When a political party controls the Presidency and at least one house of Congress, the surest sign that it is about to lose the former is when it starts talking primarily about the need to preserve "checks and balances" by telling voters to keep it in charge of the latter. So, for those of us who are worried about Joe Biden's chances of evicting Donald Trump from the House of Plague, formerly known as the White House, it may supply some real measure of reassurance beyond poll results to know that the money interests that govern the Republican Party (and thus, the rest of us for the past four decades) are beginning to bail on the Orange Iguana in favor of supporting Mitch McMumbles and his Keystone Kops.
But, in this case, we may have one other sure indication that it's over for Trump: Trump himself, who's had a pretty bad week, culminating in a two hour radio pity-party hosted by Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh and his guest of honor spent that time about how, despite their mutually undeserved share of good fortune in life, that life had actually been unfair to both of them, a message that listeners both agreed with and empathized with. This is not the message of someone who wants to be seen as acting like a winner, anymore than this is. Or this. For that matter, this. And especially this.
Trump, it seems, has given up.
Or has he?
Let's go back to his Limbaugh performance for a minute.
Trump didn't appear on Limbaugh's show by accident. He's curried favor with the broadcast blowhard for a long time, even before he forever tarnished the Medal of Freedom by awarding it to Limbaugh. That's because Limbaugh's listeners are partners with Trump (and Limbaugh, for that matter) in grievance. Not when it comes to a lack of material success. Rather, when it comes to the one thing that links McCONnell's donors and Limbaugh's audience: the decline and fall (in slow-motion) of white privilege.
As long as Trump can feed the racist fires of his base, he's got a way of maintaining power, and thereby finding a way out of the post-presidential legal and financial troubles that now seem likely to dog him once he leaves the White House. But keep in mind: even if he does lose the election, he will have eleven weeks of access to the powers of the most powerful office in the world. Who knows if he wouldn't sell state secrets to pay his bills? Who knows if he wouldn't try to swing a plea bargain by launching a nuclear war?
And who knows if he won't try to hide his complicity in stirring so-called "militias" to the point at which they would deliberately go beyond circumventing constitutional government to almost reach the point of attempted murder? A tweet (now deleted) on Twitter earlier stated that Trump was attempting to delete his earlier attacks on Gretchen Whitmer. Whether or not he's succeeded in doing so is not the point. The fact that Trump has groups like this at his beck and call for is purposes is, because they will be around long after Joe Biden is sitting in the Oval Office. (And, in any case, can we finally stop pretending these groups are the "well-regulated" fighting forces referred to in the text of the Second Amendment, and use the power of the national government to put them out of business?)
And Trump will still have at his beck and call, for the most part, a Republican Party that has devolved from being a political party to being a crime syndicate. And, finally, an enemy of democracy. That's not an exaggeration. Take Utah's Senator Mike Lee's word for it.
One way or another, even out of office, Trump, his family, and his followers are not going anywhere, his followers in particular. Over the past four years, they've had a taste of real power that's not leaving their mouths. And Trump will still be around to feed it, perhaps to the point of launching large-scale violence. And Trump has, over the past four years, repeatedly shown us something about himself that we fail to believe at our peril: when it comes to protecting his interests, there are no limits.
We're not safe after November 3, no matter what, folks. If we get a Democratic blowout on that day, rejoice. You've earned the right to do it.
But keep your power dry. They surely will.
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