Why Trump’s sycophants cling to him like wet clothes
In one way, Donald Trump is a remarkable judge of character, with an uncanny ability to predict human behavior — even when that prediction harnesses the darkest sides of human nature. Remember when, as a real estate developer and game show host running for president in 2016, he outlandishly claimed he could shoot someone in public, and followers would still have his back? Well, yeah, I finally have to concede they probably would. Still, it’s interesting he’d so casually even suggest initiating bloodshed to make that point.
Thankfully, it didn’t take that much to document this president’s widespread, unconditional support from his base. All Trump had to do approaching the final days of his presidency was try to strongarm Georgia’s secretary of state to fake that state’s election outcome in Trump’s favor.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have” he is heard telling that official, Brad Raffensperger, in a Saturday phone call in advance of today’s election certification that will officially declare Joe Biden the next president. And:
“The people of Georgia are angry and these numbers are going to be repeated on Monday night along with others that we’re going to have by that time that are going to be be much more substantial, and there’s nothing wrong with saying that you’ve recalculated.”
And more. Despite unequivocal insistence by Raffensperger, a Republican, and his attorney that the outcome is legitimate, Trump persisted in throwing around the specter of scads of mysterious votes suddenly being discovered after polls were closed (in fact, those were absentee ballots, which can be counted later) or “rumors” of voting machines or parts of them being removed, which has prompted the threat of a lawsuit by Dominion, the machine maker.
Still, Trump’s sycophants in Congress — dozens of Republican House members and a dozen senators — are willing to sacrifice their own credibility and the rule of law by supporting Trump’s spurious claims. That’s not to mention Vice President Mike Pence, for whom any hopes of a 2024 run for president could go up in smoke by throwing in his lot with the Republicans insisting that Congress create a commission to investigate fraud claims.
And who is this Trump base with which these Republicans are trying to curry favor by clinging to him like wet clothes? There are anti- government folks who nonetheless want Congress to act outside the law when it suits their agenda. There are people fervently
“America first” and anticommunist, which is ironic given Trump’s fascination with strongmen such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. And then there’s the anti“political correctness” crowd (to put it kindly) to which Trump has winked and nodded with appeals to white supremacists and vows to build a wall cutting off Mexico.
And what becomes now of honest, ethical, independent-minded members of the Republican Party, people like Raffensperger, who refused to concede to Trump’s abhorrent calls to change the facts? What about a Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, or a Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who voice legitimate concern for the future of the party and over the divisions in America?
Imagine if Trump could have used his ability to sway a crowd or predict its behavior for good outcomes instead of what seem increasingly like criminal ones. The scary part is that he’d so willingly have taken the country, and those lemmings, down with him to satisfy his own ego. We can only hope he’ll be held responsible and stopped from doing that so a new president can get on with the business of pulling the nation together again.