CT Blue

It is becoming increasingly clear that the very stable genius may not be stable or a genius, and may in fact be slipping (or should that be “plunging”) into dementia. He recently blamed Nikki Haley for failing to do something about the attackers on January 6th, clearly mixing her up with Nancy Pelosi. This is one of many times that he has made similar slips, so it’s no longer possible for a rational person to make excuses for him, but who ever said Republicans were rational? And of course, lurking in the background is the question of why either Nikki or Nancy should have done anything to stop the people he has consistently labeled patriots and/or hostages, all of whom are deserving of pardons.

Yet, according to many Republicans, it is Joe Biden who suffers from dementia, though he shows no signs of it. This is, it goes almost without saying, just another example of Republicans accusing Democrats of something that applies to them. Despite the undoubted fact of Trump’s dementia, they are all on board with nominating and electing a criminal whose best defense would probably be a claim of diminished mental capacity.

But the Republican establishment may be looking on the bright side. Remember that from Trump’s point of view, being president is all about satisfying his ego. He doesn’t care about policy whatsoever. He has adopted right wing talking points simply because, as an accomplished grifter, he realizes that they are what sell to the easy marks. When he was president, it’s unlikely that he had much to do with the nuts and bolts of running the things the Republican establishment cares about. As a for instance, I’d say it’s fairly clear that he had absolutely nothing to do with his court picks, from the lowliest District Court Judge to the Supreme Court. That was up to the Federalist Society. The same was true on multiple fronts, though there may have been one or two times when he insisted on having something his way that the establishment didn’t like.

But imagine how easy it would be for them if he goes full on into dementia. He will simply do whatever he is told. All they have to do is keep him in the White House and put a pen in his hand once in a while and tell him to sign on the line. He’ll do what he’s told, because that’s how folks with dementia tend to behave. Of course, they’ll throw in some stuff to massage his ego, but he’ll essentially be their puppet, so things will be better for them than they were in his first term.

If I had to bet, I’d say he’ll lose the election even if he’s not yet in jail. But that presupposes that the Republicans can’t find a way to steal it that the Supreme Court will then certify as just fine. They are in complete agreement with his point of view that if you can’t win an election you should steal it, so if they’re successful in enough places we will have him back and be well on our way to a fascist state. He is, after all, not the only fascist in the Republican ranks. He is, in fact, merely the instrument the fascists have embraced to complete their takeover. It is not necessary for him to be cognitively competent for them to achieve that goal.

Addendum: In my last post I put up a notice to the effect that comments were working again. I said you can leave a comment and the site will show that there is a comment on the post. However, the comments don’t appear under the post. You have to click the link in the footer below the post that says you can read the comments at the “RSS feed”. It worked for me when I did a test comment, but I’m informed by a reader that he got an error message when he tried. If anyone else out there gets the same message I’d appreciate an email to that effect, as one of these days I’ll call my hosting service and see if they can fix it.