Ten years ago today, I published this article, in which I predicted that Republicans would all fall in line behind Trump.
[S]o long as the base continues to eat up Trump’s schtick –the Republicans are going to be stuck with him, because they have few means of controlling him and even fewer to limit any damage he might do if provoked.
[snip]
If all proceeds as things appear to be proceeding — although, yes, it is far too early to say for certain that it will — Republicans will ultimately be applauding the prospect of President Trump. complete with the possibility he’ll appoint Dennis Rodman (drawing on his diplomatic trip to North Korea) as Ambassador to China. If and when Trump becomes the only viable opponent for Hillary Clinton, Republicans will be forced to accept their fate and hope for the best.
And with it, they may well recognize that their ideological celebration of the rich and of demagoguery have delivered them precisely the candidate they’ve asked for.
It’s a dizzying read for me, not least because I recognize a number of things (including the Russian plot to help Trump, but even more the resurgent authoritarianism of the right) had already kicked off, little visible until Trump caused a light to focus on them.
That said, what was already visible — not least, Trump’s demonization of immigrants as a means to grab attention and encourage the worst instincts among white Americans — carry through to this day.
In recent days Trump’s ability to grab and control attention has come under strain, in part because the very forces he unleashed refuse to be placated by bullshit.
But after Donald Trump largely confessed that he knew of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking but did nothing more than demand that Epstein stop recruiting at Mar-a-Lago, the press has largely ignored the import of that and moved on.
As a WaPo story quoting the White House declaring victory on Trump’s Epstein scandal notes today, Trump has managed to do this before.
“People forget,” the White House official said. “We’ve gone through these things for the last eight years.”
It’s been ten years, not eight.