How can this possibly work out politically for the GOP and President Trump? Trump is massively unpopular already, and the Democrats are substantially ahead in the generic ballot for 2018, and this was capped off by a magnitude-12 political earthquake in Alabama. As it happens, it works out for them just fine.

The crazy media meme that calls the tax bill a political “win” for the GOP is crazy, lazy and wrong. People hate the tax bill, and they are not going to reward Republicans for passing it. And they won’t come to like it better as they see its details and its consequences. So how does it work for the GOP?

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Easy. Take the word “politically” out of the question, and you have your answer. It works for the Republicans who are voting for it just fine. They are mostly rich already, and now they will be richer. But what if they are voted out of office? Well, so what if they are? What is it to them? They are far richer now, in or out. They are well-connected to their donor-patrons and can land vastly more remunerative gigs on the other side of the revolving door. Their work in Washington is finished. They came to break the government, not to run it. Mission Accomplished.

For Trump, the equation is a little more complicated but really not so very different. Contrary to one of his many lies, the tax bill does not cost him. It rewards him tremendously. How tremendously we may never know, because his promise to reveal his tax returns after the mythic “audit” was completed was, of course, another lie.

But doesn’t Trump want a second term? Well, sure, but only on his own terms. His terms are that he be allowed to increasingly do as he pleases. He is not interested in the traditional presidency of checks and balances. His idea of the presidency is to rule by whim and dictate in an ever-increasing sphere of personal prerogative. His idea of popular support is to cultivate and inflame a hard-core of supporters into a cult of personality, an unbreakable and intimidating goon squad of well-armed fanatics who will back him even if, well, let’s let him tell us. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” said your president-to-be on the campaign trail. That is his vision of popular support.

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Will this mobocracy plan get him through the 2020 election? To be determined. Trump runs by instinct, and his instinct tells him to go with what has worked so far. He has walked out of all manner of self-generated corporate bankruptcy and collapse into an ever-more prosperous future all his life, and why stop now? The cultists in the red hats got him elected once already, don’t forget. There is always more opportunity to con, intimidate and maneuver his way a second time. And there are still so many rules and norms left to break on the way.