A Huffington Post article on Monday, June 13, 2023 (read it here), summed it up:
“Despite all the criminal accusations and investigations, Trump remains the Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination.”
To be fair, Trump has only been found civilly liable for sexual assault, had his business organization dinged for tax fraud, is entitled to a presumption of innocence with respect to the 71 felony counts pending against him, and it’s possible Republican voters are waiting to see how the latter plays out before making final judgment.
Possible. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. After all, so far they’ve excused his racism, bigotry, incompetence, incessant lying, and an orchestrated attempt to overthrow our government. So I’m not putting a lot of store in Republican voters at this point, although I may make some allowance for the perhaps 10%-15% or so who aren’t demonstrably crazy.
There’s more to come. According to Huffington Post,
“Smith is also conducting a separate investigation into Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt, which culminated with thousands of his followers assaulting the U.S. Capitol …. Trump is also under investigation by the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney for trying to coerce state officials to overturn his 2020 election loss in that swing state.”
He currently faces two sets of criminal charges in different courts in two states (New York and Florida), and that could soon expand by two more criminal cases in two more jurisdictions (Georgia and Washington D.C.). Even Fox News is giving airtime to legal experts who predict Trump may spend the rest of his life in prison (see story here), something unimaginable even a year ago.
Some GOP politicians are souring on him, although not on principle, but because they’re afraid he’s dragging them down. The 2020 and 2022 election results give them some reasons to feel that way. But Trump’s power doesn’t come from politicians; it comes from Republican voters, who in story after story seem detached from reality, driven by racism and bigotry, and full of hate.
It’s not moral to lie, bully others, or threaten violence. But three-fourths of Republican voters have rallied behind an immoral. Clearly, there’s widespread moral rot in the GOP’s supporter base, but so far almost no Republican politicians have said “this is wrong” or made serious efforts to lead the party away from Trump and back to moral rightness.
The Republican Party is sick, and it’s not clear anyone knows how, or has the will, to cure it.