We saw this coming over two years ago. There would come the point where Trump would be so toxic that the Republicans in the media would have to pretend that Donald Trump isn't a Republican.
And of course, it would be born on Morning Joe, the lead Trump enabler throughout the election and beyond. Don't forget that Joe Scarborough sat in the limo with Trump in February of 2017, helping him polish his speech to Congress, sitting in the audience and giving Trump a standing O.
Every Republican on TV is looking for an exit sign, and the "I"m a constitutional conservative and Trump isn't a Republican" is the only exit they see, except...
...There's a sea of Republican base voters who think Trump is terrific.
...The Republican Party apparatus is all-in for a Trump re-election campaign, including eliminating primary debates from the 2020 schedule.
...Trump has nothing but spies and sycophants in the Republican Congress. Devin Nunes anyone?
But here's Morning Joe's panel disagreeing with Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House, who on his way out the door resigning from his seat not just his leadership position, lies that Trump is an asset to Republicans in 2018. Hilarious.
Of course Joe Scarborough has to play a both sides game that Republican hatred for Obama is exactly the same as the hatred for Trump on the left today:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Richard Haass, there is no evidence, no evidence at this time if you look back at the results of the past 18 months that Donald Trump is good for the Republican party. That what Paul Ryan said is not borne out the results of Virginia, Pennsylvania, in local elections. You can go state by state by state, special election by special election by special election, local race by local race by local race. We have the exact opposite of what was happening to Democrats when Barack Obama was president for eight years, Republicans cleaned up then, Democrats are outperforming historically now.
Both sides! Except for the indictments now and the lies about Obamacare then, it's completely the same.
And then Richard Haass makes our predictions come true:
RICHARD HAASS: In part because Donald Trump is not a Republican. His brand personally is what he is. So it's -- I don't see how others who are running under the Republican label benefit or gain from it. Donald Trump is not running on Republican ideas and he doesn't stand for a set of values or positions that other Republicans can wrap themselves in.
Wrap yourself in this, Richard: Republican base voters think Trump is their guy, and any Congressman who goes against Trump is a traitorous cuck.
But why should I write this post again when I wrote it in August of 2017?
The base of the Republican Party is the problem. They are still very much with Trump, and any Republican office holder who thinks to distance himself from Donald is likely to pay a heavy price not only in being called a "cuck" on social media, but in actual votes as well. And Donald Trump himself has shown a total willingness to run against a Republican member of Congress, even running ads against Nevada Senator Dean Heller during the Trumpcare debacle. Crossing Trump right now is hardly an option for a swing district house member.
The other problem is that the last time the Republican party abandoned their own history and re-invented their past is very fresh in memory. The average GOP voter could only abandon George W. Bush once a thoroughly Astroturfed "Tea Party" movement (that the complicit media pretended was a whole new political phenomenon) gave them a rallying cry away from Dubya.
The rich "intellectuals" of the party created "No Labels." But it's the same thing.
"Bush Republicans? That wasn't us. That was someone else. We never supported him."
Joe Scarborough, frequenter of Mar-A-Lago at how many Christmases, host of how many phone-in interviews and chummy "we know you can win, Donald" suck-ups, helping Donald with his speech to Congress in late February?
You're the one who needs a "soft landing" away from Trump.
