"...A COLOSSAL POLITICAL MISCALCULATION."

"Conservative retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig has called the Republican Party base 'spineless' for its continued support of former President Donald Trump and submitted that the GOP is destroying itself. 

 'If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges – not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 – fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved,' Luttig said in a scathing New York Times op-ed published Sunday." 

"Luttig called Republican support of Trump, the current front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, 'a colossal political miscalculation.' There is no path to the White House for Republicans with Mr. Trump. He would need every single Republican and independent vote, and there are untold numbers of Republicans and independents who will never vote for him, if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law."

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Judge Luttig speaks the truth, but he may as well be howling at the moon. 

Republican leaders are well aware of the political risks of their Trump-at-all-costs strategy. They are equally aware of the moral depravity of the strategy, and they also fully understand that it is they who are undermining the Constitution and the rule of law, with potentially disastrous and possibly permanent consequences for the nation. They don't care. 

These people think only of their own power and profit, and they have concluded that these interests are best served by carrying on with the MAGA movement, regardless of its violence and absurdity. Surely we know this by now. 

Since the early 1960's, the GOP has existed principally to oppose any societal movement toward inclusion and civil rather than religious rule. Can anyone point to a current GOP candidate who sees the path to victory winding through the land of reality? 

The Republican Party has two purposes: make their nihilistic vision a reality and prop up the Trump cult. In 2010, when Republicans won Congress, Mitch McConnell made his vision for Congress crystal clear: make Obama a one-term president. When that failed, they did everything in their power to undermine him, including denying the confirmation of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. 

 Liz Cheney, someone who makes Nixon look like a hippie, lost her Republican primary. Her crime: defending our democratic institutions and holding Trump accountable for his crimes. 

As much as Judge Luttig is to be admired for his insightful essay on the dangers of Trump to the GOP and to our democratic republic, there will never be a reckoning for Donald Trump. Too many voters are impervious to his coarse, unethical and even criminal behavior.