Saturday, July 30, 2016

Thought Experiment

  [Repurposed form FB]. 

Though early, it is tempting to speculate on what the structure of the Republican party will look like in the aftermath of the election. Here's a scenario:
1--Trump loses badly, but not catastrophically (yes, I know--everyone has been wrong on this one before).
2--The insulted and the injured will overflow with rage in their conviction that they have been cheated (cf. "stab in the back," Weimar Germany, post-1918).
3--They will coalesce into a new party uniting racists, exclusionists, evangelicals and--oh yes, those who see their lives as in calamitous decline. It is not at all clear that Donald Trump will be their leader, or even want to be. Maybe Ted Cruz.
4--Distinct from the insulted and the injured will be a much smaller rump of the great and the good--those who have built their career on dangling shiny baubles before the eyes of the lesser mortals to distract them while the danglers scooped up tax cuts and related goodies. Also known as "which way are my people going so I can run out and front and lead them?" It is even less obvious who the leader is here. The Bushes are too old and boring. Romney is too boring. Paul Ryan is, well, boring. But it may not matter much; at the moment, there simply won't be very many of them. 
5--And the Democrats, don't they have the same problem? To an extent, yes, but for the moment they will be too busy choosing garments for the inauguration ball and (if they are smart) trying to stifle their gloating.
Could be worse; could be the other guy wins.

2 comments:

Soccer Dad said...

just wanna say, I had the stabbed in the back bit 3 months ago....so u r not the only gal thinking that

Buce said...

Heh, wonder what made you think I'm a gal. No offense, maybe flattered but I wonder what the clue was.