In my professional life, I’ve put words into the mouths of a few monsters: Freddy Krueger, He Who Walks Behind The Rows and the Crypt Keeper. In order to write a good, successful monster (one that audiences will want more of), you have to get inside the monster’s head. You have to know what makes them monstrous but, even more important, what makes them relatable and human. That’s the secret behind every great monster: their humanity. I’ve got some “monster bona fides”. I know from monsters. And Republicans have become literal monsters far beyond any movie monster.
Donald Trump didn’t turn the GOP into monsters. He didn’t turn them into racists or bigots or misogynistic shitheads either. Rather, he gave Republicans permission to be the monsters they already were.
Trump demonstrated how one could succeed as a monster. One could claim that “Mexicans are rapists” or “pussy grabbing” is okay if you’re famous. Those were both monstrous things for anyone to say never mind someone running for POTUS. Yet, Trump said these monstrous things and survived to monster another day.
A History Of Monsters
The Republicans have a history of putting monsters on the national stage. Joe McCarthy was a monster. Dick Nixon was a monster, too. Hell, if Gerald Ford hadn’t pardoned Nixon – if he had put Nixon to the torch and made Nixon face justice for his crimes – we probably would never have had a Donald Trump for president. Roger Stone and Paul Manafort (among others) were all Nixonites when they joined the Trump band wagon. Had Nixon been prosecuted and punished? Neither would have had the Nixonian cache they maintained and that got them into Trump world. Maybe the reason Republicans keep spawning monsters is because they never get punished for doing it.
The recent crop is the most monstrous ever. Nick Fuentes is Christo-fascism’s poster boy. He has said “if we want to restore America, we’ve got to make America a Christian nation again.” How exactly would Nick do that? Well, he’s also said “I’m just like Hitler.” So, I guess that answers that question.
Marjory Taylor Greene is another Republican monster. She just used the Colorado Springs mass shooting as a vehicle to spread bullshit about drug trafficking and as an argument against gun control. Virtually everything that tumbles from her mouth – aside from being inarticulate and poorly thought out – is wrong or an outright lie.
The Uber Monster
The truth is, even the Republicans think of Trump as a monster – one that won’t die. Yes, his base is a weapon that defeats anything they have. But, it’s not really Trump’s base that keeps the GOP connected to Trump at the hip. That would be the kompromat that was in Trump’s safe at Mar-A-Lago. Trump told us there was something other than money or diamonds hidden there. My betting is this: that safe contained a shit-ton of compromising photos and other nastiness that have kept Republicans like Lindsey Graham in line.
The Republicans crawled into bed with Trump knowing he was a monster. Well, they knew a “President Trump” posed a grave threat to America’s national security. Current GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy put it succinctly back on June 25, 2016 as he left a meeting about Putin’s attempts to undermine Ukraine’s fledgling democracy. From there, Kevin walked into a meeting of GOP leaders. The first thing Kevin said as he walked in the door was “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!”
No one in Republican leadership who was at that meeting disputed Kevin or even doubted him. They definitely didn’t call the FBI with their suspicions. Instead, then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan stepped forward and ended the conversation. They weren’t going to talk about Trump being a grave national security threat (because Putin paid him) outside that room. No, the Republican Party was going to keep that secret among themselves.
“That’s how we know we’re family,” is how Speaker Ryan put it.
Talk about monstrous!
Photo 145165367 © Rodrigo Reyes | Dreamstime.com