Behold Your Roosting Chickens: An Ongoing Series

[Content Note: Bigotry; wedge politics; scapegoating.]

Background: Behold Your Roosting Chickens.

Another day, another story about Republican Party elites feigning pretense about how Trump came to be leading in their primary:

With time running out until the first primary votes are cast, establishment Republicans have begun a ferocious round of finger-pointing over who is to blame for the party's failure to stop Donald Trump.

Well, you know what they say: When you point a finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at you.

The chiding, once limited to private conversations, is now erupting in public view — with campaigns, operatives, donors, party officials and conservative intellectuals arguing over why something hasn't been done to stop the man who has been leading nearly every state and national poll since August. Trump, many in the GOP's upper ranks are convinced, would lead the Republican Party to an epic defeat in November, with consequences all the way down the ballot.

"This whole thing is a disaster," said Curt Anderson, a former Republican National Committee political director and veteran operative. "I think I'll write a book about it."

What a perfect, terrible quote. My party is about to nominate someone who would be ruinous for the country if elected. How can I cash in?

The story goes on to detail who has come up for a share of the blame: "Receiving much of the blame is Right to Rise, the cash-flush super PAC that broke records when it announced last year that it had raised more than $100 million in support of Jeb Bush. The group has directed relatively little of that sum toward attacking Trump... Yet others say it's unfair to solely blame Bush—and that Rubio is just as culpable. Despite winning the support of an array of deep-pocketed donors, including hedge fund manager Paul Singer and tech titan Larry Ellison, Rubio has and his allies have done little to attack Trump... Still others fault Ted Cruz, who spent months cuddling up to Trump in hopes of scooping up his supporters... But it's not just campaigns that are coming under fire—it's also donors, many of whom were presented with the opportunity to go after Trump but didn't pull the trigger... Much frustration has been directed at the RNC, which some believe has been pushed around by the party's surprise poll-leader..."

Bush's super PAC. Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz. Republican donors. The Republican National Committee. Someone is to blame, dammit!

The only thing of which they are sure is that it isn't establishment Republicans.

It definitely isn't the people who flatter themselves by claiming to be the intellectual wing of a party that depends on the exploitation of an intractable streak of anti-intellectualism among its key demographic, the people sophisticated enough to not personally be offended by LGBT folks and people of color and uppity women, but unethical enough to exploit such bigotries nonetheless.

It definitely isn't the people who, after decades of fearmongering, scapegoating, dogwhistling, and wedge issue politicking, devised to convince (primarily) poor whites to vote against their own interests, have built a base that is essentially a seething conglomeration of intolerant bullies whose stubborn refusal to evolve ideologically is matched in astonishing obduracy only by their unjustifiable hatred.

It definitely isn't the people who exploited prejudice without reservation, creating the very ideological dumpster from which Donald Trump emerged as Garbage King.

Not only are they themselves not to blame, they are victims!

In some instances, anger has begun boil to over. Earlier this month, during the RNC's winter meeting, Holland Redfield, a party committeeman from the Virgin Islands, rose during a private breakfast to vent to Priebus about Trump. During the impromptu speech, Redfield complained of the pressures to not speak out, saying, "We're almost terrorized as members of our party."

In an interview, Redfield said that other RNC members had privately applauded him since his speech became public. But he predicted that, if Trump becomes the nominee, the party would face an intense battle between those who were going along with his candidacy and those who aren't.

"It will be a major internal fight," he said. "I feel the party has been hijacked."

Yeah, well, that's a little bit like programming your GPS, following the directions, and then claiming your car hijacked you when you reach your destination.

But, as always, the architects of the Ownership Society refuse to own their shit.

"Personal responsibility" is something they shout at vulnerable people who weren't born with their privileges; it's a catchphrase to absolve themselves of their responsibility toward their fellow citizens, not something they feel obliged to practice.