I have followed Wm. Kristol for years and it wasn’t very long ago that I considered him an ultra conservative that would never chastise the Republican Party, especially a GOP president. Enter Donald Trump to the political arena with his lies, sexual improprieties, corruption and a fascist appetite to consume America. Kristol has been after Trump for some time now and, if Democrats had adopted his passion to rid the country of the Oval Office lunatic, the left could be celebrating by now.
You might think that I’m too old and too experienced—dare one say, too jaundiced—to have been moved by the “No Kings” protests. To be honest, I rather doubted I’d really be moved by them.This, from a man who is a dedicated conservative but, at the same time, loves his country too much to allow a fellow-conservative to destroy it. When I think of the Republican Congress that is supposed to be one of the checks and balances in our democracy, and the way they are not only ignoring Donald Trump’s vagaries, but these morons are supporting him to the hilt. And when the House or Senate cannot bail out Trump, SCOTUS comes to his rescue.
But moved I was. And as we milled around in the party atmosphere in “downtown” McLean—with inflatable characters prancing and witty signs waving and drivers’ horns honking—I thought of these lines from Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem, “Jabberwocky,” in Through the Looking Glass:
“O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”He chortled in his joy.
Kristol says the No Kings protesters “assembled peacefully and patriotically to protest Donald Trump and reaffirm their allegiance to the American idea.” Then he quotes one of my favorite writers…
“That idea was nowhere better stated than by Thomas Paine in Common Sense: ‘For as in absolute governments the King is Law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.’”Thomas Paine’s Common Sense argued for American independence from Great Britain and was crucial in swaying public opinion during the Revolutionary War. Not that Trump has any common sense but the forces in motion in those days are very similar to the No Kings Protests today. And what is horrifying is the White House maniac wants to stay where he is forever with Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy, Jr. even talking about how to preserve him for eternity. This from the Daily Beast…
“Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he likes the idea of a third term, but he’s
Trump is currently selling 2028 hats at his official merchandise store. That should be a clue. If that isn’t enough, Trump biographer Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast that he believed a Trump third term could be a “very real possibility.” Here’s what Wolff said…now hinted that he might have something even more permanent in mind.
“The president posted about his eternal leadership in a video on Truth Social Sunday, showing him ruling for thousands of years beyond the original 2028 cutoff.”
Speaking on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Wolff suggested that the president would do whatever he had to in order to retain his position.There are so many things that could happen between now and 2028, even before the midterms next year. I don’t really have much hope that Republicans will ever change their spots as long as Donald Trump is around. There are, however, some cracks in the framework of the Oval Office lunatic’s malicious blueprint. Miles Bruner says he was an “accomplice” of the Republican Party for the last twelve years. The term “accomplice” is defined as a person who helps another commit a crime.
“The problem with this is that an authoritarian breaks so many rules and makes so many enemies that in order to avoid retribution, he has to stay in power. That is the nature of the game that is being played,” he said.
Bruner did a piece in THEBULWARK titled: “My Last Day as an Accomplice of the Republican Party.” The sub-headline was: “Why I’m leaving the GOP and why I’m urging my former colleagues to do the same.” Yes, that is hope, but you have to consider the position at which Bruner worked, compared to members of Congress and what they have to lose compared to him. Bruner quit his job in protest. Congress would most likely lose their jobs if they crossed Trump.
The former Republican writes about a cult in the GOP that has clearly turned to an authoritarian regime, “the worst of the last one hundred years.” The words from the man’s mouth…
WOW! I probably should stop right here and let you read his letter in THEBULWARK but I can’t resist pointing out more about why he did what he did. Bruner is not the first and he mentions Tim Miller and his book, Why We Did It, with the following blurb on Amazon…"For over twelve years, I worked inside the Republican ecosystem, helping the party advance its goals in several fields, ranging from grassroots voter outreach to digital fundraising. I worked inside GOP circles through Trump’s takeover of the party, his initial downfall, and his resurgence in 2023–2024. At every step along the way, I rationalized, compartmentalized, and found excuses to stay tethered to the party, even as I grew to believe it was undermining the foundations of our constitutional republic. But over the last few months, the compartmentalization and coping stopped working to silence my conscience.
"And now, after more than a decade, I have decided I have finally had enough.
"I quit. I quit the Republican party and my job as an accomplice to the party in the throes of an authoritarian cult. Today, I resigned from my career as a senior fundraising strategist for one of the leading Republican digital fundraising firms in Washington, D.C."
“Former Republican political operative Tim Miller answers the question no one else has fully grappled with: Why did normal people go along with the worst of Trumpism?”Miller worked at the Senate and presidential level, Bruner on state-level campaigns, so between the two there are perspectives from both ends of the spectrum. I strongly suggest you read his letter in THEBULWARK. You might also want to get a copy of Miller’s book, Why We Did It. Now I’ll leave you with this from Bruner…
“MY GOAL IN QUITTING the party and writing this piece is twofold: first, to shed light on why someone would continue to work for an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian political party despite their divergent ethical and political beliefs; second, to convince any number of consultants, staffers, and former colleagues to follow their consciences and leave with their integrity still intact.”My guess is it will take many turncoats like Wm. Kristol, Miles Bruner, and Tim Miller to defeat Trumpism. But at least it’s a start.
