Joe Scarborough insists Trump is a big-government Democrat.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: As Mika and I have said from the very beginning, one of those people it would annoy is Donald Trump who we've always said was a big government Democrat. He's proven that. You look at the debt. You look at the spending increases. There's nothing about him that is about small government conservativism. And, you know, and it's interesting that -- there are some Republicans who say I'm going to stay and fight the good fight. For me, the break, not with the party, but with Donald Trump, came with the Muslim ban back in December of 2015. You can add to that Donald Trump apologizing for neo-Nazis. You can add to that pretending, feigning ignorance over the Klan and David Duke. Polls that show 90% of Republicans that still support this guy. I do wonder how you justify staying with that party.

It's the lifeboat Joe has chosen as his way out of culpability for bringing Trump legitimacy with phone-in interviews monthly during the presidential campaign.

Have you not heard about the conservative/Republican lifeboat brigade, coming to a TV screen near you? Driftglass explains in this long post, highly recommend you read the whole thing:

A new a fleet of lifeboats hurry-up-quick to escape the catastrophe they had each, in their own way, worked their entire adult lives to unleash.

The New Big Lie would incorporate some elements of the Old Big Lie ("Both Sides Do It") --

We should ALL,the Dems,the GOP,the media,admit our role in turning politics into theatre. Being outrageous equals clicks,viewers & therefore ratings & $ for media & fame for politicians. Being normal gets you ignored & a primary challenger for being “too weak”.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 8, 2018

I fear we’re headed toward a place where hefty majorities of both sides of the electorate are going to regularly embrace unsupported and blatantly false assertions.

Technological fragmentation of media enabled it, and siloed fan-servicing media practices are accelerating it... https://t.co/DK1UwQNpA9

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 8, 2018

-- and some minor variations, but the major themes would be:

1. Surprise!  Donald Trump is not a real Republican.  Despite the fact that he rolled up historic victories in the Republican primaries, easily wiped out an entire field of better-qualified Republican contenders, was nominated by the Republican Party, won on the Republican ticket, and has made the Republican congress into his willing political bidet, somehow Donald Trump is not a real Republican.  This is a lie which Joe Scarborough is particularity fond of, having repeated on his teevee show, by my count, about seven million times over the past three years.   Joe Scarborough, who might as well have handed Trump a personal check for 100 million dollars for all the free air-time he gave him.
2. Also, for you kids keeping score at home, Donald Trump is not a real Conservative either.

Joe not only forgets his own past, he pretends that Ronald Reagan and the two Bushs were "small government." A look at their deficits proves otherwise.

But this isn't about remembering the past accurately, again, this is about planning ahead for a time when Trump is no more, and Joe Scarborough can go back to having Tom Friedman on his show to promote a Grand Bargain for Social Security, or Bill Kristol to be wrong about elections, or to promote some new book about how "both sides" are equally to blame for the mess in Washington.

This isn't Joe Scarborough's first trip to the Lifeboat shipyard. After Dubya lied us into war and destroyed the economy, Joe wrote "The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise" in the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand-and-Ten:

...to insist that the Republican Party had to rebrand itself and return to the "principles" of Edmund Burke and Ronald Reagan. (Has Joe noticed what happened to spending under Reagan? Nevermind)

Let's not forget that Joe let Donald Trump phone into Morning Joe at least six times AFTER the "disqualifying" Muslim Ban was floated.

Let's not forget that Joe and Mika visited Mar A Lago for a pre-inauguration New Year's Party in 2017.

Let's not forget Joe Scarborough met with Trump prior to his first address to Congress and may have helped draft the speech. He sat on the House floor during the speech except when he stood to applaud.

All this lifeboat building and rebranding after Republican failures has to be met with rejection and ridicule. It's a joke.

#BurnTheLifeboats