Donald Trump’s Republican nightmare
I am reminded this week of one of my favorite television series of all time. This series, long off the air, is called Sons of Anarchy. It was about a single father, Jax Teller, and his family — an outlaw motorcycle club. It is believed to be loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
I bring it up because I find myself thinking of the GOP — and how in certain ways, their fall — their unending, tragic Shakespearean fall mirrors so much in literature and on this wonderful television series.
The GOP — their betrayals, their back-stabbing — their lack of humanity — all of their unforced errors — have never been clearer and more in focus than this week.
Allow me if you will provide a “weekend wrap-up.” Kevin McCarthy is a wounded animal. There are more tapes still to come. Accusations of betrayal are all over the place. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have just had a massive screaming match. Fox News host Sean Hannity has been outed as no more than another “Yes, Sir” Trump employee. Tucker is on the warpath. Madison Cawthorn is being gutted, likely by his own party. Something is rotten in the halls of DC.
Hamlet dealt with the mortality of mankind. What about in politics?
Immortality is the great sin of so many politicians. They think they’re immortal, so many of them. They believe they’re Icarus. They don’t understand their careers can be over in a minute. Their reputations can turn to ashes in seconds.
It is a lesson shown to us time and time again. But the politics of narcissism do not let some politicians see clearly. And now we bare witness to the implosion. It simply goes on and on with no end in sight.