Martin Longman is the web editor of the Washington Monthly.
He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. Before joining the Monthly, Martin was a county coordinator for ACORN/Project Vote and a political consultant. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I have no confidence that the Republicans will retool if Trump goes away. They’ll just revert to being the party of Trump without the poster toddler. If Trump’s around, it puts them between a rock and a hard place. Abandon Trump and get fucked. Stay with Trump and get slaughtered.
There is risk. We live in scary times. We may be better off with this risk, the kind that forces a pimple to a head, to one that allows it to be covered over with makeup.
Yes, the relationship between Trump and Fox will be interesting. With the Lincoln Project becoming a media entity and the potential to see Trump create his own right-wing propaganda network, we’re seeing the splintering of right-wing media. That’s not a terrible thing. Unity in messaging is a big deal for the right.
What about Trump and the Republican Party? I think they will want to move on from him personally and maybe even move on from elements of his politics. Well it be possible for Fox and Republicans to stuff Trump down the memory hole? Will they want to?
My suspicion is that the GOP party base is still going to remain intact, and its current leadership is mostly in place. They’re already very illiberal. My guess is they’ll simply look for the next Presidential candidate to be someone who is a bit less rough around the edges and more competent at the whole destroying democratic institutions thing. Trump and his thugs provided the blueprint, and our institutions will not have had much time to rebuild and recover between now and 2024. Look, the next decade or two will be very dangerous. We will have one major party that… Read more »
If this research from the V-Dem Institute is on the money, it is unlikely that we’ll see much of a marked change in the GOP, or if we do it will be further toward illiberalism. As it is, the GOP has gone from being more or less a mainstream center-right party that would seem recognizable as such in most of the developed world to that of a party that more closely resembles the ruling parties in places like Turkey and Hungary. That didn’t happen overnight. The shift probably accelerated during the Trump years, but the party was already devolving pretty… Read more »
Tom Cotton was exactly who I had in mind. He’s one of my Senators. He’s dumb as a box of rocks, but much smarter than Trump. There’s some dark money fast-tracking his political career. My state’s DP really screwed the pooch for this election. The candidate they landed on probably was not properly vetted, and mysteriously dropped out a couple hours after the filing period ended. My faint hope is that the Libertarian candidate has a good enough showing to put a few dents in Cotton’s image as electable. In the meantime, all of us need to be educating the… Read more »
Not the point of your post, but still surprised you didn’t comment on this framing, Martin:
[Rupert] Murdoch has stopped speaking as frequently as he once did with Trump, but his associates say that those conversations probably will pick up again after Nov. 3, when Trump will either be a second-term president or a free agent on the media circuit.
Trump won’t be a free agent after Nov. 3 even if he loses. Unless he resigns, he’ll still be President.
I have no confidence that the Republicans will retool if Trump goes away. They’ll just revert to being the party of Trump without the poster toddler. If Trump’s around, it puts them between a rock and a hard place. Abandon Trump and get fucked. Stay with Trump and get slaughtered.
There is risk. We live in scary times. We may be better off with this risk, the kind that forces a pimple to a head, to one that allows it to be covered over with makeup.
Why will it not go away like the Whig or Federalist parties?
Yes, the relationship between Trump and Fox will be interesting. With the Lincoln Project becoming a media entity and the potential to see Trump create his own right-wing propaganda network, we’re seeing the splintering of right-wing media. That’s not a terrible thing. Unity in messaging is a big deal for the right.
What about Trump and the Republican Party? I think they will want to move on from him personally and maybe even move on from elements of his politics. Well it be possible for Fox and Republicans to stuff Trump down the memory hole? Will they want to?
My suspicion is that the GOP party base is still going to remain intact, and its current leadership is mostly in place. They’re already very illiberal. My guess is they’ll simply look for the next Presidential candidate to be someone who is a bit less rough around the edges and more competent at the whole destroying democratic institutions thing. Trump and his thugs provided the blueprint, and our institutions will not have had much time to rebuild and recover between now and 2024. Look, the next decade or two will be very dangerous. We will have one major party that… Read more »
If this research from the V-Dem Institute is on the money, it is unlikely that we’ll see much of a marked change in the GOP, or if we do it will be further toward illiberalism. As it is, the GOP has gone from being more or less a mainstream center-right party that would seem recognizable as such in most of the developed world to that of a party that more closely resembles the ruling parties in places like Turkey and Hungary. That didn’t happen overnight. The shift probably accelerated during the Trump years, but the party was already devolving pretty… Read more »
Here’s what the Republican Party is going to learn IF Biden wins.
That’s it. There’s no salvaging the Republican Party. As long as the Republican Party exists, this country is IN DANGER.
Tom Cotton was exactly who I had in mind. He’s one of my Senators. He’s dumb as a box of rocks, but much smarter than Trump. There’s some dark money fast-tracking his political career. My state’s DP really screwed the pooch for this election. The candidate they landed on probably was not properly vetted, and mysteriously dropped out a couple hours after the filing period ended. My faint hope is that the Libertarian candidate has a good enough showing to put a few dents in Cotton’s image as electable. In the meantime, all of us need to be educating the… Read more »
Not the point of your post, but still surprised you didn’t comment on this framing, Martin:
Trump won’t be a free agent after Nov. 3 even if he loses. Unless he resigns, he’ll still be President.
Wasn’t a former PM of Australia trying to bring Murderous Murdoch to justice?