Over at Good Reports I’ve added an omnibus review of a bunch of books on the Republican Party’s corruption/decline into madness in the years both leading up to and subsequent to the arrival of Donald Trump (who this week was indicted for the fourth time).
It’s a long haul (over 7,000 words) and made me wonder how many people actually read such long pieces online. I don’t think many people do. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to keep the reviews I’ve been posting at Alex on SF so short. But it really makes you think, again, about the fate of writing and reading in this age of screens.
Alex Good 
I totally agree that the rot set in by 2016, and Trump was just a manifestation of a lurch towards extremism that was not limited to the Republican Party. In any other time, last weeks revelation that the ‘rapist in chief’ was prepared to use the military against American citizens who exercise their rights would be a tipping/inflection point, but it’s just lost in the ongoing noise. But despite the mainstream news panic, Trump is finished. He’ll not unite America. He appeals to an aging base who will be a minority at this and every other election until he’s in jail. As Ron Johnson found out, calling law enforcement ‘deranged’ ain’t gonna win any friends…
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He should be toast, but given the nature of the political system — the gerrymandering and the FPTP system and electoral college — having that hard floor of crazies means he can never be counted out. I don’t know how this fever breaks.
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There is a lot of handwringing, and it’s justified. But having broken the rules to get in, getting Trump out was always going to be tough. He can put on bravado, but his goose was cooked even before 2016. The Gamechanger movie is good at showing how Sarah Palin was the test case of an old and out of touch Republican Party thoughts an imported ‘personality’ would provide an interface with the public. Trump, however, had too much criminal baggage to control, but fortunately he’s a genuine idiot falling upwards to the highest profile collapse of all time. The Dems will win the next two elections while the criminality behind Trump is rooted out; their own corruption will get a free pass due to Trump’s intransigence. But Dems will still need close polling to make sure they get their vote out, so this won’t be resolved until 2024.
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“Fortunately he’s a genuine idiot” . . . that’s so true. Somebody with his personality traits and lack of morality with just a couple of functioning brain cells could have taken a big step towards destroying the world.
Haven’t seen Game Change. I’ll look for it.
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Looks good, but this is the kind of thing I prefer watching documentaries on, because the truth was already so far beyond what any dramatization can relate. Which goes ditto and even more for the Trump years. Can’t really parody that.
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