" for 2024. It likely won't be Trump. But it will be the same playbook, albeit, refined. Maybe Hutchinson hasn't changed teams. She's just working on a new position for the next season.

Trump was a means to an end. And whether he was conscious of that strategy or simply lustfully attracted to the celebrity of his role, he embraced the caricature to its cartoonish finish.

Of course, Trump won’t spend any time in prison. But perhaps he should suffer the fate of so many of the 800 plus people who stormed the capitol during the insurrection at his instruction. Be required to wear an ankle bracelet, confined to home at Mar-a-Lago, with only a flip-phone, no internet, or television, muttering to himself in the wilderness. It’s the least we can ask.