Hijacked by a jackass: How a major post-American political party sold its soul for a bit of instant gratification

The damage is horrible. It has obliterated the one ideology that would have been able to save the nation from the impending darkness:

That brings us to the real reason to oppose Trump’s candidacy: the attempt to turn the conservative movement into a nationalist populist one, complete with shilling for Trump’s incomprehensible decisions and statements. If you believe that the only solution to America’s problems is true conservatism, your greatest fear is not a Hillary presidency: It’s the perversion of the conservative movement itself, the corruption of conservatism in favor of power. Hillary Clinton’s presidency does not snuff out conservatism, even though it provides a serious danger to the republic. Trump’s presidency does.

Why? Because conservatives are already tailoring their morality, decency, and political sense to fit Trumpism. We’ve already seen supposed conservative “thought leaders” go silent when Trump does something unthinkable; we’ve already seen Chris “Shinebox” Christie and Reince “The Enforcer” Priebus  and Newt “Dude, Who Stole My VP Slot?” Gingrich embrace the Trump-or-bust logic that puts conservatism under the wheels of the Trump Train.

That’s to be expected. But I’ve watched conservatives I respect justifying Trump’s latest moral and political atrocities with alacrity. They downplay his enormous heresies and his moral failings — because, after all, Hillary Clinton delenda est. 

I've noticed recently that the at-least-somewhat-highbrow / public-figure-type Bots have been reduced to devoting much of their verbiage regarding their saint to statements along the lines of "Trump-needs-to-stay-focused-on-such-and-such (think trade and immigration)-and-not-take-every-bit-of-bait-thrown-at-him." The despicable and increasingly pitiful Laura Ingraham certainly comes to mind. She's also running out of spin. On her show this morning, she had some leftist guest on - I didn't catch who - and they were   being respectful and cordial to each other, but the guy asked, "Now I know you are a big supporter, but doesn't it seem like in the last 72 hours the wheels are coming off as never before?" She started her response by saying she'd been speaking about the issues that caused her to support Squirrel-Hair long before he came on the scene. The guest said, "I realize that, but answer my question, doesn't it look like this is really seriously off the rails?" Then she wanted to talk about Hillary Clinton. It was obvious she didn't want to directly answer his question.  

Some Bots of this type have mustered the stones to arrange a candor-filled sit-down with Cheeto Jesus:

Key Republicans close to Donald Trump's orbit are plotting an intervention with the candidate after a disastrous 48 hours led some influential voices in the party to question whether Trump can stay at the top of the Republican ticket without catastrophic consequences for his campaign and the GOP at large. 

Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus, former Republican New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are among the Trump endorsers hoping to talk the real estate mogul into a dramatic reset of his campaign in the coming days, sources tell NBC News. 

The group of GOP heavyweights hopes to enlist the help of Trump's children — who comprise much of his innermost circle of influential advisers — to aid in the attempt to rescue his candidacy. Trump's family is considered to have by far the most influence over the candidate's thinking at what could be a make-or-break moment for his campaign.

And I like this what-if scenario, but it is definitely eye-opening that party high-ups are considering it:

Republican officials are exploring how to handle a scenario that would be unthinkable in a normal election year: What would happen if the party's presidential nominee dropped out?

ABC News has learned that senior party officials are so frustrated — and confused — by Donald Trump's erratic behavior that they are exploring how to replace him on the ballot if he drops out.

So how would it work?

First, Trump would have to voluntarily exit the race. Officials say there is no mechanism for forcing him to withdraw his nomination. (Trump has not given any indications that he no longer wants to be his party's nominee.)

Then it would be up to the 168 members of the Republican National Committee to choose a successor, though the process is complicated.

One Republican legal expert has advised party officials that, for practical reasons, Trump would have to drop out by early September to give the party enough time to choose his replacement and get the next nominee's name on the ballot in enough states to win.

I'm not going to bet the rent on S-H making such a move.

This is of course a very intense, frenetic, multilayered moment (the F-Hers are in disarray, too, with top DNC executives resigning in the wake of their emails being hacked and made public).  I don't know that one could step back right now and hope to get a comprehensive picture of how we got here - what exact points during the last 13 months pointed events in an irreversible direction.

But - and I don't say this to puff myself up as the world's most prescient observer; in fact, I say it with a great deal of sadness and at least a touch of horror - there have been those who, from the outset, knew S-H was toxic to what the Republican party ought to be about.  What will need parsing, and again, that will require a perspective marinated in the passing of some time, is how supposedly stalwart stewards of our principles swallowed this Kool-Aid. Early on, while the bench was still deep.

One reason it will take time, at least for me, is that my contempt will have to subside a bit before I can objectively construct a timeline.

The Stupid Party has served up its testicles on a silver platter for its foes' lunch before, but this time it came up with a particularly exquisite recipe for their preparation.