Trumps failing presidency has the GOP in a free fall

[StrictlyRockers]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-failing-presidency-has-the-gop-in-a-free-fall/2017/03/30/e0882d62-1581-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html

By Michael Gerson Opinion writer March 30 at 8:01 PM

In the aftermath of the GOP health-care debacle came a revealing act of candor. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan admitted that his party, which controls the House, Senate and White House, is not yet a “governing party” because it could not “get 216 people to agree with each other on how we do things.”

Since the rise of the tea party, there have been perhaps 30 members of the House — the Freedom Caucus — who have been consistently unwilling to vote for center-right policy because their anti-government convictions are unappeasable. Incited and abetted by conservative media, they made then-Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) life a living hell, and have greeted Ryan (Wis.) with sharpened pitchforks.

So a party at the peak of its political fortunes is utterly paralyzed. A caucus in control of everything is itself uncontrollable.

Heading into last year’s election, Republicans knew that this problem — the tea party predicament, the Freedom Caucus conundrum, the Boehner bog — had to be dealt with. The GOP needed a large and capable leader who could either unite the whole party (at least temporarily) with a bold, conservative vision, or peel off some centrist Democratic support with innovative policy. They needed an above-average president.

What they got is unimaginably distant from any of these goals. They got a leader who is empty — devoid of even moderately detailed preferences and incapable of using policy details in the course of political persuasion.
...

This is a pretty bad combination: empty, easily distracted, vindictive, shallow, impatient, incompetent and morally small. This is not the profile of a governing party.

...

It is now dawning on Republicans what they have done to themselves. They thought they could somehow get away with Trump. That he could be contained. That the adults could provide guidance. That the economy might come to the rescue. That the damage could be limited.

Instead, they are seeing a downward spiral of incompetence and public contempt — a collapse that is yet to reach a floor. A presidency is failing. A party unable to govern is becoming unfit to govern.

And what, in the short term, can be done about it? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Link to tweet

[LisaM]

1. The fact is that they are a minority, and only won because of an arcane system and hacking.

Both W and Trump were minority presidents. Our system has failed us in a spectacular way. We need to figure out how to square the system so that voters are picking their candidates, not candidates picking their voters, as has been pointed out.

I think our message works. We are the majority. But the system has proved that it's open to misuse and corruption and it also shows that it's possible to elect minority candidates.

This needs to end.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. And gerrymandering by state legislatures. Need independent permanent districting commissions. . . nt

[Dorn]

20. Repeat after me: Must... stop... gerrymandering

Michigan is trying to do something about it: What is GerryMandering?

[LisaM]

22. The problem is that it's a many-headed monster.

I don't know if you can do anything at the national level. There have been state-by-state victories (and we haven't seen the results of any fixes in any elections yet), but even if you control it in one state, it pops up in another. And the GOP is fighting it to its last breath in the courts to delay action.

I've said for years that the Republican governors collude on things to the point of racketeering.

[gordianot]

2. I think they are beginning to realize this.

......and they are beginning to figure out the source.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. The inability to even bring the repeal of the ACA to a vote

says a lot. The GOP shouldn't need the Dems for anything, but then they have no one to blame but themselves. American conservatives are the ones who validated christofascist theocrats as viable governors and leaders.

Also, Trump did not care what was in the bill. He bagged out to go attend his Touch Myself Rallies and wanted nothing to with the substance. He just sent his lap dogs to bark.

Screw em.

[dalton99a]

4. The demographics also works against them

which is why voter suppression and gerrymandering are so vitally important to them

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. And having deep cover spies working on election boards.

[randome]

7. And why they can't sustain this in the long run.

They've scraped the barrel clean and are now digging through the floor.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. That is what you get when you commit foreign espionage and steal the election.

Problem is far far far too many voters still think there is either nothing at all to see here or very little.

The problem is the conservative electorate.

[Johonny]

8. Of course if they wanted to do sane things then the freedom caucus could be ignored

because they could get Dem votes. The solution Boehner often used. So far neither Ryan or Trump seem to want to do basic, sane things, however...

[smirkymonkey]

9. K&R

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. And they don't have anyone decent to replace Trump.

There isn't anyone in their ranks that could fill the huge empty hole.

[cilla4progress]

11. And most galling...

who here is surprised?

We have all known since at least 2000 that they were a farce. Just glad karma is catching up with them.

[FSogol]

12. Repeat often: A party unfit to govern

[calimary]

28. Yep!

Not only that, but THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU.
They're FINE with yanking your health insurance away and throwing you to the wolves.
They're FINE with cutting any programs or funding that will result in throwing you to the wolves. They don't want to share. Their precious "Saint" Ayn Rand said they don't have to. To hell with the spirit behind Matthew 25:35-45 (that's the "whatever you do to the least of My brethren" one).

THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU.

[kytngirl]

14. Rubber Stamp

They thought they had someone who would just rubber stamp whatever they put in front of them. They didn't count on Steve Bannon actually running the show.

I've never felt 45 really wanted the office only the adulation. He thought he could just be a figure head and let others run the show and he sit around, sign stuff, get photo ops, hold rallies, and people would love him. He hates being in Washington and the day-to-day life of being president. That's why he leaves town every chance he gets.

I don't see how he can last another 4 months at this pace, let alone, 4 more years. He's lonely and he's constantly being watched (which must drive him crazy). He installed his daughter and son-in-law in the white house just so he'd have family around IMO. His wife disdains him and probably loves living in New York away from him. He probably talks to her like crap and treats her even worse. I mean, he doesn't go to NYC to see his wife and 10-year son on the weekends - he goes to Florida to play golf for crying out loud!! What kind of man is he? What kind of husband, father?

[calimary]

30. Welcome to DU, kytngirl!

That's what Grover Norquist & Fiends envisioned. A "president" as pen-holder. As long as he can hold a pen and sign whatever we put in front of him, that's all we need. I think that's close to verbatim, what he actually said.

They simple want to rule. They don't want anybody telling them what to do. THEY want to tell everybody else what to do.

And THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU.

And you're right - I don't think he even wants this job, especially now that he's gained a very faint notion of what the job actually entails in real life. I'm convinced, like you, that all he really wanted was to be able to slap the Presidential Seal on all his golf courses and sell merch. For which he could demand a higher price, since the Presidential Seal was on it. He saw it mainly as an opportunity to make even more money. And the interests of the people be damned. He was thinking fame and fortune, mainly because of the value his brand would gain. It probably didn't occur to him that he might actually have to work a little. And as a CEO, he's used to delegating all the work to underlings in exchange for big-sounding titles and proximity to "the big star." That only works in the business world.

[malaise]

15. And I shoud care because?

Please proceed ReTHUGs

[blue sky at night]

16. This has always been true...

anyone who thought otherwise is just intellectually L A Z Y or S T U P I D...what really upsets me is that so many folks failed to vote as it wasn't that important. This shit is getting real now and it could't be much worse for the republicants...assholes! I couldn't be happier but the damage they are doing may never be overcome.

I am so sick of looking at photos of the shitstain-in-chief I could throw up! Every article, every news show, every time anything is said we have to look at that sick face and his H A I R is enough to make rats run and hide.

NICE POST, Thanks!

[DFW]

17. "It is now dawning on Republicans what they have done to themselves." Yes, but....

It will never dawn upon them what they have done to the country and the rest of the world.

It seems beyond them to know or care.

[Leith]

18. It's Gratifying That They Are Finally Figuring Out That They Have Shot Themselves in the Foot

It's what they have been doing to the rest of us for the last 36 years. When they realize that and make an attempt to remedy it, that will be their first step back to sanity. Until then, let'em rot in their own filth.

[Nitram]

19. I'd suggest the party is only "at the peak of their fortunes" because they made promises...

they could never keep. Their fortune is based on fraud, and is hollow to the core. They thought they could use Trump to consolidate power. Turns out they grabbed the tiger by the tail and it has turned on them.

[Marie Marie]

21. "Doing Big Things is Hard" - P. Ryan

Idiot!

[paleotn]

25. Uh, yea, Eddie Munster....

that's why the call them big things.

And I thought the antagonists in Animal House were fictional. Gee they're dumb.

[pretzel4gore]

23. we lost WW2...

no one noticed, but the fascasti stood by and let the Revolution burn itself out destroying Hitlerism...it maybe took until 1990 for USSR to sputter out, but...the nazipoohs were ok with that. How is it NO ONE noticed that the men running the 'democracys' were hard rightwing racist goofs! The greatest generation DID NOTHING when the fascists hog tied the Revolution with its space/arms race- which USSR couldn't afford (20 million dead and 1/3 economy in ruins!).... I mean, c'mon, the US is a rightwing stoogeocracy, so is Ca-nada, the Euros, the Asians and ...indeed the entire ofus. WE're fascists! gettit. RIGHTWING supporters of privilege 'for the few' while the left wing 'needs of the many' just moulder along with John Brown's Body...
By the way, we lost the US civil war too...

[jeanmarc]

24. They haven't been governing for near a decade

And they don't know how to do it. That's the bottom line.

They are do nothing idiots. And Paul Ryan is one of them. Quit your crying and since you have control of everything, make really bad legislation. They can't make ANY legislation.

I'm so angry at the gerrymandering that has allowed these bozos to hold power and do nothing forever. I live in Texas, so there's not much I can do.

[caroldansen]

26. Hey how about swinging every Texan over to our side and go blue.

[Turbineguy]

27. Let's hope more Americans will notice.

We still have the ballot box.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. In 2016, the Guardian was asking whether the GOP had imploded for good

and then they won the White House, the Senate, the HOR, and most of the state houses.

Yes, they DESERVE to be done for good, but don't overlook the racist, deluded, evil pricks in the US population that will continue to support this shit.

[Cha]

31. "This is a pretty bad combination: empty, easily distracted, vindictive, shallow, impatient,

incompetent and morally small" Morally kaput... oh, and OCD.

yallerdawg http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8879083

Mahalo, StricklyRockers! This is Good from Michael Gerson