All those more “competent” fascists are simply trying to position themselves for the inevitable post-Trump GOP. God will eventually exercise His Ultimate Veto on Donald Trump. When that happens, the GOP will appear to be divided into folks who double down on Trumpism (like Vance), and folks who are just as evil but will use Trump’s absence as a fig leaf to pretend the party has changed (like DeSantis)
This division won’t be real at all. It will all be performative, like the Kayfabe in Pro Wrestling, or the factions in Survivor. It will still be racism and Fascism all the way down. But the GOP Reality Show will still need to pretend there is a choice that they can rally the team around.
I think you underestimate how much these people all hate each other. Trump fealty is the only thing keeping them together. And it still sometimes surfaces. Laura Loomer’s recent Twitter spat with Marjorie Taylor-Greene where Loomer threatened to release compromising information on Taylor-Greene is a good example.
They may fall in line eventually, but not until after most of them have destroyed each other. Maybe that will lead to another demagogue like Trump, but in the mean time, they’ll all be out for each other’s blood in some amazing factionalism.
It is how cults of personality tend to work. That person dies, and they fall apart. There’s splinters that cause problems for decades to come, yes, but they have to rebuild their whole political power from scratch.
For every cult of personality that you’ve heard of that sustained themselves in the long run after their leader’s death (like Scientology), there’s a hundred more you haven’t that faded away. For example, the Oneida Community. The leader, John Humphrey Noyes, fled the United States following an arrest warrant for statutory rape in 1879, and the group basically dissolved after that. The only thing left is the silverware company.
The thing about fascists is that there’s a certain skill for unifying them. I don’t know if anyone but trump in American politics has this skill because they were divided before him. There was the setup phase, the tea party, militia movement, etc where normies were being radicalized more and more towards the right. But until trump they lacked a rallying point.
No, there are other things keeping them together, like “starve the beast” tax cuts, racism, and Fascism. They want to make sure that the “others” are sufficiently put in their place.
There may be some collateral damage along the way. Loomer is especially dangerous because she is unaccountable to voters, so is able to do things that a politician looking for votes cannot. But I don’t think the occasional slap fight will derail the overall mission of the party to entrench themselves as the ruling class, in spite of their dwindling numbers.
All those more “competent” fascists are simply trying to position themselves for the inevitable post-Trump GOP. God will eventually exercise His Ultimate Veto on Donald Trump. When that happens, the GOP will appear to be divided into folks who double down on Trumpism (like Vance), and folks who are just as evil but will use Trump’s absence as a fig leaf to pretend the party has changed (like DeSantis)
This division won’t be real at all. It will all be performative, like the Kayfabe in Pro Wrestling, or the factions in Survivor. It will still be racism and Fascism all the way down. But the GOP Reality Show will still need to pretend there is a choice that they can rally the team around.
I think you underestimate how much these people all hate each other. Trump fealty is the only thing keeping them together. And it still sometimes surfaces. Laura Loomer’s recent Twitter spat with Marjorie Taylor-Greene where Loomer threatened to release compromising information on Taylor-Greene is a good example.
I don’t know. I mean, they definitely hate each other, but there is also nothing Republicans do better than falling in line when it matters.
They may fall in line eventually, but not until after most of them have destroyed each other. Maybe that will lead to another demagogue like Trump, but in the mean time, they’ll all be out for each other’s blood in some amazing factionalism.
I wish I shared your optimism.
It is how cults of personality tend to work. That person dies, and they fall apart. There’s splinters that cause problems for decades to come, yes, but they have to rebuild their whole political power from scratch.
For every cult of personality that you’ve heard of that sustained themselves in the long run after their leader’s death (like Scientology), there’s a hundred more you haven’t that faded away. For example, the Oneida Community. The leader, John Humphrey Noyes, fled the United States following an arrest warrant for statutory rape in 1879, and the group basically dissolved after that. The only thing left is the silverware company.
The thing about fascists is that there’s a certain skill for unifying them. I don’t know if anyone but trump in American politics has this skill because they were divided before him. There was the setup phase, the tea party, militia movement, etc where normies were being radicalized more and more towards the right. But until trump they lacked a rallying point.
No, there are other things keeping them together, like “starve the beast” tax cuts, racism, and Fascism. They want to make sure that the “others” are sufficiently put in their place.
There may be some collateral damage along the way. Loomer is especially dangerous because she is unaccountable to voters, so is able to do things that a politician looking for votes cannot. But I don’t think the occasional slap fight will derail the overall mission of the party to entrench themselves as the ruling class, in spite of their dwindling numbers.