THE DISAPPEARING REPUBLICAN PARTY
"We have lawsuits in 81 states right now" 4/24/24-Lara Trump Co-Chair Republican National Party
On July 19 I had finished my essay titled "The Teneo Network" What, When, Where, Why, & Who: A Outline Survey of Project 2025's "Silicon Valley of Conservatism"
I published the outline survey sometime during the day July 20th and it had hundreds of views during the first 24-hours and is currently the second most popular piece of writing available within my Newsletter.
Then Sunday July 21st dawned with a full moon at 6:17am; this day will forever mark one of the singular most important turning points in American political history.1
If I could go back in time and write a new headline title for that day it would look something like the following:
Some descriptions of club-hauling and a YouTube clip of Captain Jack Sparrowโs ship the Interceptor club-hauling are below in footnote #2.
Comparing and contrasting Presidential Election Campaigns
Like vast numbers of people I too am bone-tired, disgusted, and angry with the way the main stream media outlets have been carrying water for the Trump campaign with their traitorous, irresponsible, cowardly sane-washing and whitewashing of all things MAGA or Trump; which at this point in time consists of uncountable failures to accurately and truthfully tell the story that should have been being reported.
As most who are reading this newsletter already know according to โthe newsโ it is a horse race with Harris and Trump running neck and neck as they enter the final stretch to the finish line, polls keep entering the infosphere that supposedly support this clearly and obviously aberrant story.
For this compare and contrast I would like to invite you to take a short bit of time to simply click-into and look at each of the websites listed below and compare my description to what you find.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) The DNC is about people.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) The RNC is about itself.
Milwaukee RNC 2024 was night.
Compared to day at the Chicago DNC 2024.
Republican National Convention Milwaukee 2024 website? 404.
2024 Republican Party Platform as found at RNC.org.
2024 Democratic Party Platform as found at Democrats.org.
The first two listings present the official website of each party as can be seen the Republican Partyโs website is a minimal production with only six links to follow all of which lead to a gop.com mirror website that contains more linked-to material that is pertinent to their election campaign (My initial intuitive thought about this dual website structure made me wonder if there might be some efforts underway to rename the party in the near future, especially in light of the fact that the historic Republican Party no longer actually exists anymore).
Whereas the Democratic Partyโs website is a masterclass in layout, organization and professionalism. At the digital home of the Democratic Party you will not find any links leading you away to a differently nick-named party, no. Instead the home page contains a wealth of links to internal pages covering all types of activity and as a clear contrast to the โGrand Old Partyโsโ website, the DNCโs website has a highly visible and well placed link that leads to a Spanish language version of the website, unlike the RNC which is only in the English language.
Listings 3 and 4 present the websites of the party conventions and just as in the case of the primary party sites the RNCโs host cityโs digital presence is minimal and lacking in any sense of personality, whereas the DNCโs host city is again a masterclass in service-help and conveys a strong sense of welcomeness.
Listings 5 and 6 compare each partyโs convention website, or at least that was the objective of this exercise. The DNCโs convention websiteโagain Masterclassโis an engaging, professional presentation, and clearly vibes with enthusiasm.
The RNC does not have any publicly available convention website.
Listings 7 and 8 compare each partyโs platform. The RNCโs 2024 platform is only 28 pages long and is short on details and substance and big on blame and bluster.
The DNCโs 2024 platform is 92 pages long and is all substance fleshed out with important details and focuses on problems that Americans face and the solutions offered by a Harris-Walz White House Administration.
While researching and preparing to cobble this essay together I sought out some perspectives from just before the Republican Convention took place. I was not disappointed. One of my findings turned out to be some interesting observations found at a Council for Foreign Relations blog post. I will excerpt the item of interest here below without comment as it says what needs to be said rather succinctly:
The Atlanticโs Tim Alberta interviewed top Trump campaign officials and concluded that they built their campaign around the perception that Biden is too old to be president. The result, in Albertaโs view, is that Bidenโs departure from the race โwould necessitate a dramatic resetโnot just for the Democratic Party, but for Trumpโs campaign.โ Senior Trump campaign officials insist โthat any Democratic replacement would inherit the presidentโs deficienciesโ and that โTrumpโs blueprint for victory would remain essentially unchanged,โ Alberta writes. โBut they know thatโs not true. They know their campaign has been engineered in every wayโfrom the voters they target to the viral memes they createโto defeat Biden. And privately, they are all but praying that he remains their opponent.โ3
Some of the other findings are definitely worth reading and I strongly recommend taking the time to read the following report. Lawrence Donegan is a Scotsman who has lived in America for over twenty years and considers America his adopted home. Since labor day he has been traveling around the country to see both partyโs campaign events and to meet people from both sides of the aisle. I have read several of his newsletters and it is fascinating to read his descriptions of what appears to be an almost non-existent Republican ground game :
In other writing that heralds the inevitable disappearance of the Republican Party, Heather Cox Richardson in her October 25, 2024 letter published last night notes that:
โMusk has competition for control of the party. Today, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who lead the establishment Republican faction and the MAGAs, respectively, and thus are usually at loggerheads, issued a joint statementโ
There are other signs that I have been detecting as well which I am keeping tabs on and will report on when appropriate.
This year the 2024 National Presidential Election will take place during the heart of a new moon, and according to folklore the best time to start new ventures is during a new moon, and I think it might be permissible for me to say that Lunaโs monthly luminations seems to be illuminating the Democratic Partyโs way to success.
After President Biden Passed the baton on to Vice President Harris the energy and momentum created by this blitzkrieg redirection of tactics and strategies has continued unabated; it flowed like a surging tide connecting and drawing together people all across the country bringing us to Monday August 19th with the dynamic energy of a full Blue Sturgeon Moon to power-up the opening day of the Democratic National Convention where instead of devolving into a free-for-all circus of political party infighting4, the convention was a glowing model of energy, synergy, & unity.
โWe Are Not Going Back!โ
โWhen We Fightโฆ
โฆWe Win!โ
Well now it is official, I am back.
I want to thank all of my subscribers, readers, and supporters who have been patiently awaiting my return to the digital world. For those of you who might be interested I will be creating a separate paid private (paid and private because I am a very private and careful individual) newsletter that will be strictly for use as a social media networking point for me and individuals who are serious about continuing to support our democracy and resist the continuing efforts by conservative Christian nationalist forces.
And last, but most certainly not least, I positively must shout out and thank everyone who has shared my writings, or suggested my work to others and especially in the case of the eleven recommendations that I am highly privileged to have for my newsletter, during the past three months while I dealt with the grief of losing my brother so unexpectedly their support by way of recommendations continued to steadily help grow my network of readers and supporters whom I currently serve; this steady stream of subscribers showing up during some of my darker hours kept me coming back online and helped me to refocus on life.
Thank you for reading,
Robert J. Rei, Fall River, MA, October 26, 2024
"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." -Aldous Huxley
Biden drops out of 2024 race after disastrous debate inflamed age concerns. VP Harris gets his nod, Zeke Miller, Colleen Long And Darlene Superville, July 21, 2024, AP News, https://apnews.com/article/biden-drops-out-2024-election-ddffde72838370032bdcff946cfc2ce6
Francis Liardet: Professional Recollections on Points of Seamanship, Discipline, &c., 1849., Club-hauling, Lars Bruzelius transcriber (1998), http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Seamanship/Liardet/Liardet(1849)_p72.html
This is a manoeuvre of vital necessity, when a ship is on a lee shore, without room for wearing, and if she stand on, must inevitable go on shore; and mostly takes place in blowing weather with a heavy swell, therefore, in order to make sure of the ship's coming round on the other tack, you must club-haul her or anchor on al lee shore.
Club-hauling is executed in the following manner. Have all ready for going about, and hands placed by the lee bower anchor, with every thing quite ready to bring the ship up with the scope of cable you think will be requisite, proceed to tack the ship, and if she make a stand before she comes head to wind, let go the anchor. When the ship is head to wind, haul the after-yards, and slip the instant you are certain of her casting the right way. When the wind is nearly abeam, haul the head yards. A ship may perhaps be placed in the same situation as to the land, with the wind moderate, and the swell sufficient to make it doubtful whether she will tack, or not; in such a situation a kedge might be sufficient to insure the tacking of the ship. Club-hauling on many occasions, might be made most useful to steamers when in a narrow channel, or in a blowing weather on a lee shore, and owing to their great length cannot otherwise be brought around. In such a case, when the steamer comes head to wind, her anchor might be saved with care and attention, as she would then have her full propelling power in the right direction, namely head to wind and right off from the danger.
Election 2024: The Republican National Convention Begins on Monday, blog post, James M. Lindsay, July 12, 2024, Council for Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/blog/election-2024-republican-national-convention-begins-monday
Ibidem at 3
Upping the pressure on Biden to step aside risks a bruising internal party fight that hands victory to Trump. Even if Democratic leaders persuade Biden to give way to a new generation of leadership, they will have relatedly little time to build a consensus around his successor.