Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser in the Obama White House — who opens his thoughts on the GOP's future with, "One of my ways for seeming 'smart' over my many years in politics is to always predict that Republicans will do the wrong thing" — takes stock of the Republican base's present-day persuasions, since the base is a "leading indicator" of its leaders and congressional backbenchers' down-the-road train wrecks.
In sum, notes Pfeiffer, "early polling does not bode well for ending Trumpism," that being the worst imaginable boneheaded debacle within the Republican Party. But again, one cannot go wrong in always predicting that Republicans will do the wrong thing, given that they're always dead set on proving us right. The aforementioned polling includes these tweeted findings from Frank Luntz:
* 57% of Trump voters say they would vote against any House or Senate Republican who support[ed] another impeachment of President Trump.
* Slightly more Trump voters currently consider themselves to be supporters of Donald Trump (50%) than supporters of the GOP (44%).
* 41% of Trump voters say they have a more favorable view of him now than on Election Day 2020 [and] 35% say their view of him hasn’t changed.
Another poll found that "70% of Trump voters believe the false conspiracy theory that Antifa played a role in the violence at the Capitol and 74% believe Trump won the election."
This is, of course, nothing more than a collectivity of fringe, destined to follow the Anti-Masons and Wobblies into obscurity. Paraphrasing Pfeiffer, one of the ways for being "smart" is to always predict that the unsustainable is, in fact, unsustainable. It ain't hard.
Nearly as easy is recommending to Republican luminaries that they stop. Just. Stop. Instead, they should "de-radicalize their base"; pressure Fox News and all other ministries of demented propaganda to knock it the fuck off; "acknowledge that Joe Biden is the President"; and circle the wagons around the handfuls of GOP pols who have belatedly but rightly denounced Trump — Pfeiffer's recommendations.
One could just as easily add to the list, such as denouncing the vicious, violent, God-loving "Christian" jihadists who have flooded the ranks of the Republican Party, as well as executing the expulsions of its Josh Hawleys and Ted Cruzes.
But these would be rational acts. And we're not talking about a rational party — not, that is, one in the sense of elevating the greater national good over the much lesser needs of a few selfish careers. A year from now, we'll all be even smarter in also adding, "Q.E.D."