Donald Trump may be having his John Birch Society moment. Although it's now a shadow of its former self, back in the nineteen fifties and sixties, that far right political group had an enormous influence on right wing, cold war politics. At first, William F Buckley, conservative intellectual and founder of the right wing magazine The National Review, embraced the organization. But then it was discovered that Birch Society founder Robert W. Welch Jr. had once written a political statement accusing then President Dwight D Eisenhower of being a Communist. The absurd notion that a Republican president and war hero could be a red was too much for Buckley, who openly denounced the extreme group. It's hard to believe that there was ever a right wing movement to the right of Buckley, but there was. Sadly, unlike Buckley, the Republican Party is not doing the right thing and turning on Trump, even as he distorts reality.
In the past few days, Donald Trump has been publicly turning on Fox News, the Roger Aisles founded network that somehow isn't conservative enough for him. Although no other large news organization has more openly defended and cheered Trump, he still has lashed out against it in his tweets. Why? Because, despite what the right wing opinion shows on the station are saying, the more news oriented programs on the network have accepted the reality of Joe Biden defeating Trump. To add insult to injury, during the election, Fox was the first network to call the state of Arizona for Biden. So now Trump has started touting other even more extreme (but far less popular) right wing networks like the One America News Network or Newsmax, which claim that there is still a chance that Trump will win the election through his (baseless) legal actions.
So here we have a prime example of the damage Trump has done to not only the nation but to his chosen political party as well. It isn't enough for him that the commentary shows on Fox are still hyping his "stolen election" narrative, he still feels betrayed by Fox because their reality based news anchors won't fall in line behind him. In his world, if he says the sky is purple, the right wing news media had better agree.
Sadly, this all just a part of how completely the Republican party has become a cult around Trump. Just look at their party platform at the last convention, which was nothing more than a statement that Trump speaks for the party on all things. Think about how the party that once pushed Jimmy Carter into selling his peanut farm after he was elected president because it was a conflict of interest was fine with Trump running a hotel that bore his name in Washington DC while he was president. The party that denounced Bill Clinton for "immorality" when he was president ignored twenty six different women charging Trump with sexual assault or rape. The party that celebrated Ronald Reagan even as he granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants, later supported a man who wanted to build a wall on the border and called Mexican immigrants "rapists". And now they're so cowed by him and his popularity in the party that only a handful of elected Republican officials are willing to admit that he lost. There's a feeling in the party that Trump just needs some time and space to deal with his feelings about losing, as if the president were a screaming child throwing his toys around, instead of a grown man.
So, even though Trump is destined to leave the White House on January twentieth (perhaps kicking and screaming all the way), his influence on the party will continue. Just how will that influence will express itself? Perhaps he will join with Newsmax or OANN to create his own right wing mediasphere in which his every tweet will be regarded as words from the lord on high. Or he may run again in twenty twenty four, striking fear into the hearts of other Republican candidates(and any decent American for that matter). In any event, his stamp of xenophobia, bigotry and outright corruption will brand the party for years to come, and, hopefully, someday it will pay a steep price for every supporting a man like him in the first place.
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