How long do Republicans allow Trump to destroy their party?

I’m long past the point where I expect any Republican to object to Trump’s profiteering from office. Or his consorting with our adversaries like Putin and Kim. Only a handful objected when he called an armed mob to Washington, ordered them to attack the Capitol, whipped them into a frenzy about the vice president, told them he loved them after they spent an afternoon fighting police, and promised to pardon even those convicted of insurrection. And of course, none of them had a problem when he tried to turn the Department of Justice into his own personal revenge machine. I know none of this bothers Republicans.

But doesn’t a basic instinct for self-preservation kick in at some point? Or a desire to stop losing?

Donald Trump is now the only person perhaps in our history who has masterminded three consecutive national electoral losses. To his long collection of superlatives – most unqualified president ever, most corrupt, most disloyal to the country, most narcissistic, greatest security risk – we can now add a new one: worst political strategist in U S history.

And no mistake about it: the 2022 election is, for Republicans, one of the greatest electoral catastrophes in our country’s history. A new president’s first midterms, always trouble. An incumbent president with approval ratings in the low 40s. “Right track/wrong track” numbers. Inflation. Anticipating a recession. A nervous stock market. All this adds up to a 50+ seat swing in the House, which didn't happen. And a 4-5 vote pickup in the Senate and a hammerlock on Biden’s legislation, multiple impeachments, solid pressure on Social Security and Medicare/-aid. At the state level, there was every reason to think Republicans would expand their domination of governorships and legislatures.

Instead, Dems held the Senate, possibly the House, defeated MAGA state officials in race after race, and now control more governorships and more state legislative chambers than before the election.

There were many reasons for this failure. The Dobbs decision was huge. Perhaps they used the “my opponent wants to let rapists and murderers out of jail and hates police” lie one too many times. Certainly, their open talk about multiple impeachments, government shutdowns, social security, gay marriage, and other repulsive policies didn’t help. And then there are the ones that have Donald Trump’s fingerprints on them: fears for democracy, an incredibly unattractive set of candidates, and Donald Trump himself.

Most defeated presidents have the good grace to skulk away and never be heard from. Or they get busy playing golf, raising money for international disasters, or building affordable housing. You have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt to find an ex-president who remained active in the political hurly burly, and he was one of the most popular ex-presidents ever. To find an ex-president rejected by the people who stayed around presidential politics, you have only one example: Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) who couldn’t win the Whig party’s nomination in 1852 and finished third in 1856 carrying the banner of the Know Nothing party.

Trump refuses to leave the stage. And he doesn’t assign himself a part in THEIR play – he demands they perform his. And he’s not content to advise the active participants; he still demands total loyalty.

His rallies are 90-minute celebrations of grievance and complaint, with the candidates supposedly being supported an afterthought at best. At his rallies and in his day-to-day life, plays out his pathetic psyche is on display every day.

He’s shown his continuing obsession with 2020 elections, continuing to repeat lies long after they've been debunked and insisting that people who want his support must also pretend they believe these ever-more-ridiculous lies. He makes it clear that if he ever gets power, he’ll be focused on revenge and election lies.

He regularly criticizes fellow Republicans, turning on them in an instant if they do or say a thing that displeases him.

And his political strategy is the gift that keeps on giving. Sure, JD Vance won, but just skimming off the top, almost any Republicans except Mehmet Oz and Herschel Walker would have strolled to easy victories in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and the game would be over. That’s two consecutive election cycles where Donald Trump personally cost the Republicans control of the Senate.

MAGA Republicans who invite Steve Bannon to speak at their annual dinner; nominate Doug Mastriano to represent them time after time; and think Bud Nason and Greg Maresca are great newspaper columnists may be so far out of it that they still think Trump was a great president who cared about them and, who knows, maybe secretly is still president. But no Republican elected official – well, maybe Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Green – has any illusions about his fitness as president. Now they know that if they don’t get rid of him and jettison his destructive politics, he is going to destroy the party. Let’s see if they have any sense of pride left.