The Republican National Committee and the power of collective self-delusion
The ship is sinking, and no one wants to start bailing because no one can admit the Good Ship Lollipop is taking on water
We Republicans will stick together, as united as the union our party long ago fought to preserve. We’ll have our battles ahead of us, but they’re good battles, and they’re worth fighting for.
Ronna Romney McDaniel, Republican National Committee Chair
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
George W. Bush
Ah, Karma…thou art a fickle bitch who wields her considerable power in often difficult to fathom but often breathlessly entertaining ways.
And Schadenfreude, perhaps my favorite word, allow me to savor thy sweet, sweet nectar. Though it has no direct translation from German to English, it roughly means “to take joy from the suffering of others.” While it can be crass in certain circumstances, in the way I’m enjoying it now, I can never get enough of it. I could fairly bather in Schadenfreude’s rich, creamy goodness, its soft sensuality caressing my skin with a scent redolent of chocolate, peppermint, and…hmm, is that sandalwood?
Why, yes…yes, I believe it is. And it’s luscious….
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) — Facing a cash crunch and harsh criticism from a faction of far-right conservatives, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Friday called for the party to unite behind the goal of defeating President Joe Biden.
McDaniel spoke at the RNC’s winter meeting in Las Vegas behind closed doors on Friday, addressing a gathering of state chairmen and other top party members in what’s expected to be a critical swing state in the November election….
McDaniel’s appeal for unity comes as former President Donald Trump and his allies push the party to get behind him and effectively end the primary even though he still faces a final major rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. While McDaniel has fought off opponents before, winning a competitive race for a fourth term as chairwoman last year, she’s now facing Trump supporters on the far right who are creating parallel efforts that could conflict with the national party.
Campaign finance disclosures released this week show the RNC had just $8 million in the bank and $1 million in debt. While the Trump campaign heads into 2024 with $42 million cash on hand, Biden’s political operation reported raising $97.1 million in the final months of 2024 across the various committees it uses to fundraise and ended the year with $117.4 million on hand.
Not that Donald Trump particularly cares about the fate of the RNC. He’s delighted to allow the RNC to take on his campaign and legal debts, but he wants any profits to accrue to him. And why not? That’s how he’s always operated; He forces the risk onto others and takes the profit for himself. It’s a helluva way to run a business if you can pull it off, and no one has done it quite like Donny Diaperfull.
One could question his ethics or even the legality of his methods…but when has either consideration ever stopped him from plowing ahead with a scheme that could net him millions? The man’s not an idiot…at least when it comes to money.
Trump will work with the RNC as long as doing so accrues to his benefit, but if the RNC were to disappear, I doubt he’d notice. He’d find another patsy to offload his risks on to. He views everything on the Republican side of the fence as existing for his edification, so if the RNC ceased to have utility for him, why perpetuate it if it’s no longer a profit center?
Ms. McDaniel hasn’t been much of a leader, having bent the knee to Trump so often that I’m surprised she hasn’t blown out an ACL. She’s never pushed Orange Jesus, never questioned what he was doing, and allowed the RNC to be used as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Donny Diaperfull, Inc. without oversight.
Biden is already working with the Democratic National Committee, which partners automatically with the incumbent president. An effort by Trump allies to have the RNC this week declare Trump the “presumptive nominee” was withdrawn after it drew criticism because Haley is still running.
Trump has previously backed McDaniel, though his campaign and the RNC have disagreed at times. Trump declined to participate in party-sponsored primary debates before this year’s Iowa caucuses.
But there’s long been tension between the party establishment and some people who consider themselves Trump’s strongest supporters.
The RNC has long wanted to be a more mainstream organization, thinking long-term and about the party in a more global sense. Trump and his supporters want the RNC to be at Mango Mussolini’s beck and call, which hasn’t traditionally been the organization’s mission. But Trump thinks anything and everything is all about him, so what Ms. McDaniel and the RNC want is immaterial at best.
McDaniel faced a week of withering attacks launched by far-right figures spearheaded by the group Turning Point, a glitzy and well-funded organization founded by 30-year-old media figure Charlie Kirk, who was part of an unsuccessful effort to oust McDaniel last year.
Days before the party’s winter meeting convened, Turning Point hosted a counterprograming event and training session at a casino across Las Vegas Boulevard dubbed “Restoring National Confidence,” a play on the RNC’s initials. The invite-only event drew nearly 400 attendees aligned with the group, including some RNC members, as well as state and local Republican Party chairs.
Kirk, who hosts a popular radio show, is part of a faction of conservatives who’ve openly stoked a feud with the RNC, which they have blasted for spending lavishly and being out of touch with the party’s grassroots base. That, they argue, led to losses in 2018 and 2020 as well as underwhelming results in 2022.
Some Turning Point supporters have become RNC members, while the group is actively recruiting others, an effort that, if successful, would give the group more sway over the direction of the party and perhaps a stronger say in the party’s chair.
“We know a pack of losers when we see it: top to bottom, the entire RNC staff in its current form,” Kirk said Thursday on his radio show.
“They don’t even know what winning is,” he added.
Turning Point, which has been best known as a Conservative youth organization (I’m struggling not to type “Hitler Youth,” um…which I apparently just did), is seeking a greater relevance within the Conservative movement. Charlie Kirk, who has something of a reputation as a Conservative firebrand but not an organizer or intellect, has arguably done far more damage than good to the Republican cause in the short term. He’s like Ben Shapiro without the reputation for making his wife drier than the Sonora Desert.
So now that the RNC has been virtually sucked dry by Donald Trump and rendered almost impotent as a political force, the reaction in the political world has been “Meh….” Has anyone noticed? Does anyone care? Can anyone tell me what the RNC is raising money for?
If you answered “NO!” to all of those questions, you’ll like most Americans, who thought the RNC went out of business when Spiro Agnew went back to Maryland to fleece construction permit holders.
The RNC can’t even impotently bleat about Joe Biden’s “mishandling” of the economy, because…well, because the economy is in great shape. Despite Republican efforts to convince Joe and Ethel Sixpack that the American economy is in the toilet, almost all available indicators paint a much different picture.
Sure, MAGAts will always find something to complain about. They’ve been so throughly brainwashed that the thought of giving Joe Biden credit for anything is akin to agreeing to have a lobotomy san anesthetic.
NEWS FLASH: That’s already happened; y’all just couldn’t be bothered to pay attention.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. And never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups (i.e.- MAGA rallies).
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This is pretty much how fascism evolves, according to Robert O. Paxton. The fascists initially ally with traditional conservatives as a strategy to achieve power. But as that power is achieved, the traditional conservatives become increasingly otiose, and are simply disposed of.