Trump's crumbling base

Impeachment failed, he was acquitted by the Senate, which was always what was going to happen because the Republicans have a majority in the Senate.

Trump’s dream was that he would be acquitted by all the Republican senators plus a couple of Democrats who had doubts about the political big picture and the legal fine print. But then as the day dawned up steps Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate in 2012, with a scorching attack on Trump’s presidency and his character. He voted to impeach and so became the first member of Congress ever to vote to impeach a President from his own party. He also emboldened all Democratic senators to vote for impeachment and thus ripped up the speech Trump was about to unleash claiming bipartisan support and generally crowing like the old rooster on steroids he’s always been. He crowed anyway, but in fury.

Romney walks away from the crowing-madman in the White House

Romney said he wasn’t planning on challenging Trump for the Republican nomination this year but hoped someone would. Any challenge to Trump at the Republican convention would cost time money and momentum, all of which Trump would rather spend on defeating whoever the Democrats throw at him.

In fact no Republican bigshot is going to challenge Trump because the whole party is locked inside an outdated and decrepit train barrelling full-tilt toward a cliff while the small horde of Trump tragics bellow and a slowly shrinking cohort of rusted-on Republicans look the other way, prepare a vote for the rooster, and hope absurdly that everything will be all right.

But Romney’s already done serious damage. He’s not just a Mormon but a bishop of the church who is seen to be a true believer in a version of Christianity very unlike the shambolic holy rollers who can’t decide whether Trump is God’s own superhero or the pussy-grabbing crook he’s revealed himself to be. Now, four million Mormon voters are less happy with him than they were last election.

Romney is repulsed by Trump the man, but in policy terms he’s mostly distressed that Trump is, in his bumbling way, pulling America back from bombing the shit out of anybody who challenges its moral and military superiority. Trump doesn’t do morals, and he wants the generals to protect his hotels more than the Stars & Stripes.

So who will the Democrats end up with, for their President and Vice Pres candidates?

Elizabeth Warren and Juan Castro? Bernie Sanders and Tammy Baldwin … or Carmen Cruz? Joe Biden and Mitt Romney? Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton? Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar … or Oprah Winfrey? Any of them plus Michelle Obama? A wing and a prayer?

Our best real hope is that the fetid pile that Trump stands on crumbles fast enough to tip his fat arse over on November 3rd.

Many subsets of the Trump voting pool have been reduced, just a tad, on account of the many dissatisfactions people have toward the man, which is why six Democratic candidates beat him in theoretical polls today.

On polling day, turnout will matter more than ever, and the Republican drive to block tens of millions from voting will also be crucial. Last week the irrepressible journo Greg Palast persuaded a federal judge to demand Republican leaders in Georgia justify their plot to purge millions from the rolls in that state, but big money has a nationwide strategy to prevent the poor and powerless from voting. Why? Because they vote for the wrong people, of course.