The real reason the GOP is destroying itself for the sake of protecting Trump’s ghost

| 10:00 pm EST March 1, 2021
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I’ve wrestled with understanding how so many members of the GOP could be hornswoggled by such an obviously ignorant and ham-fisted con-man as the Former Guy. Bumpkins from Ohio and Georgia are surely susceptible to the wiles of the Big Orange City slicker but there are Constitutional scholars of Ivy League matriculation who are being played by Donnie Dimwit. What gives?

Sure, DJT’s grift was giving the party what it wanted; tax cuts for their rich donors and judges to rule in favor of those rich donors. That’s a given but it does not explain the unstinting loyalty that is displayed so ostentatiously in the GOP ranks.

Since blackmail was the primary bolt in Roy Cohen’s malfeasant quiver, the Orange One was certainly blackmailing a good number of the GOP. Rumors are the grist of scandal, and the poisonous whisper of rumor is the servant of blackmail. Blackmail surely couldn’t account for the steadfastness shown by the McConnell, Cruz, Barrasso, Ernst or others, could it?

What motivates McConnell and Kevin McCarthy to do the Lord of Mar-a-lago’s bidding, if not blackmail? The con being played on them is the empty promise of power. Party rule even in a minority brings considerable power. True, the GOP were in the majority until the Senate and the White House were lost by the ‘Chosen One,’ but a deal with the devil is not one that one can renege on, after all. In for a penny; in for a pound. Or a pounding at the polls. What other cons could the Dear Orange Leader be running? The promise of great, undeserved riches is always a tempting con. Nothing seduces like filthy lucre.