A diseased party and its President

 As readers of this blog know, I believe that the modern Republican Party has as its overarching goal the transfer of money from the non-rich to the rich. Their claims that they are for balanced budgets, more jobs, strong defense, affordable health care etc. etc. are all lies, since they have acted time and time again in ways that are antithetical to these claims. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy will balloon budget deficits; cutting medical research and renewable energy programs and job training will kill jobs and create no new ones, while saving coal will kill people and do nothing for a moribund industry; their defense posture is irrational: more aircraft carriers to fight an inflated terrorist threat is absurd, while cozying up to dictators like Putin, the Saudi royals and Duterte will hardly make us more secure; "affordable" health care for them means phony insurance that covers nothing of importance (maternity, preexisting conditions, etc.). Trump and the Republicans are betraying the very people they are cynically claiming to represent -- and this includes the religious right, who seem to swallow the absurd thesis that god is acting through The Donald.

There really is, in terms of outcome, very little difference between Trump and the RMP ( = Rich Man's Party, formerly the GOP). The latter needs Trump to retain power in order to enact its Rich Man's agenda, and Trump needs the Republicans to keep him away from impeachment while he shores up his "brand" domestically and overseas.

In case you might think that these very severe judgements are simply my ranting, click on  Krugman to read what an economics nobelist has to say in the N. Y. Times, or click on Richard North Patterson  to read what a best-selling author has to say in the Boston Globe.

At this point I believe America vs. Trump/RMP will end in either (a) Triumph for America: a massive repudiation in the polls beginning in 2018; (b) Tragedy: Trump/RMP will get away with it and our Democracy will be dealt a possibly mortal blow or (c) Farce: Trump will either quit or be impeached or both, leaving us with Pence and the RMP largely intact to continue transferring wealth to the already-wealthy.

For the near term we can expect more and bigger and less convincing lies, attempts to strip away our environmental and workplace protection, attempts to strip away our national parks and monuments, attempts to strip away our constitutional protections, a lowering of our defenses against unsympathetic (to say the least) states such as Saudi Arabia and Putin's Russia. Until we get (if we do) a special prosecutor, the best we can hope for is that the current Trump "drama" will keep the Republican Congress preoccupied  enough so that the damage it can do, and wants to do, will be put off.