This is just a rambling discourse on the Presidential race.
Today I read that Trump verbally attacked the daughter of the Federal judge in his hush money trial. Edit 4/1/2024: And has now received yet another well-earned gag order for doing so.
Then I started to peel the layers off that, and became increasingly disoriented. Just from trying to tell the story linearly.
First, having a Presidential candidate attacking the family of anyone who crosses him is now par for the course? It hardly even merits mentioning, these days. It’s now normal.
OK, so, as I recall this particular story:
Once upon a time, while Trump was married to his third wife, having been divorced for cause twice, he paid a porn star (or two) to be his whore(s).
(By that I mean, a person who exchanges sex for money. Substitute a more polite term of you prefer.)
Then, during the campaign, he had that particular whore paid off so that she wouldn’t make their relationship public.
(I guess, back in that naïve era, there must have been some notion that mainstream Republicans might not vote for a twice-divorced married man who keep a whore or two on the side. The good old days. Little did he know at the time that nothing is too extreme, any more, and that he needn’t have bothered.)
Anyway, the jarring thing to me is that apparently none of that matters to Republicans, in the least. In fact, today I see that the same guy is now the spokesmodel for Bible sales. And while “Whore of Babylon” does appear in some versions of that book, that seems to be more of a metaphor than an actual business enterprise in that context.
In any case, Trump-as-Bible salesman whups me upside the head twice. Once, for the fact that it’s now considered completely normal for the President of the United States (former) to pitch products for personal profit. Second, that somebody saw fit to use this guy to market, of all things, the Holy Bible. If that’s considered righteous and just, look no further for proof that there is no God.
Back to the story.
His personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, actually did the payoff. There ain’t no doubt that money changed hands, as he was convicted and sent to prison for making what was, in effect, an undeclared campaign contribution. Plus tax evasion. He spent about a year in prison, and two under house arrest.
But in addition, Trump recorded the payment as a business expense, writing it off as a payment for legal services from Cohen. Which, as if it matters these days, is tax evasion.
But it seems like Republicans are OK with cheating on your taxes, if you’re a Republican. So, again, that’s just normal now.
Which brings up the fact that, despite assurances to the contrary while campaigning, Trump refuses to release his tax returns.
And that’s now apparently OK, as well. But in his defense, Bush Jr. did the same, for one year, presumably to hide the repatriation of funds the he had offshored … to dodge U.S. taxes.
And so I am reminded of a comment made by Rachel Maddow this past week. She researched the history of fascism in America, and found many, many prior examples of anti-democracy, dictator-loving candidates like Trump. But they all ran as third-party candidates, and they all collected miniscule votes.
The difference with Trump is that he’s taken over the Republican party.
Which then reminds me that he just installed his daughter-in-law as chairman of the Republican party. Co-chair. Whatever. So the Republican party is now run by Trump’s daughter-in-law. Who has absolutely no experience or credentials. Whose only qualification for the job is being related to Trump.
But Republicans are OK with nepotism, too. They are, in effect, the Party of Nepotism. In fact, nepotism is the new normal, after Trump hired his … what was it, son-in-law? … to play a key policy role in his administration. Despite the fact that the guy couldn’t qualify for security clearance.
I guess. What else could I possibly infer, given that campaign donations didn’t dry up over that.
But then, contrast that with the fact Trump’s own Vice-President, Mike Pence, finally came out and said he can’t support Trump for President.
And Republicans yawned.
Because, apparently, it’s now normal for people who were chosen by, and worked closely with, a Presidential candidate to repudiate him publicly. Vice President. Attorney General. Chair of the Joint Chiefs. Those were all people that Trump picked. All life-long Republicans. All of whom now say, please don’t put this guy back in office.
Bottom line is that if Trump had to run as a third-party candidate, I don’t think he’d get a lot of votes. He’s only in the race because the U.S. Republican party wholeheartedly endorsed this guy. And now the Republican Party is, in effect, owned by that guy, for use in (e.g.) paying legal bills and such.
If, as, and when his daughter-in-law directs the Party to do so.
And Republicans are perfectly fine with this, as their Party. Along with having no party platform, that is, no formal statement of what Republicans aim to accomplish if elected.
Sometimes, when I step back from something like this, I wonder whether I am losing my mind. Or just too old to get with the program.
But in this case, I think it’s the Republican Party that’s gone insane. I always thought that, at the minimum, Republicans were savvy about private wealth. But now they’ve given the keys to the cash register to the daughter-in-law of a serial bankrupt. A man famous for expropriating everything he can, and not paying his bills.
You might as well just rake all your money into a big pile and set fire to it. Something I might expect Democrats to do, accidentally, from time to time, but never thought I’d see Republicans do on purpose.
In any case, I get the feeling that as long as there is (R) after his name, almost all Republicans will vote for Trump, full stop.
And my guess is, if not for the (R) after his name, Trump would rightfully be nowhere as a political candidate.
