COWARDS GET WHAT THEY DESERVE

It’s too late for a radical reinvention of the Trump GOP

As late-stage Trumpism slouches toward defeat, it has belatedly dawned on some GOP senators that they may be about to share Donald Trump’s fate. Politico reports that it has “has become safe at last to diss Donald Trump — or at least to distance themselves from him in unmistakably purposeful ways.” The party is reportedly “gripped by dread,” and we hear that “even Trump loyalists are chafing when asked how deep their support for the president runs.” By one account, the “list of Republican senators suddenly finding religion is as long as it is surprising.”

Axios tells us that after years “of holding their tongues,[b] [/b] a few Republicans have started to separate themselves from President Trump and his possible political collapse,” while the National Journal reports that “Republicans [are] ditching Trump as their Senate prospects worsen.”

But look past the veneer brought on by poll-driven pre-election panic, and the evidence for a true change of heart is thin to the point of being almost non-existent. Nebraska’s Ben Sasse apparently vented about Trump on a conference call with constituents, but the other bids for separation are modest, at best — like Trump himself is fond of, gold-plating, not the real thing.

Martha McSally dithered and dodged when asked whether she was “proud” of Trump. Mitch McConnell took a swipe at the way the Trump White House handled the coronavirus. Ted Cruz told one interviewer that the GOP might suffer a “bloodbath of Watergate proportions” in the upcoming election. Susan Collins was, as usual, concerned.

But with the possible exception of Sasse, none of them are really breaking with Trump in any meaningful way, even as they face an anti-Trump tidal wave. The reality is: They can’t.

It’s October 2020. It’s too late. For better or worse, they are stuck with the die they cast long ago, to let themselves become Trumpian lickspittles. The bill for their Faustian bargain has come due.

Over the last four years, they ignored one chance after another to take an off-ramp from Trump. And while they might now boast about driving on his highway at 55 rather than 65, they’re driving on it nonetheless.

Before the election, they could have broken decisively with him over his support for a ban on Muslims, his comments on prisoners of war, his denigration of Gold Star families, the “Access Hollywood” video, allegations of sexual assault, and his other multiple frauds.

During his presidency, they went along with Trump even as he savaged fiscal conservatism, free trade, the global world order, our allies, common decency, truth and the rule of law.

While some of them became fanatical fan-boys a la Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, most of them behaved differently. They knew exactly who Trump was from the beginning, and they didn’t like it much. Many of them were willing to share their concerns privately.

But in public, they were pusillanimous. When they weren’t applauding, they turned a blind eye, and another, and another.

Frightened by the prospect of a presidential tweet, they ignored his crude xenophobia, his exploitation of racial divisions, his personal corruption, and his fascination with authoritarian thugs.

They could have said “stop” at any point. They could have raised their voices and used their votes to rebuff him. But they didn’t.

They told themselves that judges or tax cuts made it all worthwhile. They told themselves that this is what the GOP base wanted.

So they didn’t push back as a torrent of falsehoods flowed from the White House, or even when he targeted their own Senate colleagues with insults.

They watched impotently as Trump attacked and betrayed our allies and threatened to withdraw from NATO. They could have bailed when he downplayed the Russian attack on our elections, or when he sided with Vladimir Putin rather than our own intelligence agencies in Helsinki.

GOP senators had a chance to take an off-ramp when Trump fired the FBI director, or referred to immigrants from “shithole countries,” or when he praised the racist protesters in Charlottesville as including “very fine people.”

In October 2017, Jeff Flake tried to prick their consciences. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the Arizonan made a plea for a return to decency.

“We must never regard