General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Give It Up, GOP. Its over. [View all]Miles Archer
(18,837 posts)1). Paul Ryan is not going to give up. He's wanted it too long, too bad, and in his mind, he's "come too close to give up now."
2). It's a battle of wills between Trump and the "Freedom Caucus"...and the Freedom Caucus thinks it's going to win. Saw a CNN clip with Ted Cruz's former Kellyanne Conway, Alice Stewart. Her main talking point is that the constituents in Freedom Caucus members' districts are "thanking them" for "keeping the promises they made when they were elected." There's no way in hell they are going to welcome Trump "reaching across the aisle" to Democrats, or "reaching out" to "moderate" Republicans. They told Bannon to kiss their collective ass. They're not afraid of Bannon, they're not afraid of Trump, and Trump is totally unaccustomed to having people around him who aren't afraid of him.
3). Every other Republican who isn't Paul Ryan or a member of the Freedom Caucus is thinking happy thoughts about how they are going to make it through the 2018 midterms. If they back Trump too heavily, they could crash and burn with him. If they fail to pass the loyalty test, they know about his long history of "revenge" and sliming anyone he fails to see as a Smithers to his Mr. Burns.
I agree with everything you've said here, and my prediction is that the Republicans are too self-absorbed and obsessed with their own "careers" to come out of their state of denial. They see who Trump is, they see what he is, and they're just going to their happy place and telling themselves that he will become "Presidential" (which is a supreme act of denial), or that when he goes down, he won't take them with him.