12 August 2016

The stab in the back

With the ever-necessary caveat against complacency, this election is increasingly likely to be a blowout of Johnson/Goldwater proportions.  We've just gotten over the shock of Hillary leading in Georgia and a new poll comes out showing her only two points behind in South Carolina.  Some Republican insiders are now convinced that defeat is inevitable.

Well, this is what happens when you nominate a cross between Benito Mussolini and the Three Stooges for the Presidency.  And we still have three more months of Trump setting off self-immolating rhetorical explosions at the rate of one or two a week.  In any normal cycle, a candidate calling the sitting President the founder of ISIL would have been the shocker of the year; but compared with Trump's "Second Amendment people" dog-whistle, his feud with Khizr Khan, etc., etc., etc., it's almost yawn-inducing.  The only thing worse than three more months of this will be if he fails to wriggle out of debating Hillary.  I mean, just try to imagine the epic disaster that will be.

So Trump will very likely go down to a massive, landslide defeat.  What happens then?

Trump himself has already hinted at his own response by claiming the election might be rigged, but that has no credibility except in the eyes of those who are completely unhinged anyway.  A few wingnuts have gamely gone back to unskewing polls, but the majority seem to be accepting reality and getting down to the important business of slinging blame around.  So far, though, what I'm seeing of this is largely internecine.  There are the usual barbs at the "biased liberal media", but mostly the Trumpanzees are blaming the NeverTrumps for not supporting their man, while the NeverTrumps blame the Trumpanzees for nominating such a godawful candidate in the first place.  The trend will escalate as more and more prominent Republicans come out against Trump and, as today, even call for the RNC to pull funding from his campaign and redirect it to Congressional candidates who can still be saved.  The quixotic candidacy of Evan McMullin, supported by many NeverTrumps, may also be used to blame the "establishment" for the nominee's defeat.  All the elements of a Dolchstoßlegende are falling into place.

After the defeat -- especially if it's accompanied by losing the Senate, ensuring easy confirmation for Hillary's Supreme Court picks, and by large Republican losses at other levels -- the wingnuts will be altogether consumed by the rage and fear to which they've always been so prone anyway.  The demise of the Republican party has been predicted before, but this time I almost don't see how they can avoid it.  There's already tremendous anger and vitriol between the pro- and anti-Trump factions, and once the magnitude of the disaster (from a wingnut perspective) sinks in, it's going to mean civil war.

An ignominious end for what was once the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower -- but it's the end they've now written for themselves.

[Image at top:  Today's map at Electoral-Vote.com]

6 Comments:

Blogger Kevin Robbins said...

That's gonna take a whole lot of unskewing. It'll be interesting to see what the result of the, God I hope with fingers crossed, epic blow out will be. Could Fox News and Rightwing Radio go down the tubes, too? That would be so nice.

The Daily Trump Stupidity. This is the guy who called Cruz Lyin' Ted?

12 August, 2016 11:30  
Anonymous Bluebull said...

Excellent summation of the current mess the Repubs have made for themselves. Personally, I'm enjoying the hell out of seeing them sink further and further in the polls, though not to the point of complacency. That's too often come around to bite us in the ass and we CAN NOT allow it to take hold this year, especially. I'll be out making sure folks are registered properly here in Florida on Sunday.

12 August, 2016 20:45  
Blogger Alessandro Machi said...

Silly as it sounds, I am worried about the National Enquirer constantly defaming the Clintons. That rag sits in supermarkets all over the country week after week, completely biased for Trump. Literally millions of people see their headlines every week.

13 August, 2016 04:02  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Kevin: Could Fox News and Rightwing Radio go down the tubes, too?

Well, there are now significant numbers of conservatives denouncing them for helping to foist Trump on the party. That's new.

Bluebull: Oh, I'm enjoying it too, and I'll enjoy the civil war after the election even more.

Thank you for your work in Florida. It's especially important in a swing state.

Alessandro: Can't say I'm too worried there. Most people who read the Enquirer know it's a joke. Seeing pro-Trump propaganda mixed in with "Satan captured in Iraq" and "Crashed B-52 found on the Moon" doesn't exactly enhance its credibility.

13 August, 2016 06:30  
Blogger Grung_e_Gene said...

Who says the Republican Party will accept the election results? A trump loss is obviously due to a rigged voter fraud election, ergo republican losses in the House and Senate are probably due to that Democratic/Acorn cheating as well.

13 August, 2016 20:28  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Some of them won't, but the majority aren't that delusional.

14 August, 2016 04:41  

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