Why Republicans’ 'self-delusion is risking a political wipeout': columnist

24 July 2023

It's entirely possible that by mid-August, Donald Trump will be up against four criminal indictments.

The former president is already facing a 37-count federal prosecution by special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and a 34-count New York State case led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. And investigations of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results are being conducted by Smith for DOJ and Fulton County DA Fani Willis for the State of Georgia.

Despite all that, Trump remains the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Second-place primary candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trails Trump by 40 percent in a Harvard University/HarrisX poll conducted July 19-20.

In a scathing opinion column published on July 24, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin slams Republican insiders and conservative media pundits who continue to act like the GOP is still a "normal" political party.

"For years now," Rubin observes, "some Republicans — and, to a large extent, the mainstream media — have harbored the notion that the GOP eventually would come to its senses. Surely, it would eventually dump the unhinged, disloyal, undemocratic and unfit Donald Trump, right? But if Republicans did not wake from their slumber after the first impeachment or the second, after a jury decided he had lied about sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll — after an indictment accusing him of obstruction and violating the Espionage Act, set out in shocking detail — and after replete evidence of his alleged role in an attempted coup, it is hard to imagine what would bring them to their senses."

The Never Trumper adds that "elected Republicans and right-wing media figures" have "minimized, rationalized and denied jaw-dropping allegations against Trump."

"This is what results when a party, its pundit class and millions of followers cut themselves off from reality, fall into a world of paranoid conspiracies and refuse to simply acknowledge they were very, very wrong to side with him," Rubin laments. "And, frankly, the mainstream media has made it that much easier for cowardly Republicans to stick with Trump."

The Washington Post columnist continues, "Rather than challenge Republicans at every turn to defend their embrace of Trump or even to examine seriously the historical origins of toxic racist, xenophobic and delusional beliefs, the mainstream media largely sticks to horserace politics…. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge that, barring an epiphany, the GOP's self-delusion is risking a political wipeout that will take out more than its disastrous nominee. And it won't be able to claim it wasn't warned."

Find Jennifer Rubin's full opinion column for the Washington Post at this link (subscription required).

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