Trump Agonistes, Part 2

So I’ll freely admit to being surprised that Trump wasn’t quite as batshit crazy as I thought he’d be. No doubt that creepy, sniffly, stalkery performance was his idea of subtlety. Maybe if this had been the Trump we saw at the first debate (an asshole, but not a dangerously unhinged asshole) he wouldn’t be in free fall now. But it’s pretty clear after last night’s checklist of long discredited conspiracy theories, he’s only interested in his base now, which mercifully for the Republic is not nearly enough to win. It’s also clear that the campaign is being run pretty much exclusively by the Neo-Nazi (they prefer “altright”) Breitbart wing of the far lunatic fringe. 

As the Trumpkins turn their fury on Boy Speaker Paul Ryan, and the GOP’s idea of good news is that their nominee has never sexually assaulted his campaign manager and their vice presidential nominee isn’t quitting, the big remaining question is what happens on November 9? Since it’s looking increasingly likely that Hillary will win in a landslide, what will Trump do? It seems completely out of character for him to throw himself on his fainting couch and poutily concede like Romney. Would he simply refuse to concede, concession speeches being a gentlemanly tradition of the sort he normally shits on anyway? Or would he go full Robert Mugabe and insist he’s really the president? As bizarre as this election has been, there’s almost nothing outside the realm of possibility, from him forming a “shadow cabinet” ensconced in Orthanc to him actively encouraging his legions of Frogmen to “take back” the White House or disrupt the inauguration. And here’s where we get into the danger zone. I can’t see his fat keyboard kommando twitter-warriors storming a barricade but what about a handful of deranged lunatics? Lone wolves? I have to admit, the thought worries me. It’s replaced the the dread that a moron like Trump might get his tiny hands on nuclear weapons, but it hasn’t diminished.

How far will he go?

Trump Agonistes

The BEST case scenario for Trump tonight is that he only performs as badly as he did in the first debate. Actually, I take that back; the best case scenario is that he fakes a stroke and simply doesn’t show up. As for the worst case…well, given his recent angry retweets about “traitors,” it’s not hard to imagine him suffering a total meltdown on stage and getting into a screaming match with an audience member or storming off the stage, or otherwise completely losing his shit.

And then what happens? With his creepy ‘Moon Over Parador’ style rally in front of Orthanc, Trump already puts me in mind of Nixon right before he resigned, stumbling around the White House drunkenly ranting at the portraits while Kissinger tried to hide the nuclear codes. Would Trump go even further and exhort his deplorable army of Frogmen to actual violence? There’s almost no scenario too far-fetched at this point, unfortunately.

Finally, another prediction: one of the weirder legacies of this election will, I think, be a record number of faithless electors. Many states, including Texas, have laws against them, but those are almost certainly unconstitutional.

First Takes

1. Trump won’t drop out. I can’t imagine his colossal ego allowing him to entertain the notion;
2. If he does, the GOP is screwed. The ballots are already printed. It’s too late to even add a write-in in most states;
3. This will be spun to delegitimize Hillary Clinton, e.g., she only won because of those tapes;
4. The always remote chance the GOP would learn anything from this election is even more remote, e.g. he only lost because of those tapes. We can double-down on the racism, white nationalism, and xenophobia;
5. The chances his psychotic followers will do something violent & stupid have increased to a frightening degree.

Predictions

1. No matter how large Hillary’s margin of victory, the MSM will deny it’s a “mandate”
2. No matter how large Hillary’s margin of victory, Republicans will claim it was due to “voter fraud”
3. Sometime between Election Day and her Inauguration, congressional Republicans will announce they intend to reflexively and unanimously oppose anything and everything Hillary proposes
4. Republicans will do something of unprecedented partisan stupidity early on: disrupt the official counting of the electoral vote, try to block all Cabinet appointees, refuse to invite her to Congress for her first SOTU. Something.
5. This something will be quickly explained by the MSM as “just the way both sides act these days”
6. Assuming they keep the House, Republicans will announce a new investigation of Hillary’s Benghazi emails to Bill Clinton’s half brother
7. They will NOT confirm Merrick Garland
8. Early in her presidency, Republicans will try to force Congressional Democrats to do something craven, like the absolutely cowardly “defunding” of ACORN
9. On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, it will become the received wisdom of the Republican Party that Donald Trump was a liberal Democrat and lost because he wasn’t conservative enough
10. No matter how large Hillary’s margin of victory, Republicans will not learn a goddam thing.

Cruz Control?

  
Digby speculates that Ted Cruz is well-positioned to pick up the lunatic fringe vote when Trump and Carson inevitably self-immolate. Sound reasoning but I’m not sure Trump would drop out even if he were polling single digits. Unlike, say, Gingrich, Perry, or Santorum in 2012, he’s not going to run out of money and his supply of chutzpah is inexhaustible.

The Gospel According to Ayn Rand

American Christianity, and in particular Evangelical Protestantism and especially the blasphemous “Health and Wealth Gospel,” has long been used as a figleaf for an economic system that is utterly at odds with actual, Biblical Christianity. You cannot serve two masters, to paraphrase Scriptures, you cannot love both Christ and Ayn Rand. Pope Francis gets it; why can’t Paul Ryan?

It’s The End of the World As They Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Overreact much?