The Coming Civil War-- Inside The Republican Party

If conservative Republican journalist Jennifer Rubin keeps attacking Trump so vociferously, the DCCC will soon recruit her to run for Congress-- or fellow Beltway journalists will rebrand her a rising star in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. after all, being against Señor Trumpanzee seems to trump any and all other qualities. Yesterday Rubin wrote that Ending DACA would be Trump’s most evil act, "Some in the media," she wrote, "take seriously the notion that he is 'conflicted' or 'wrestling' with the decision, as though Trump were engaged in a great moral debate. That would be a first for Trump, who counts only winners and losers, never bothering with moral principles or democratic norms. The debate, if there is one, is over whether to disappoint his rabid anti-immigrant base or to, as is his inclination, double down on a losing hand.

[L]et’s not think Trump-- who invites cops to abuse suspects, who thinks ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio was “doing his job” when denying others their constitutional rights and who issued the Muslim ban-- cares about the Constitution (any of the “twelve” articles). Trump says, “We love the dreamers. … We think the dreamers are terrific.” But in fact he loves the applause he derives from his cultist followers more than anything. Otherwise he’d go to the mat to defend the dreamers and secure their legal status.

...[I]f Trump cancels DACA, it will be one more attempt to endear himself to his shrinking base with the only thing that truly energizes the dead-enders: vengeance fueled by white grievance. And it will also be an act of uncommon cowardice. (“Should Trump move forward with this decision, he would effectively be buying time and punting responsibility to Congress to determine the fate of the Dreamers,” writes The Post.) Dumping it into the lap of the hapless Congress, he can try evading responsibility for the deportation of nearly 800,000 young people who were brought here as children, 91 percent of whom are working. (And if by chance Congress should save DACA, it will be Trump who is the villain and they the saviors, an odd political choice for a president who cares not one wit about the party.)

As for Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who talks about sparing the dreamers, will be sorely tested to overcome the objections of the hard-line anti-immigrant voices in his conference. Does he have the nerve to bring to the floor a bill that lacks majority support among Republicans? Tie it to a must-pass bill (e.g., Harvey funding, the debt ceiling, funding for the government)? In the Senate, will opportunistic right-wingers such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) grandstand, perhaps filibustering a measure into order to out-Trump Trump?

However this turns out, the GOP under Trump has defined itself as the white grievance party-- bluntly, a party fueled by concocted white resentment aimed at minorities. Of all the actions Trump has taken, none has been as cruel, thoughtless or divisive as deporting hundreds of thousands of young people who’ve done nothing but go to school, work hard and present themselves to the government.

The party of Lincoln has become the party of Charlottesville, Arpaio, DACA repeal and the Muslim ban. Embodying the very worst sentiments and driven by irrational anger, it deserves not defense but extinction.

As it turns out, the crackpot far right Cotton wasn't the best example, even if he is a vicious xenophobe. Byron York reported for the right-wing Washington Examiner website that Cotton "would support the legalization of all current DACA recipients-- nearly 800,000 of them-- if Congress would at the same time pass measures to protect Americans workers from the effects of that legalization."

"We ought to take care of them," Cotton said in a telephone conversation Sunday, noting that DACA recipients arrived in this country illegally "through no fault of their own."

"In any legislative fix, I would like to see them receive a green card," Cotton said. At the same time, he continued, "We ought to recognize that giving them legal status has two problems. First, it creates a whole new class of people who will then be eligible for a green card and citizenship-- namely, the extended family members of those who will receive legal status who can, through chain migration, get legal status themselves."

"Second," Cotton said, "it will encourage more illegal immigration.

The first problem can be fixed by passing the RAISE Act, Cotton said-- the bill Cotton has sponsored with fellow GOP Sen. David Perdue that would strictly limit chain migration as well as re-balance current immigration policy in favor of skilled immigrants.

The second problem could be addressed by extending E-verify across the country, which Cotton called "the best way to reduce more illegal immigration."

All that said, let's forget Cotton and Rubin and get to Kurt Schlichter's piece for Townhall about who the "real" conservatives are, the neo-Nazis and racists who support Trumpanzee or the greed-and-selfishness GOP establishment types who loath Trumpanzee nearly as much as normal people do. Herr Schlichter's perspective is somewhat different than my description might suggest. He's one of the Trumpists and a dedicated Paul Ryanphobe. And he gets right into it: "After two years of lectures about 'principles' and 'the Rule of law' by the establishment-loving hacks furious that normal Americans rejected them and elected Donald Trump, their performance last week demonstrated that their high-minded dedication to conservatism is all a fraud. It’s not about 'principles' or 'the Rule of Law.' It’s only about holding on to power-- theirs." And that was right under a goofy photo of Speaker Ryan. Remember this isn't by someone supporting-- as far as I know-- Randy Bryce's crusade to repeal and replace Ryan in southeast Wisconsin. This is by someone who's premise is that Ryan isn't right-wing enough. [You can contribute to Stop Paul Ryan here, regardless of your reasons why.]

Let’s take the latest in a seemingly endless series of #fails from that smarmy dope Paul Ryan, King of the Fredocons. First, he rushed to help out the liberals with their ridiculous narrative about how Donald Trump is a “Nazi” (Wait, I thought the narrative memo had him being a Russian fifth columnist-- damn, our president sure is versatile!). You couldn’t keep Ryan from eagerly jumping in with his usual more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger-about-Trump thing to help the left push its latest meme. Antifa though? Not so fast! Ryan, the poodle that he is, obediently waited until Nancy Pelosi led the way and offered some tepid words about these commie blackshirts and their thirst for blood before Brave Sir Ryan ran out and offered some tepid words about these commie blackshirts and their thirst for blood.

Paul Ryan is a guy who can’t even take his own side in a fight-- or, more to the point, our side in a fight. Now, a quick quiz: When Donald Trump proposed to keep his promise to the Republican voters who elected him and end the unconstitutional DACA program that the Obama administration enacted to ignore duly-enacted immigration laws, what did Passive Paul do?

A. Ryan immediately offered his support for the president undoing this Rule of Law abomination that Ryan expressly called “unconstitutional” on Fox back in October 2014.

B. Ryan immediately demanded the president not undo this Rule of Law abomination that Ryan expressly called “unconstitutional” on Fox back in October 2014.

C. Ryan immediately asked someone to explain what the phrase “keep his promise to the Republican voters who elected him” means.

D. B and C

So, for the benefit of us suckers, basically Ryan was against DACA when it couldn’t be undone, but is now panicking when it can be undone because it might actually be undone-- unless President Trump lets Ryan roll him, in which case he deserves to be laughed at in exactly the way his Never Trump enemies will laugh at him.

Gosh, this DACA two-step kind of reminds me of Obamacare and how gung-ho the True Conservatives were to repeal it when they couldn’t repeal it and how suddenly they turned ungung-ho when they actually could. Weird. If I was cynical, I’d say that it seems like the establishment GOP has been lying to our faces for years and years, but that couldn’t be true because our establishment betters have principles and stuff.

Of course, it’s not just the Wisconsin Wimp shifting into conservagimp mode. Soon-to-be-former Senator Jeff Flake, that braying doofus, naturally joined the cave-in chorus. Ben Sasse, Flake’s braying doofus doppelgänger, probably joined in, but I refuse to spend valuable time looking at his tedious Twitter feed to find out. And since it involved betraying Republicans, you have got to assume John “Blue Falcon” McCain is in on it too.

Yeah, because “principles” and stuff. Because enforcing the law is the most important thing there is, except for doing what the rich guys who fund the establishment want. That’s really the most important thing.

Yeah, so after nearly two years of tiresome finger-wagging about “the Rule of Law” and how we need to put our “principles” above our desire for “winning,” the whole sordid scam we always knew it always was is revealed for the world to see. They can’t hide it anymore and they aren’t even trying. Their glorious “conservative principles” aren’t principles at all but a skeevy ploy designed to tie our hands and keep us from pursuing policy goals our establishment coalition partners disfavor. They want open borders. They want illegals. They want cheap foreign labor that doesn’t get uppity to man their donors’ corporations so the Captains of Crony Capitalism don’t have to fuss with American workers who won’t tolerate being treated like chattel. Yeah, “we’re better than that” all right-- if you mean that we are better than enforcing the laws the American people passed through a constitutional process if the ruling class decides it doesn’t like them.

“The Rule of Law” is for us, not for them. “The Rule of Law” was supposed to be a shield to protect us from the ravages of the powerful, but our Truer-Than-You Cons use it as a sword to cut our legs out from under us and keep us from defending our own interests.

Oh, you can’t possibly exercise the power against our leftist enemies that they always exercise against you. Because principles.

Oh, you can’t possibly be uncouth and actually fight back against our enemies. Because principles.

Oh, a principle is getting in the way of something the establishment wants? What’s a principle?

So now, suddenly, Congress is moving to try and keep DACA alive through-- gasp!-- legislation, though that’s probably not going to happen since most GOP legislators understand that amnesty is ballot box poison. See, that’s why they loved DACA-- they can’t pass it as a law, so they simply feigned outrage for the benefit of us rubes when Obama did exactly what they wanted with his pen.

And in the most Congressional GOP move of all possible Congressional GOP moves, they now want to try to pass a proposed DACA fix using Democrat votes and so their proposed deal to the Democrats-- who really, really want 800,000 future voters-- is to trade it for…wait for it…still waiting…nothing. The GOP isn’t asking for anything. No new limits on immigrants, no reform of chain immigration, certainly no wall. Nothing. I hope the dealer tries out this innovative new negotiation strategy on me the next time I bargain to lease a fine German sports sedan.

Actually, the GOP does get something-- shafted, as usual. Yeah, their deal is we give you Democrats what you want and, in exchange, you call us racists when Elizabeth Warren proposes to declare all these middle-aged Dreamer kids US citizens. Because, you know, they had dreams and stuff.

Pathetic. You know, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the real reason the Republicans don’t want to end the filibuster to allow them to pass legislation is that they would then be expected to pass legislation that their voters want and the GOP establishment doesn’t.

Here’s the thing. There are two parties in America, one to the right and one to the left. The left/right spectrum used to be the only axis that mattered, and the coalitions within the parties fit pretty well, if not perfectly. But the bipartisan establishment, the meritless meritocracy that rules us, grew more arrogant even as it grew more inept. It ignored problems and troubling trends even as it cashed-in for itself over the decades. I remember working in Congress back in Washington in 1986, and the region was not rich and it was not fancy. But now it’s fantastically rich and fantastically fancy. But the establishment ignored the normals out in America as it gorged on the fruits of the normals’ labor, and that’s why a second axis arose and intersected with the American politician spectrum. This new axis measures pro- or con- regarding the status quo and the ruling class. So now there are really four political parties stuffed into two political party infrastructures:

1 Right, pro-establishment (The RINOs)
2 Right, anti-establishment (The Trump voters)
3 Left, pro-establishment (Hillary’s snobby urban corporatist jerk corps)
4 Left, anti-establishment (The Bernie/Warren/Stalin Axis of Venezuela)

This explains why we see the DC establishment unifying to protect its power and privilege-- and holding us normals in utter contempt. Most Democrat senators and Republican senators have much more in common with each other than with us-- to the GOP establishment, Trump’s clearly the bigger threat than a counterpart across the aisle. It also explains why you hear about Bernie supporters who went for Trump instead of Felonia von Pantsuit. That’s the fault line-- the desire to keep or destroy this monstrous status quo. This new axis will reshape the political parties as their uncomfortable coalitions jockey for control of their respective party’s infrastructure (Yeah, the Dems have big problems too). Hell, it may reshape-- violently-- our whole country if we aren’t careful.

The fact is that the establishment doesn’t care about “the Rule of Law” or “principles”-- it cares about its own power and maintaining the status quo. So keep that in mind the next time you hear some establishment snob lecturing you on how you are morally obligated not to do anything to advance you own interests because of “principles.”

It’s all just another lie.

I wonder if Schlichter would short circuit if someone pointed out that there were around 3 million more Hillary voters than Trumpy-the-Clown voters. After all, he seems so enamored of the will of "the voters," he should keep a post-it note on his computer that reminds him that although 65,853,516 votes cast their ballots for Hillary, just 62,984,825 voted for Señor Trumpanzee.