When The Mad King Threatens Your Grift
Republicans, if nothing else, are remarkably consistent.
They're consistent in a way that makes their actions predictable. No values or morals are guiding their actions. Instead, they act simply for self-preservation. To do whatever it takes to keep themselves in a position of power. They'll do a complete 180 on their views if they think it will help them politically. They consistently vote against their constituents' best interests. Hell, they consistently vote against their own self-interests. Never before in the history of democratic republics has there been an entire political party that exists solely to enrich its members. Sure, we've seen this in autocracies and theocracies. Yet what we're seeing now in the United States is unprecedented.
Which is what makes the events of the past week so telling.
From 17 House Republicans voting with Democrats to extend the ACA subsidies to 35 House Republicans voting in an effort to overturn Trump's eastern Colorado water pipeline veto to 5 Senate Republicans breaking ranks on a war powers measure that would check presidential authority, the GOP displayed the first true schism since their orange overlord took office for a second time nearly one year ago. While these votes won't be enough to overturn the Trump administration's disastrous policies, the fact that so many Republicans are already shifting away from their West Wing directives in January of a midterm election year signals that they know their constituents are unhappy with the way things are going. Despite "Moses" Mike Johnson serving as Donald Trump's puppet for the past 11 months, he is slowly losing his grip on his caucus, as the ACA subsidy vote alone was seen as a huge rebuke against him and his leadership. And the fact that 5 GOP senators were public in their rejection of Trump's unchecked authority caused Cheeto Mussolini to air his grievances, claiming that none of the five should ever be elected to office again. Because when you defy the Mad King, he has no choice but to publicly scold you.
What we're seeing with these numbers is that Trump's hold on his party is slipping away. Mike Johnson has always been a terrible Speaker, but losing dozens of members on votes is unprecedented, even for him. Senate Majority Leader John Thune now has his back against the wall, facing both a mini-revolt from those wanting to check Trump's executive authority and those who know the chamber must take up the recently passed House ACA subsidy bill. Thune can kill the vote, obviously, but that guarantees that the 22 GOP senators being forced to defend their seats would be in a world of pain. With open seats in Iowa and North Carolina, along with the always concerned Susan Collins running for re-election in Maine, Thune and his GOP Senate compatriots don't have as much room for error as they would like. Letting the subsidies lapse without even a vote in the upper chamber could very well be the key issue that Democratic senatorial candidates in those 3 states run on this year, and it would be an issue that would drive significant numbers of voters to the polls.
And those voters will want answers. While elected Republicans aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, they know disastrous policy when they see it. Their constituents are hurting. Inflation is running rampant. The idiotic Trump tariffs have destroyed various industries and American manufacturing. Unemployment is ticking higher and higher. DOGE did nothing except enrich Elon and his twentysomething tech frat bros. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing overnight. ICE agents are out in broad daylight murdering citizens who don't submit to their toxic masculinity. All while Donald Trump plays dictator by building his ballroom and threatening countries in our hemisphere, while his mental and physical health continue to deteriorate.
Authoritarianism only works if the party in power goes all in. What we saw last week is a party in power that knows its figurehead is flailing, frail, and flaccid. A vote against Donald Trump no longer has the repercussions it once had. Republicans are no longer afraid to challenge Trump's disastrous policies. The Epstein vote was not one that happened in isolation. Instead, it was the one that opened the floodgates for other votes that challenge the policies of Donald Trump and Mike Johnson by proxy. There's a reason the GOP is so desperate to redraw congressional maps this cycle; they know how useless this president and his policies have been for the American people. With the votes last week, we saw a party that is slowly realizing its time to cut its losses and start voting in a way that at least appears to benefit the American people. Because they can no longer pretend that Donald Trump's policies do anything but help himself and his rich friends.
We shouldn't pretend Republicans are doing this for the right reasons. They're in it to try and keep themselves in elected office. But in doing so, they're undermining Donald Trump and his iron grip on the party. Time and time again, we've been saved by the sheer idiocy of these bumbling fascists. But now, for the first time, we might be saved by the sheer ambition of these bumbling fascists. Because in their efforts to save their own hides, they're willingly throwing Donald Trump under the bus. And Trump is such a weak man that he has no idea what to do when people don't bend the knee. With such a slim majority in the House, Mike Johnson was never going to get much done, but votes this past week showed that even a small uprising completely defeats what Donald Trump wants to accomplish in the coming months. Without any additional legislation passed this year, the American people will see through the charade and elect a Democratic Congress that essentially shuts down the Trump agenda in his final two years in office.
All because current congressional Republicans refuse to let even the great Donald Trump get in the way of them staying in office.