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(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Several years ago, I saw a description of the perfect con: The victim thinks that he’s part of the con, but it turns out that he’s the mark.
Someone — I don’t remember who — analogized that to the Republican Party: When the Republican Party decided to support Trump, the party thought that it was part of the con, but it turned out that the party was the mark.
Trump has now taken over the Republican Party, and Trump is blocking the minority (or perhaps plurality) that would like to take the party back.
It’s too late. Trump wasn’t merely a useful idiot, after all.
In 2015 and much of 2016, prominent Republicans spoke out against Trump. After Trump won the election, those voices were silenced. Proximity to power is an attractive thing. Politicians strive for it; they don’t give it up lightly. Trump had power, and Republicans enabled him.
The Republicans had opportunities to take back their party from Trump. Certainly at the close of the second impeachment trial — for Trump’s conduct on January 6 — Mitch McConnell could have condemned Trump’s conduct and publicly urged Republicans to vote to convict and to prohibit Trump from again running for the presidency.
Now it’s too late.
In January 2021, I think that many Republicans would have voted to convict Trump with little urging. I’m speaking largely from what I saw on television on January 6. Perhaps Trump really believed that he didn’t incite the crowd. Perhaps he merely saw a mob of people storming the Capitol Building, injuring many, destroying property, and interfering with Congress. Even if this were Trump’s honest perception, why would any patriot stand silent for three hours and watch this happen when he had the chance to tweet, or speak, or otherwise urge the rioters to go home? Maybe speaking out promptly would have worked, and maybe it wouldn’t have, but any person who put “America first” would have at least tried. Trump did not.
I suspect, but will never know, that if McConnell had urged Trump’s conviction, then Trump would have been convicted and disbarred from the presidency. I suspect, but will never know, that McConnell would later have lost his Senate race. I suspect, but will never know, that McConnell knew this, too. I suspect, but will never know, that — for all his talk about putting party before self — McConnell ultimately put self before party. His desire to stay in office outweighed his desire to do what was right for his party and country.
But here’s the part about karma: The Republicans still don’t know what to do about Trump. A very few Republicans will publicly oppose Trump; that tends to be the end of a Republican’s political career. Most Republicans will stand back from the fray, hoping that someone else will destroy Trump without them having to take any risk.
Perhaps midterm election results will destroy Trump. Perhaps the polling numbers of some other politician will destroy Trump. Perhaps the Democrats will destroy Trump.
No luck so far.
Perhaps external events will destroy Trump — perhaps a special prosecutor?
Sorry. As I’ve written before, Trump may be indicted, and tried, and perhaps convicted before the 2024 election, but it’s unlikely that he will have landed in jail before then, which I think is the only thing that will convince his diehard supporters. Until then, the criminal proceedings are all just a witch hunt, unfairly persecuting Trump, and it’s all the Democrats’ fault.
Sorry, Republicans: You thought you were part of the con, and it turns out that you were the mark.
Karma: Nobody deserves misery, but sometimes it’s just your turn.
Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.
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