Trump is turning the party of grievance, greed and graft into the party of fear

When he speaks Sunday night at CPAC, we'll see how that's working out for him

Remember that old saw about politics, that it’s better to have a problem member of the party inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in?  Well, Donald Trump has somehow figured out how to do both.  He is scheduled to close the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida this weekend with a speech that is expected to confirm his hold on the Republican Party and weld shut the door to anyone daring to challenge him.

Already he threw a temper tantrum when he told CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp that he wouldn’t appear at the annual conference of right-wing loons if Mike Pence was invited.  So, bye-bye Mikey.  There goes any hope Pence ever had of being the party’s nominee for president in 2024, and we’re not even two months into 2021.

Trump’s purge of those he considers disloyal to him continued as Republicans lined up behind him at a press conference by the house Republican leadership team this week.  Asked whether Trump should be a speaker at CPAC this weekend, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stood firmly behind Trump while House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney told reporters that the party needed to “move on” from Trump.  Cheney famously voted to impeach Trump last month and said in a statement, “What we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

McCarthy went on Fox News immediately after the press conference with Cheney and accused her of engaging in what he called “cancel culture” for her remarks about Trump.  “I just think she is wrong. It’s beyond just having a difference of opinion,” McCarthy said of Cheney.

Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy, who in January accused Trump of having committed “impeachable conduct,” did a quick about-face on Thursday, telling reporters that, “Liz forfeited her right to be chair of the Republican conference. You cannot stand up and make a statement that is so completely out of step with the Republican conference.”

Then of course there is the spat between Mitch McConnell and Trump.  The Senate Minority Leader took what many considered to be a walk off the Trump plank after the vote to acquit Trump when he gave a long speech accusing the former president of “dereliction of duty” and concluding that “there is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day [January 6].”  This, despite McConnell’s vote on narrow procedural grounds to exonerate Trump.

Everyone thought McConnell was drawing some kind of imaginary line in an imaginary Republican sandbox until this week when McConnell was asked in an interview on Fox News if he would support Trump in 2024 if he is the Republican nominee.  “Oh, absolutely,” McConnell replied.  This after Trump called McConnell a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” who “doesn’t have what it takes” to be a leader in the Republican Party.

So going into the weekend-long CPAC meeting of Republican wannabe mini-hacks, that’s where we stand.  Trump is taking a weed-eater to the fringe of the party that dares to stand up to him, threatening to support primary challengers to every Republican who voted to either impeach him in the House, or to convict him in the Senate.  This has had the predictable effect of sending anyone in the Republican Party who wants a political future running for the exits of any position on Trump short of getting down on their collective knees and kissing his Mar a Lago rested ass. 

With the few who have even thought about standing up to Trump like McCarthy and Texas’ Chip Roy bending over with the rest of them, it’s Trump’s party. He owns it.  That will become crystal clear on Sunday night when Trump addresses the CPAC fear-fest.

And that’s the problem right there.  They are so frightened of Trump, they look like a field of bunnies fleeing a fox.  Trump rules with a weird combination of grievance and terror.  He’s got the whole Republican Party convinced that their world of whiteness and money is under assault by a black and brown horde and they’ve bought that boat of bullshit like he’s handing out free Whoppers and Big Macs and they haven’t eaten in a month.

I can see Trump selling a platform of grievance, greed, and graft, but he is plunging an entire political party into feeling wronged by a world they disdain and claim they are superior to.  All these black and brown people and women and gays and transgender people you hate and think are lower than dirt -- they’re the ones who are succeeding in taking your wealth and power and liberty away?  They’re the reason you’ve got to defend yourself with arsenals of AR-15’s and bulletproof vests and “tactical” training?  

How does running scared add up to a strategy to win?