Ticking Clock

I was no fan of George W. Bush when he was President, in no small part because the GOP held both houses of Congress for the first six years of his eight-year presidency. You do have to give him credit, however, for working well with Congress to pass a number of signature legislative measures important to the Republican Party.

Now that a Republican again is in the White House and the GOP holds both houses of Congress, the contrast couldn't be greater. Washington today is a slow-motion train wreck, and one man alone bears the blame for that: Donald Trump.

Two articles published on Friday drive home how much damage he's doing to his own party. I'm not crying any tears for the Republicans, but you have to think they're not so masochistic that they'll put up with this indefinitely. When they turn against Trump, it's all over.

At The Washington Post, their conservative columnist Michael Gerson, the former GOP speechwriter, wrote a piece (link here) with the title "Republicans, it’s time to panic." The writer succinctly lays out how Trump is not only hurting the GOP's chances in 2018 and 2020, but he may also be permanently damaging the GOP.

At The New Yorker, Susan Glasser wrote a great article (link here) titled "For Trump, Consequences Are Piling Up in Washington." She does a super job describing how demoralized Republicans are about the damage Trump is doing to their party, to Washington, and to the country.

The situation can't continue until the end of Trump's term. Something has to give. I suspect the GOP is waiting for more of their members to turn against Trump. That time seems sooner rather than later, as recent opinion poll trends have shown.