Trump's Republican Allies Are Going to Help Him Burn It All Down

[Newest Reality]

As the president takes a blowtorch to American democracy, people like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham—who called the process “lawless” and said “everything should be on the table,” respectively—are fanning the flames.

The entire premise of Donald Trump’s life is that he has never once been defeated. His project, and that of those around him, then, has been to maintain that illusion. This hasn’t always succeeded. He’s lost plenty of things—money, court cases. But never before has he faced the kind of public humiliation he seems poised to as Joe Biden’s victory becomes inevitable. How does someone who delights in calling others “losers” react to becoming a loser himself, in the most concrete sense of the word? How does the most vainglorious man in America bring himself to accept defeat and concede?

The answer, of course, is that he doesn’t. Unable to face the reality of his circumstances, he is doubling down on his delusions—that the world is conspiring against him; that he’s the big, strong winner he’s always claimed to be. He wants to convince his supporters, the courts, and himself that he is both victim and victor and has made clear that he’ll burn everything to the ground to do so. This is unsurprising. If his decades of public life have taught us anything, it’s that he simply can’t help himself. But the aides and allies who have enabled him these past four years are not bound by his paranoias and neuroses. They’re making a choice. And while some who have stood by him now seem to be taking tentative steps backward, others are sticking, enabling him still as he tries to take a blowtorch to the foundation of democracy.

Claiming that he’s actually won the race but that Democrats, the media, and others are stealing the election from him via widespread fraud, Trump has insisted—on Twitter mostly, but also in a sad attempt at a strongman speech at a White House briefing Thursday—that states stop tabulating votes, except where he’s behind. Several Republicans have broken with him, saying that all votes must be counted. “Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud,” Marco Rubio, who has frequently humiliated himself at the Trumpian altar after criticizing him during the 2016 campaign, tweeted Wednesday. But several of Trump’s loyalists have egged him on.

“It is lawless,” Ted Cruz told Sean Hannity Thursday night, echoing Trump’s lies about cheating. “And they need to follow the law.” “Everything should be on the table,” Lindsey Graham said on the same program, when asked if the votes Trump has falsely characterized as fraudulent should be invalidated. “Philadelphia elections are as crooked as a snake,” the president’s golf buddy added, referring to the city whose absentee ballot count would eventually swing the crucial Pennsylvania race toward Biden. “President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Laura Ingraham. “We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes.” “Join together,” he added, “and let’s stop this.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/trump-republican-allies-ted-cruz-lindsey-graham-burn-it-all-down-election-2020

[Phoenix61]

1. There is the possibility of a psychotic break.

Fingers crossed.

[BainsBane]

2. Ja era, as Brazilians say

that happened ages ago.

[flor-de-jasmim]

4. Pois, verdade. E no h remdio.

[BainsBane]

5. ta certo

[Thekaspervote]

3. That would be a blessing...really!!

[bluestarone]

6. Got a feeling Rump is gonna need ALL

of those 11 DRS. he had for covid NOW!!!

[calimary]

7. All I can say at this point is - when's it OVER?

When is HE over? When do we finally get to be done with the donald?

Probably will have to deal with him and the wreckage he left behind - for decades. There’ll be entire libraries filled with books about this era and him and what a wreck he wound up being. I suspect, and frankly, I fear, that he probably won’t ever completely go away.

He’s left a big mark. A gaping hole. A crater. A permanent scar across the face of America.