The feeling is palpable: with the Christmas recess coming to Capitol Hill, and then with Democrats about to take over the House, a whole lot of shit is about to hit the proverbial fan.
So far, this is only a feeling. It is anybody’s guess in what form (or forms) it will come, and exactly when to start ducking.
However, the circumstances surrounding the impending shit storm are clear enough, at least in broad outline, despite the miasma Trump and his minions exude.
For one, the Republican Party, especially but not only at the national level, has become the Party of Trump. The party Ronald Reagan fashioned is done for, finished, kaput.
This is not to say that Reaganites have gone extinct like, say, Eisenhower or Rockefeller Republicans. If anything, they are thriving like never before. But the Grand Old Party is Trump’s, not theirs.
Before Trump, practically anything that diminished the power of the Reaganite old guard was welcome news. No longer. The Trump Party is many times more odious than what it replaced.
It is stupider, more corrupt, more retrograde, and more lacking in fundamental human decency. Witness the family separations and the tear-gassing of asylum seekers and their children along the Mexican border. Being even worse than, the GOP in the Tea Party -Mitt Romney days is no mean achievement, but there it is.
The pre-Trump and post-Trump GOPs are fruit of the same poison tree – the Southern Strategy, the…