Trumps and Cronies: Anti-(Small-R)Republicans

Secular conservative commentator Robert Tracinski finds himself urging his readers to vote straight-ticket Democrat in tomorrow's elections. I learned of this recommendation too recently to offer a definitive opinion on it one way or the other, but I will say it is an argument worth consideration.

In particular, Tracinski does a good job of cataloging what many would loosely call the "anti-democratic" tendencies of Donald Trump and his loyalists within the Republican Party. These tendencies are, in fact, anti-republican and Tracinski is correct to note that they endanger the American system of constitutionally-limited representative government.

Here is a sample, picking up after an excerpt about Donald Trump personally urging Arizona senatorial candidate Blake Masters to push the assertion that the 2020 election was "rigged" and "stolen:"

A lady asked Franklin: "Well, Doctor, what have we got -- a Republic or a Monarchy?". Franklin replied: "A Republic, if you can keep it." (Image by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.)

Notice that Trump is personally pressing candidate to embrace his stolen election theories, hand-picking politicians who will be willing to deliver the 2024 election to him.

Even more worrying is Arizona's Republican candidate for secretary of state, Mark Finchem, who has built his campaign entirely around election conspiracy theories which he cannot even defend when challenged.

Remember the special role that Arizona played in the 2020 election. Trump's plan to declare himself the winner early on election night, before mail-in votes could be counted, was foiled when Fox News Channel called Arizona for Biden. How do you think that's going to go next time if the secretary of state is determined to declare Trump the winner no matter what the votes say?

In Wisconsin, it was recently revealed that the chief of staff for Republican Senator Ron Johnson "tried to deliver to Vice President Mike Pence a slate of fake electors backing Trump." Meanwhile, the state's Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels outlined plans to change voting rules and vowed, "Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I'm elected governor." I guess that lays all the cards out on the table.

This is just a sampling of what has been going on across the country and at every level. One analysis indicates that a majority of Republican primary winners in statewide and congressional races backed or gave some credence to stolen election conspiracy theories, which have become the "price of admission" to Republican politics. Meanwhile, the last of the sane Republicans, the ones who won't sign up for the conspiracy theories, are being knocked out of politics one by one.

This is what I warned about in December of 2021. Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election "failed because the ground was not prepared for it."

But the current attempt is preparing the ground, getting the rank and file of Republican to sign on to election conspiracy theories and be ready to demand a different result four years from now. It's not about this presidential election. It's about the next one.

The ground is now thoroughly prepared, and if Republicans win, they will attempt to accomplish precisely what Wisconsin's Michels promises: Republicans will never lose another election, because they will never allow any other result.

This pattern is too big and too pervasive to be dismissed or ignored. This is basic American, Norman Rockwell kind of stuff that the Republicans are coming out against. They are now the Anti-Republican Party. [links omitted, bold added]

I had a low-enough opinion of Donald Trump when I thought he was throwing a tantrum about his electoral loss and pandering to his most gullible followers. That was bad enough, but this seals the case that he is unfit for office as far as I am concerned.

America's political parties have seemingly been in a spirited competition for years to confuse the voters over which is the greater evil, but a party that plans to all but end voting would indeed be the winner.

Regardless of whether you agree with Tracinski's recommendation, his data and analysis are worth careful consideration.

My best guess is that the Republicans will win big tomorrow and the win will be taken by most as the indictment of Democrat policies and proposals that it is and should be.

But Trump's treachery will remain, behind the scenes for most, denied by many who are apolitical or who will find it too incredible, and supported by a few power-lusters.

Assuming for the sake of argument that Tracinski is correct and that his course of action is the right one, it is probably too late for it to make a difference in this election.

It is not too late, however, to help fellow Americans get up to speed on what is going on in the Republican party. It is disastrous that at the time we most need to be liberated from improper government, the GOP is apparently preparing to place us under its yoke instead. But at least we now know this is going on.

There is no such thing as "the right guys" to wield unlimited government power. That's the whole damned point of America.

-- CAV