My Theory: Rats Deserting Sinking Ship

[louis c]

I have a theory. The right wing Trump sycophants, as well as some more moderate members of his "team" know what's coming and they are looking for excuses to abandon the listing S.S. Trump.

17 investigations (and Trump has to go 17 and 0 to avoid indictment) are breathing down the necks of everything Trump. Their asses are hanging out, and they know it. Even Matt Whitaker is turtling and needed to be scolded by Trump, twice. Ingram, Rush and Fox and Fiends are pulling out. Doucey was harder on Sarah Sanders than I could ever have imagined involving the Syria pullout. He actually accused Trump of aiding ISIS right to Sarah's face (through the TV screen).

I see cracks in the Senate and the House. Not big ones, mind you, but cracks none the less. They all seem to be angling for an issue to break with Trump.

In my personal life, I have seen elections in which an incumbent looks vulnerable, then moves to looking unelectable. Formally loyal supporters start looking for excuses to abandon ship. "I asked him for a job for my kid, and he acted like he didn't know me", "I saw his wife in the shopping center and she didn't even say hi", "He didn't file my grievance and I know I was right". You get the picture. If the Mayor or Union President can't be beat, all these same people are just fine and will praise him or her to anyone who will listen. It's in their best interest. But, once they see the ship taking on water, they don't use the truth "he can't win" or in this case "he can't survive" as the legitimate excuse to jump overboard, they lie to themselves and anyone who will listen, that it's not their fault, the incumbent has abandoned them.

That's what's happening now to Trump. Pretty soon, your Trump friends will be saying that Donald was never a Republican or that they only voted for Trump to stop Hillary, or they may even say they voted third party and never voted for Trump at all. I saw this before. In 1973 and 1974 I watched the Nixon supporters start to stampede to the exits. But it was any reason other than "I fucked up and was fooled by an asshole".

Watch it. Here it comes.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/%e2%80%98this-is-tyranny-of-talk-radio-hosts-right%e2%80%99-limbaugh-and-coulter-blamed-for-trump%e2%80%99s-shutdown/ar-BBRjdHh?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=DELLDHP17

[smirkymonkey]

1. K&R

[Wellstone ruled]

2. When the leader creats a Hostile

Environment in his or her Work Place,well that environment will come back in many forms to destroy that Leader. Once the Sunlight gets in,that Leader is done.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Agree 100%.

At the beginning, I’m sure the Republican powers-that-be thought the Trumpster fire could be “contained” – just talk him out of being a loudmouthed asshole for four years while they ran the country without his input. He’d just be there to fire-up the base when necessary, and sign whatever they put in front of him without question.

Well, it didn’t turn out that way – and now they’re caught between that proverbial rock and a hard place. The “base” is being eroded, slowly but surely, as he becomes more unhinged.

So now it’s a matter of trying not to call him as asshole (out of fear the base will turn on them), while simultaneously distancing themselves from an untrainable, unmuzzled mad dog.

They know Trump is causing damage that will be pinned on the GOP, they know that his entire administration is a disaster, and they know that anything the Democrats do to clean up this mess will make it that much more obvious just how badly he (and they) have fucked up.

And it’s about to get a whole lot worse. With the Dems in control of the House, every rock is about to be overturned to reveal the sliminess underneath. Every carpet will be lifted to expose everything that’s been swept under it. And every Republican who aided-and-abetted the traitor will be called upon to explain what they’ve allowed to happen on their watch.

As abjectly stupid as your average Republican can be, even the dumbest among them are realizing that it’s time to jump ship and head for the lifeboats.

The average rat knows when to bail – which means the dumb-ass Republicans will eventually catch-on, too.

[erronis]

4. How can they sleep at night? How do they explain to their kids that wrecking the country is good?

There's something else going on that is stronger than moral revulsion, which I think comes with the price of being human or sentient.

These people are not touched by empathy or ethics or just plain getting-along. They are driven to drive a hard wedge deep into the heart of the US government.

I can't believe that repulicons are born with no natural sense of what is fair. They have to have been coddled and indoctrinated into an almost mechanistic sense of doing what is right for someone but wrong for the majority.

This indoctrination takes time and effort. Probably takes a lot of bribes and blackmail. It is hard to imagine this happening under the radar or the US (/etc.) intelligence groups. Are these groups part of the operation?

[louis c]

10. Remember, if Trump quits or is convicted by the Senate, he's replaced by Pence, not Clinton

A true Republican, as much as an asshole as he or she may be, is much more comfortable With mike Pence at the helm than with this crazy uncle, Donald Trump.

The problem is, how do the Republicans abandon Trump without his sycophant supporters within the GOP turning on the Republican establishment?

I think any elected Republican who is not part of the Freedom Caucus, Teabagger brigade, would want this nightmare to end and install truly, one of their own, Mike Pence, in the White House.

For those who believe this is going from bad to worse, let me remind you of how devoted Trump supporters are to Trump, and not to the GOP. If, for any reason, Trump is removed from office, that will divide the Republicans for years to come. They will eat their own.

[AlexSFCA]

5. trump supporters always blame somebody else

it’s a common trait among them. They never accept personal responsibility for anything.

[watoos]

6. The key to your theory,

is the right wing corporate controlled M$M. Yes, there are a few cracks showing, but the right still controls the narrative. Will the M$M blame both sides for the shutdown? Will the stock market rebound? Remember, big wigs control the M$M and if they feel that Trump is driving the market down they will dump him.

Mattis hurt Trump bigly. If he loses the military, and they were for him, it will be another nail in his coffin.

The Republicans in Congress will stay with Trump if the M$M helps with the narrative.

Watch for Reichstag fires or Putin helping with a false flag.

I know this, Donald Trump is scared shitless. I still see a possible nervous breakdown.

[orleans]

7. ...

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[SWBTATTReg]

8. Nice writeup. nt

[Progressive Jones]

9. K & R

[oberliner]

11. Not a single Republican Senator voted against his $5billion for the wall

[louis c]

12. Yes they did. Every One of Them

There was a unanimous Senate vote for a CR without wall funding a week ago.

However, every Republican Congressman voted for this bill. They didn't get the chance to vote on the Senate clean CR without the wall funding, but that would have passed in the House, too.

[oberliner]

13. No, they didn't

Every single one voted in favor - even Flake switched his NO vote to a YES.

[louis c]

14. Roll Call Link, Please

Here's my link to unanimous Senate vote of a CR without wall funding.

Link;
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay-benefits/2018/12/prospects-of-2019-pay-raise-still-unclear-as-senate-debates-short-term-funding-deal/

[oberliner]

15. Here you go

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00274

McConnell Motion to Lay Before Senate the House Message to Accompany H.R. 695 (The legislative vehicle for the CR). Yeas and nays ordered. The vote was 47-47. Vice President Pence voted in the affirmative to break the tie. Leader McConnell Motion to Concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 695

[louis c]

17. So, they voted both for the wall and against it.

We'll see if they remain united on the wall after Jan. 3.

They certainly don't seem to backing Trump on Syria (except for Rand Paul).

I didn't say in my OP that the Republicans in Congress are breaking with Trump all at once and now. It says there are cracks appearing.

The key here is that Fox News is appearing hostile. The Dam has not busted yet, but there seems to some stress fractures and the worst is yet to come (for Trump)

[oberliner]

18. When push comes to shove, they seem to have his back

They passed a CR to keep the government running, as you pointed out, but then Trump said he wouldn't sign it. Then they went back and all voted in favor of a spending bill with $5b allocated for the border wall - per his demands. Not a single Republican in the Senate voted against it. In fact, to the contrary, most of them (including their leader) got up and blamed the Democrats for the shutdown for not agreeing to the wall funding.

My view is that the Republicans in Congress are enabling his insanity and are just as bad as he is, for the most part, and in some cases are even worse. There are no reasonable Republicans in Congress who are truly taking a stand against him and his obvious gross incompetence for the job. They are too afraid of their bases - which is itself quite disturbing.

[louis c]

19. The Republicans Had Nixon's Back for Years...

...then they didn't.

We'll see what happens when the indictments start raining down.

[oberliner]

20. Trump has already out-done Nixon

And they still have his back.

[louis c]

21. The fall will come when fox news turns...

… and that's starting now. check this out at the 7 minute mark;

and the Republicans did not turn on Nixon until the tapes demonstrated irrefutable evidence. And, by the way, the Democrats controlled congress in 1973 and 1974. That doesn't happen to Trump until Jan. 3.

I was 22 years old in 1974. It took 2 years for Watergate to explode into resignation. We're nearing that same situation this time. The delay is that instead of investigating one crime with the support of congress, we're investigating 17 crimes with congress as an obstacle for the first 2 years. That's about to change.

[oberliner]

22. I hope you're right

[Moral Compass]

16. Absolutely agree

One of my co-workers, who is too young to remember Nixon asked me what I thought was going to happen.

I told her that we’re nearing the end and that when it happens it will be very fast.

This stunt with the shutdown is possibly the breaking point. Combine this with the Mueller report and it could all be over by March.