THE GOP'S FUTURE: EMPIRICAL REALITY OR CLOUD-CUCKOOLAND?

There seems to be a schism in the GOP right now. One group of Republicans thinks this is the smart, career-savvy approach to the present situation:

Sources close to the White House said some senior officials inside the White House and the campaign are beginning to quietly back away from Trump, in acts of self-preservation, as the returns in Pennsylvania and Georgia indicate the President will not win reelection.

"It's over," one key adviser to the administration said of the race....

[An] adviser to the campaign described Trump as increasingly isolated in his claims of a stolen election. "He is mostly alone here," the adviser said of Trump's claims of voter fraud....

One pressure point for Trump is that some in the administration are already beginning to look beyond the 2020 race and toward 2024. One adviser said some inside the administration and the GOP are starting to measure their actions based on ambitions for the next campaign cycle.

And then there are these folks:

Minnesota GOP Chairperson Jennifer Carnahan told party activists on Thursday night that she would help amplify claims of ballot fraud made by President Donald Trump and national Republican leaders....

Carnahan said that earlier Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel asked her and other GOP officials around the country to recruit elected Republicans to parrot the false claims of fraud....

“Regarding the field staff that we had in Minnesota, at this point, the field staff has been re-resourced or redeployed or reallocated to help out right now in Michigan, Georgia and Arizona,” she said. “We need to bring all these states home for the president; their campaign feels like we’re gonna bring all them home. So we are going to deliver this great Donald Trump another four years in this country."...

In an interview with the Star Tribune on Friday, she appeared to be executing on the effort, criticizing election law changes in states like Minnesota that expanded mail-in voting efforts amid the pandemic. “When changes like that are brought forward at a mass level in multiple states, it does raise questions, it does raise some doubt,” Carnahan said.

I don't think everyone who's expressing suspicions of electoral fraud actually believes there was any. I think many of them are just making a different bet on what's good for their careers as Republicans.

I've been saying for years that Donald Trump will remain the effective head of the GOP even in defeat, but the Trump end-timers might not be remaining loyal to him because they believe that. They might just believe that the Republican electorate, goaded not only by the Trump campaign but also by right-wing media, will fervently embrace the election fraud narrative, and will conclude that anyone who doesn't embrace it is a sellout RINO, not only over the next several weeks but well into the future.

It's possible that the people who are bailing on Trump are right. It's possible that delusional Trumpers will lose control of the party.

But I doubt it. I think the end-timers are making the right bet.