Last’s argument was, essentially, that Trump, or at least his radical approach to political combat, would not disappear once the President was no longer President. That, in or out of the office, the ways Trump had altered the Republican Party were so great, and so accepted by rank and even the establishment, that they would still be with us.
“There is no reason to think, none at all, that he will suspend his penchant for influencing American politics every hour. There are many reasons to think that he will vigorously attack any Republican who has been disloyal to him during his administration. Or retroactively criticizes his mandate. Either he opposes one of his preferred candidates or jeopardizes any of his many and varied interests.
“What this means is that there is no way that a skeptical Republican of Trump will simply wait for the Trump years. There will be no ‘life after Trump’ because Trump will be the head of Republican politics for the rest of his days.”
“I think the elephant in the room was these ridiculous charges that were brought up half an hour before the debate,” Watkins told a CNN affiliate in Kansas on Tuesday night. “Completely politically motivated. My lawyers and I are shocked. We have fully supported, and for me he is obviously politically motivated, like all Donald Trump investigations. I mean, that sucks.”
Steve Watkins: It’s like Donald Trump! Victim of some sort of nefarious, if poorly explained, conspiracy by, uh, someone (probably the deep state) to oust a true representative of the people of Congress!
Watkins’ defense would be laughable if it weren’t so revealing.
See, Watkins believes his path to political redemption: He faces off with State Treasurer Jake LaTurner in a Republican primary on August 4, and faces Trump as the outraged victim of some evil plot.
Politics is a copycat business. Always has been. If something works for a politician, everyone else tries to copy it (usually with less positive results). That’s exactly What’s going on here.
Watkins has watched in recent years how Trump has managed to keep his base almost completely united behind him despite Russia’s investigation, Ukraine’s impeachment, and a myriad of other scandals and questionable behavior by the President and his administration. And Trump has done it by insisting that he is being unfairly attacked because the establishment or the elites or someone is afraid of all the changes he is making in the country.
While that’s a bit more complicated argument for a first-term House member, why, exactly, would “they” want to catch him? It remains the argument that Watkins believes gives him the best chance of surviving all of this. Because it worked for Trump.
Trump’s influence, some may remain tainted, in the Republican Party will not end when he is out of office. Because he, and what he has done to the Republican Party, will never go away as long as there are acolytes like Watkins willing to embrace Trumpism for their own selfish goals.
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