Paul Krugman (at his best): "Faust on the Potomac"

[kpete]

..................

Early on, some speculated that this would be a temporary alliance – that establishment Republicans would use Trump to get what they wanted, then turn on him. But it’s now clear that won’t happen. Trump has exceeded everyone’s worst expectations, yet Republicans, far from cutting him loose, are tying themselves even more closely to his fate. Why?

The answer, I’d argue, is that they’re stuck. They knowingly made a deal with the devil, and can’t back out.

More specifically, Trump’s very awfulness means that if he falls, the whole party will fall with him. Republicans could conceivably distance themselves from a president who turned out to be a bad manager, or even one who turned out to have engaged in small-time corruption. But when the corruption is big time, and it’s combined with obstruction of justice and collaboration with Putin, nobody will notice which Republicans were a bit less involved, a bit less obsequious, than others. If Trump sinks, he’ll create a vortex that sucks down everyone involved.

And so we now have the Republican party as a whole fully complicit in Trump’s crimes – because that’s what they are, whether or not he and those around him are ever brought to justice.

What this means, among other things, is that expecting the GOP to exercise any oversight or constrain Trump in any way is just foolish at this point. Massive electoral defeat – massive enough to overwhelm gerrymandering and other structural advantages of the right – is the only way out.



the rest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/opinion/faust-on-the-potomac.html

[underpants]

1. That's a classic

[shraby]

2. I hold that when the DNC was hacked so too was the rnc. Nothing was released because it's

being used to blackmail members of congress to keep them in line.

[HootieMcBoob]

3. That's very likely

The entire Republican Party has become a fifth column. We have to rely on the press, the special counsel and the citizenry to save us. We're in deep trouble and it doesn't appear that there is anyone within the GOP with the integrity to stand up and speak out against the treasonous behavior of their party.

[uponit7771]

12. Yep, most likely they all too Russian money at one time and the Russians have it documented

[disndat]

20. Don't Forget

The Koch Bros. and Mercer's endless money also. I think it will be hard to fight. I think the Republicans were paid off to put
over the Tax Reform bill, for instance, Susan Collins, so that they would be well off even with the lost of seat for voting the tax bill and also for the end of Obamacare,
If Trump goes, the Kochs and Mercers will find another puppet to replace him.

[uponit7771]

21. +1

[tomp]

18. that sounds like a reasonable hypothesis. nt

[Squinch]

4. It's not pithy but that last line should be burned into all of our minds.

[handmade34]

5. "...no elected Republican

not one – has the strength of character to even attempt an escape..."


we must ask why the immoral are so powerful and what can we do about it??

[Stuart G]

6. k and r...thank you....great post..

[joshdawg]

7. republicans CAN back out,

but every last one of them is a coward!

[lindysalsagal]

8. Concise description of potus 45's crimes:

Trump is morally and intellectually incapable of being president. He has also exploited his office for personal gain, obstructed justice, and colluded with a hostile foreign power.

[lindysalsagal]

9. Wiki's Faust:

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540).

Faust is a charlatan who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. "Faust" and the adjective "Faustian" imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a delimited term.

[dalton99a]

10. Hang Trump around the neck of every Republican running for office this year

and every year in the future.

They are his enablers and accomplices

[malaise]

11. And so we now have the Republican party as a whole fully complicit in Trumps crimes?

NOW? Huh!

[uponit7771]

13. +1, "massive enough to overwhelm gerrymandering "

[dhol82]

14. Yup, that is the problem to overcome

We have to have a massive turnout in November.
I remember hearing Randi Rhodes, back in 2002, crying out for everybody to vote. She made the convincing argument that they could steal an election when the numbers were low but it would be much more difficult to finagle the results when it was a blow out.

[democrank]

15. The Republicans' aiding and abetting is the big story.

Stand up, speak out, demand accountability, RESIST, over and over and over.

[flying_wahini]

16. Ummm, that's what we @DU have been saying for months.

N/t

[tomp]

17. Right. So what do we do about voting integrity, Mr. Krugman?

The democrats have done nothing about it. You got any ideas?

[DallasNE]

19. But There Is Still Fox News And Pravda

And enough people are trapped in that web to keep the repudiation level down. Computers have turned gerrymandering into a fine tuned science and Citizens United provides unlimited dark money.