This name for MAGA's madness must spread like wildfire

So on Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche – a misnomer if ever there was one, as the man is “acting” nothing like an actual Attorney General – admitted defeat in declaring the nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” (better known by sane adults as the “slush fund”) permanently dead. Deceased. Scrapped. Gone. Sayonara.

And then, two days later, like a zombie rising from the grave, Senate Republicans refused to bury it for good.

In passing the $70 billion ICE funding bill, it declined to feature a provision banning the fund designed to compensate the criminals who launched an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, only to be pardoned by President Trump.

Yeah, for all of the supposed angst that Republican lawmakers had about potentially financially rewarding the very same thugs who left the Capitol in shambles and were hellbent on hanging the Vice President of the United States, they ultimately caved because they didn’t want to hurt Little Donnie’s fragile feelings.

Mind you, this is the same appalling scheme that had generated such bipartisan concern and widespread public outrage days before. But in the end, the Republicans did what they do best. They ultimately backed down and deferred to their lord and master while exhibiting not the tiniest amount of spine, because cowardice and hypocrisy are their joint default settings.

When asked why no guardrails were put in place to protect against the fund, Senate Leader John Thune said – in referring to Blanche’s earlier statement – “I think what was talked about, and then ultimately done away with is, in my view, it’s a settled issue.”

Oh, really now?

If that’s the case, then why not get rid of it entirely so there is no danger of it coming to be in the future? Why preserve the possibility?

I think I can answer this with a measure of assurance: today’s Republican Party operates not as an independent body but merely an extension of Trump and his will. Trump not only owns the party outright; he fully owns the will of every senator and representative inside it.

Even those who have no reason to walk beside Trump in lockstep because they have no risk of being “primaried” are afraid of him, of his MAGA fanatics, of the price of defying him. And so, they leave the door open more than just a crack in case there’s a chance for this massively corrupt bill to be resurrected at some point over the next few months. Because while the brainwashed loyalists don’t need to be paid to do Trump’s violent bidding, their motivation and resolve can’t help but be increased by making a few bucks or thousands on the side.

Make no mistake, this thing remains all about stealing the midterms and Trump leaving no felonious stone unturned in making sure the election doesn’t veer dangerously into authenticity and integrity. That would prove a nightmare.

This is what gave rise to the “anti-weaponization” idea to begin with. And what a genius notion it was to make its handle the very opposite of its design. It is, in fact, the ultimate “weaponization” fund. Orwell himself couldn’t have created something with a greater sense of absurdity.

And so, the same party that has spent years screaming about government power and persecution has done its best to preserve it through legislation – or in this case, through a way to hide it going forward.

See, that’s really all that the Republicans were upset about before. It wasn’t the notion that pardoned felons were being rewarded for their handiwork, past and future; it was that they hadn’t done a good enough job disguising it. It wasn’t the degeneracy. It was the identification.

Now, by allowing the slush fund to live on, albeit more quietly, they have more time to figure out a way to attach it to some other bill and no one will notice. They just have to be more creative in their concealment.

This is what we can all glean from the fact that the people who warned us about political persecution have refused to permanently close the door on a fund designed to incentivize misconduct.

It stands as a further lesson that we should never listen to what Republicans say but watch what they do. That’s the only accurate gauge of their intent, their desires, their loyalty, their eagerness to reduce their morals and ethics to whatever can fit inside a thimble when their power is put at risk.

This is what happens when you cease to be a political party but instead a loyalty cult organized around the desires, grievances and appetites of one man.

They have all learned that when it comes to their jobs, their marching orders surround the appeasement of Donald John Trump. If what they do and say helps him, it’s good; if it doesn’t, it’s bad. Fidelity to the Constitution is irrelevant.

It now may well be up to the courts to block the fund, and we all know how that generally turns out. The lower courts will agree it’s illegal, but the Supreme Court will find it to be just fine in their shadow docket assessment as long as Trump’s name is attached to it.

The corruption lately runs deep and across all branches of government. That’s been clear since Trump took office nearly 17 months ago. What’s even more jarring is the open transparency, the hubris, the sheer chutzpah inherent in the depravity.

I posted something the other day on social media that caused numerous MAGA-ites to accuse me of having a Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) agenda. I struggled to defend myself against such a ridiculous charge, so I’d like to put in writing right here that we need a counter-argument to label their own form of madness. Something that speaks to their irrational and unbalanced infatuation with the man.

It's time for us to make Trump Obsession Syndrome (TOS) go viral.

(Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.)