Speaker Mike Johhnson has joined the Republican chorus ripping the Biden Administration’s response to Hurricane Helene. At the same time, he’s refusing to call the House back into session to appropriate more money for disaster relief. Today’s Republican party in a nutshell. See also Newsweek, How Mike Johnson’s Big Decision Could Impact Helene Relief Efforts.

Liz Cheney has been saying that if Trump loses in November, what’s left of the Republican party might have to form a new party. Zachary Basu of Axios also writes that a Potential Trump loss threatens destruction of the modern GOP. “Never before has a party’s identity been so deeply entwined with the fate, fortunes and flaws of one man. Four consecutive poor election cycles would unleash a wave of sustained scrutiny that the GOP — as it currently exists — may not survive,” writes Basu. 

If the Republicans suffer significant losses, including the White House, in November, then certainly the MAGA movement can’t survive as a political force except maybe as a local or regional entity. It won’t die right away, of course, but since it’s a cult of personality it won’t survive without Donald Trump.

And Trump is being eaten alive by senlility with every passing day. Whether he wins or not, I expect that by some time next year the Trump family will be forced to admit he has Alzheimers. His short-term memory issues are getting more pronounced. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he’s already been diagnosed and the family is keeping it secret as long as possible, And most likely MAGA will go the way of the Temperence Movement once he’s no longer able to lead it. Do read this weekend’s New York Times exposé of Trump’s mental state.  See also The Media Is Finally Waking Up to the Story of Trump’s Mental Fitness by Michael Tomasky at The New Republic.

If MAGA dies in a timely manner, IMO there might be enough left of the old GOP establishment to reconstitute something approximating the old GOP. And if the MAGAts stomp out and form their own party, so much the better. But Cheney and Basu apparently think it’s more likely that the remnants of the old establishment will have to form a new party and let the Republican Party die from MAGA cancer, so to speak. And they’re closer to the thing than I am.

But if Trump wins, the Republican Party is still toast. It will be utterly consumed by MAGA, and MAGA is not a political party but only a caricature of one. The real question then will be if the United States survives, especially as we’ll end up with President J.D. Vance. I don’t even want to think about it.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric coming from Trump and his allies is increasingly dangerous. Now they’re openly claiming that Democrats were behind the two assasination attempts.

At Talking Points Memo, David Kurtz writes that West Virginia is considering secession if Trump loses.

Take, for instance, the resolution that four GOP lawmakers introduced Sunday in the special session in West Virginia. It’s as extreme as anything I’ve seen in the last few years. The proposed resolution, inter alia, calls on West Virginia not to “recognize” the results of the 2024 presidential election if “election fraud in any state was a major reason that resulted in a candidate for President obtaining a majority in the Electoral College.”

“Election fraud” is defined in the text very broadly to include a laundry list of bogus right-wing claims ranging from non-citizen voting to “prosecutions for apparent political motives.” By this definition, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing prosecution of Donald Trump could be sufficient grounds on its own for West Virginia to refuse to recognize a victorious Kamala Harris as the legitimate president. 

This is from the draft resolution:

That, the State of West Virginia will not recognize any election of the Democrat candidate for President during the 2024 election cycle if the Republican presidential or vice-presidential candidate is assassinated, seriously injured during an assassination attempt, incarcerated, de facto eliminated or barred from the ballot in any states, or is the subject of legal actions that preclude their effective campaigning …

This probably won’t go anywhere, of course, but the fact that actual state legislatures are thinking about this is worthy of note.