On Saturday, Donald Trump will travel to Georgia to try and help Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler win their Jan. 5 run-off elections. The real question is which Donald Trump will show up to the rally. Will it be the one who wants to help Republicans (and boost his legacy) or the one who wants to prove that the election was stolen from him (with help from Republicans)? Maybe both?
Everyone’s nervous. Control of the Senate hangs in the balance. And unless Trump delivers disciplined remarks and a full-throated endorsement (don’t hold your breath), the civil war between Trump supporters who want to hold the Senate and MAGA cult members who want to hold a coup will likely accelerate. The Fight Club features traditional Trump enablers like Ted Cruz, Dan Crenshaw, and Newt Gingrich on the “hold the Senate” side, versus newly minted MAGA celebs like Lin Wood and Sidney Powell on the side of burning down the house.
Wood and Powell, both MAGA true believers, are saying that Georgia Republicans, including Perdue and Loeffler, “have not earned your vote” because they have not done enough to help Trump. They argue this despite the fact that Perdue and Loeffler both called on Georgia’s secretary of state to resign when he had done nothing wrong and was following the law.
But let’s not get bogged down in those minor details. The notion that Republicans haven’t been loyal enough is a message that Trump, who demands absolute fealty, is obviously sympathetic to. So, how motivated will he be to let these Republicans off the hook and rally the base to vote for the GOP duo?
Trump’s more establishment enablers (they would hate that description) hope he does just that. They had been placating Trump, helping push the “Stop the Steal” rhetoric. But now, they are starting to sound like Apollo Creed’s trainer, who, upon realizing that Rocky wasn’t just a patsy and might actually win, declared, “He doesn’t know it’s a damn show. He thinks it’s a damn fight.”
It has finally occurred to them that Wood and Powell aren’t in on the joke and that they are taking this whole election fraud thing a little too far. Indeed, their criticism of Perdue and Loeffler could have major ramifications, causing some Republicans to boycott the election, providing fodder for Democratic groups, or squeezing Perdue and Loeffler into having to pander even more to Trump, thus alienating sane suburban voters.
If you haven’t picked up on this already, this is not one of those columns that congratulates Trump’s erstwhile enablers for finally drawing a line in the sand and coming to their senses. On the contrary, they were willing to back Trump when he pushed a bogus “emergency” order, when he tried to coerce Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, and when he tried to steal the presidential election in 2020. But hurting Republican chances in Georgia? Now that’s a bridge too far!
This whole episode has exposed which Republicans are merely cynical enablers and which ones are true believers. In some cases, the results have been surprising. Breitbart, for example, is now reporting on Wood’s past support of Democrats. Rudy Giuliani(!) even had to shush an out-of-control MAGA-supporting witness during a voter fraud hearing in Michigan. When Breitbart and Rudy think you’ve gone too far, you’ve gone too far.
But there are no heroes. Newt is a cynic. Cruz is a cynic. Dan Crenshaw is a cynic. They have been playing a dangerous game of chicken that very well could have resulted in a head-on collision. They barrelled ahead, so long as the stakes were low (just our faith in democratic institutions and our social fabric), and they only swerved when partisan political concerns (control of the U.S. Senate) were jeopardized.
They learned this lesson too late. You can’t humor or appease the crazies, in hopes that you will inherit their supporters and reap the benefits. Instead, you reap what you sow.
For years, conservatives like Cruz warned establishment Republicans that you can’t outbid or outspend Democrats, so playing that game was a sure loser. Well, it’s time that people like Cruz learn you can’t out-crazy people who are legitimately insane. Thomas Massie’s observation that grassroots Republican voters “weren't voting for libertarian ideas,” but “for the craziest son of a bitch in the race” deserves a corollary: You can’t fake it forever; trying to do so only feeds the fire that will eventually consume you.
Just as the GOP establishment learned (too late) that they could not fully co-opt the Tea Party movement, people like Cruz are now learning (too late) that they cannot co-opt the QAnon crazies. They created a monster, and it’s about to eat them. The fate of enablers is usually the same as the fate of appeasers. This is because dancing with the devil doesn’t work. Appeasing the mob doesn't work. Indeed, they only become more radical, and then the revolution devours its own.
We are seeing this phenomenon play out in real time. Newt’s criticism of Wood and Powell was mocked, with people on Twitter suggesting that “Chavez got to Newt, too.” When Dan Crenshaw tapped the brakes, Michelle Malkin called him a “globalist John McCain in an eyepatch.” And when Ted Cruz weighed in, the responses were not exactly cheering: “Lin Wood is saying what the Republican voters are feeling. You’re not listening.”
This, of course, is ironic, because not long ago Cruz’s motto was “Make DC Listen.” Back then, it was Cruz whose irresponsible behavior was causing the “adults” in his party who cared about winning elections headaches. Today, Cruz is what passes for the “establishment.” If Mitch McConnell’s future weren’t inextricably tied up in all of this, I’m sure he would derive a bit of schadenfreude from it. At the very least, I bet John Boehner is laughing his ass off while he kills another bottle of vino.
At some point, it’s worth asking what is worse: actually being insane or being calculating enough to play along with crazy people to advance your personal political ambition?
Pick your poison. Personally, I think I prefer the Kool-Aid drinkers. At least they believe in something. The hotter place in hell is reserved for the people who should have known better. The chickens have come home to roost. It’s time to take your medicine. So bottoms up!
