It's that we knew it was going to be this bad.
Wolff's book is merely validation. We've been getting stories of dysfunction and ineptitude all through 2017. All he does is confirm how bad it all is. And all this revelation does is underscore just how failed a political party the Republicans are for letting it go on.
To quote James Fallows at the Atlantic:
But what Wolff is describing is an open secret.
Based on the excerpts now available, Fire and Fury presents a man in the White House who is profoundly ignorant of politics, policy, and anything resembling the substance of perhaps the world’s most demanding job. He is temperamentally unstable... He is aswirl in foreign and financial complications. He has ignored countless norms of modern governance, from the expectation of financial disclosure to the importance of remaining separate from law-enforcement activities. He relies on immediate family members to an unusual degree; he has an exceptionally thin roster of experienced advisers and assistants; his White House staff operations have more in common with an episode of The Apprentice than with any real-world counterpart...
This is “news,” in its detail... But it also is an open secret. This is the man who offered himself to the public over the past two-and-a-half years...
...Who is also in on this open secret? Virtually everyone in a position to do something about it, which at the moment means members of the Republican majority in Congress.
They know what is wrong with Donald Trump. They know why it’s dangerous. They understand—or most of them do—the damage he can do to a system of governance that relies to a surprising degree on norms rather than rules, and whose vulnerability has been newly exposed. They know—or should—about the ways Trump’s vanity and avarice are harming American interests relative to competitors like Russia and China, and partners and allies in North America, Europe, and the Pacific.
They know. They could do something: hearings, investigations, demands for financial or health documents, subpoenas. Even the tool they used against the 42nd president, for failings one percent as grave as those of the 45th: impeachment.
They know. They could act. And they don’t. The failure of responsibility starts with Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, but it doesn’t end with them. Every member of a bloc-voting majority shares responsibility for not acting on their version of the open secret. “Independent” Republicans like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski share it. “Thoughtful” ones, like Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake. Those (in addition to Flake) who have nothing to lose electorally, from Bob Corker to Orrin Hatch. When they vote as a majority against strong investigations, against subpoenas, against requirements for financial disclosure, and most of all against protecting Robert Mueller and his investigation, they share complicity in the open secret...
The Republican Party signed away any accountability when they surrendered their ethics and their norms to an increasingly loud, bullying Far Right faction that hounded out all Moderates and forced elected officials to bow and scrape to wingnut pundits whom nobody elected.
Ryan and McConnell could do something, if they had any integrity and sense of history. But they don't. Even if they had any sense of ambition, they'd have to know letting trump drive this bus would be a disaster for the GOP in the long-term. But their only ambition has been to pass a massive tax cut for the uber-rich that they hope the Democrats can never undo.
Just look at the number of Republicans jumping ship (such as Flake) refusing to face re-election. You'd think with their party in control of all three branches they'd stay on, maintain their incumbency and dominance in office. But they're fleeing like rats from a sinking ship, because they know the United States is gonna suffer sooner rather than later and they don't want to be caught carrying the loot when the mobs show up with the tar and feathers.
No one has the nerve to step up and publicly confront trump on his lies, his failures, his ineptitude and his greed. Anyone who does gets marked for termination by the wingnut base.
Just look at Steve "Guy Is More Out-of-Shape Than I Am" Bannon, one of the major wingnut media pundits who had contributed to the more venomous parts of Wolff's book. By betraying trump's confidence - and by opening hinting that trump and trump's inner circle are neck-deep in Russian hackery - Bannon has suddenly lost a lot of support among his once-supportive wingnut allies. His deep-pocket funder (the Mercers) have cut him off after one angry phone call from trump. Conspiracy nut Alex Jones - one of trump's sources of misinformation - is starting a flame war on Bannon's sorry hide.
If the Far Right wingnut voting base is going to side with anyone in a fight between trump vs. The Establishment, they will clearly side with trump (even if it takes out one of their own).
That has the entire Republican Party terrified of trump. Not trump himself: the trump Voters.
And we're stuck.
Because the Republicans hold reign in Congress, there will be no hearings, no interviews, no impeachment proceedings. They are even attempting to hinder the DoJ/FBI investigations into trump and his criminal sidekicks because they fear the backlash the voters will aim at them if they just stand there and let Mueller do his job.
This was one hell of a practical joke we've pulled on ourselves as a nation, isn't it?
The Republicans allowed the biggest clown in American culture to run for the highest political office in the land, and enough voters bought into the snake oil to let a broken Electoral College system (and likely Russian interference) trick out an unjustifiable "win" that feels more like the biggest loss our nation's ever suffered.
Wolff's book merely shows just how bad a joke this all is. And nobody I know is laughing about it.
1 comment:
"Semiliterate" was the characterization that stood out for me. I liked what Colbert said about it, that it was a real-life version of "The Producers" because look at all of the happy Nazis.
I'm trying to prepare myself and the folks I care about for the epic fit he will throw when all of the lies come crashing down and he's forced to face who and what he really is in public.
In the language of malignant narcissism, it's called a "collapse" and he's facing it in pretty much every direction. It's the point after which denial no longer works to hold up the lies.
As for Ryan and McConnell, Ryan may lose this year, and McConnell is such a prick that watching him have his way with Bannon wasn't as entertaining as I'd hoped.
-Doug in Oakland
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