“by Neil H. Buchanan
“With the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg having been so quickly followed by Republicans’ gleeful and immediate abuse of power politics to replace her, there has been a renewed effort to explain why the political party that Trump took over with great hostility only four years ago is now so completely in the tank for the pathological liar who continually makes them look ridiculous.”
[Ed. note: He now makes them look like criminals.]
“The most popular theory continues to be that this was, in the words of MSNBC’s evening pundit Chris Hayes … a ‘Devil’s Bargain.’ Trump, in this telling, is an unpleasant means to an end; if Republicans can put up with his depredations, then he will take them to the promised land by giving them highly regressive tax cuts and a load of hyper-conservative judges. …
“But that theory is wrong. … The evidence instead leaves only one possible conclusion. Republicans simply like what Trump is, what he does, and the depths of bigoted authoritarianism to which he would take this country. Moreover, they never cared about the other stuff. They are not tolerating a repellent quid in order to get a delightful quo. It is win-win for them all the way down.
“Or, to put the point more vividly, the popular explanation of Trumpian fervor imagines that Republicans are saying, ‘Well, I’ll somehow get myself to put up with the icky stuff if I must.’ But what if they like the icky stuff? …”
[Ed. note: Do you still have to wonder anymore?]
“Now, Republicans have put themselves in a position where they have only one route to keeping power, and that is to help Trump destroy democracy itself. I have been predicting for years that Trump would refuse to accept losing this year and that Republicans would have every reason to go along with the internal coup, and these last few months have only made it more obvious that this is so. … And if they must help Trump steal an election and end constitutional democracy as we have known it to get what they want, Republicans seem not only untroubled by that but actually eager to do so.
“This is not a reluctant quid pro quo. This is a hateful mutual admiration society.”
“Neil H. Buchanan, an economist and legal scholar, holds the James J. Freeland Eminent Scholar Chair in Taxation at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. His research addresses economic and philosophical aspects of justice between generations, and he is particularly interested in policies that affect budget deficits, the national debt, health care costs, and Social Security.”
This article was posted at Verdict.justia.com on September 20, 2020. Prof. Buchanan (he teaches law at the University of Florida; bio here) understood the dynamics of Republicans’ embrace of Trump well, but even he didn’t foresee that his followers would attempt a violent coup with the moral support of the Republican Party. For his full perspective, read the entire article here.