THAT JOKE ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE

The determination of very smart people to believe that Donald Trump is a joke and a spent force results in nothing-to-see-here reporting like this story, which appeared at the Daily Beast eight days ago:

Since Nov. 25, not a single fundraising email from the Trump campaign or its Republican National Committee fundraising account has featured [Vice President Mike] Pence’s name in the “from” field. And this week, that Republican National Committee joint fundraising committee, the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, made another subtle change: a handful of its emails swapped out the official Trump-Pence campaign logo for one featuring just the president’s name.

... According to four people with knowledge of the matter, [this reflects] an effort by the vice president and his team to distance Pence from some of the president’s more outlandish claims about a conspiracy to undermine the election and illegally deny him a second term in office.

“It is an open secret [in Trumpworld] that Vice President Pence absolutely does not feel the same way about the legal effort as President Trump does,” said a senior administration official. “The vice president doesn’t want to go down with this ship… and believes much of the legal work has been unhelpful.”

That was then. Eight days later, Pence is taking long drinks from the Kool-Aid:

Vice President Mike Pence was back in Georgia for the second time in less than a week to urge GOP supporters to vote in the January runoff elections for U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

But moments into his speech at the “Defend the Majority” rally, Pence also cheered on an attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the November election results, including in Georgia, in favor of President Donald Trump.

“(Seventeen) states have joined the Lone Star State to defend the integrity of our elections to the highest state in the land,” Pence said. “President Donald Trump deserves his day in court — the Supreme Court. And all I can say is God bless Texas.”

The sedition is even more widespread:

Update about the 106 House Republicans who signed on to this embarrassing lawsuit to disenfranchise millions of legal American voters: that number is now 126. https://t.co/0xjSEjV7Cs

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 11, 2020

There is, at long last, pushback from Democrats. In the House:

Rep. Pascrell writes to Pelosi and Lofgren asking them to look into not seating the 126 amici in the new Congress, invoking Reconstruction era constitutional “safeguards to cleanse from our government ranks any traitors and others that would destroy the union.” pic.twitter.com/WR0lJEMepK

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) December 11, 2020

And, as Greg Sargent reports, in the Senate:

[In] a speech that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) gave on the Senate floor on Friday, ... he called out his Republican colleagues. Watch this full excerpt:

“Right now, the most serious attempt to overthrow our democracy in the history of our of country is underway.

Those who are pushing to make Donald Trump President, no matter the outcome of the election, are engaged in a treachery against their nation.” pic.twitter.com/FE7K91nlSD

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 11, 2020

... you don’t often hear them saying what Murphy suggested here: that the Republican Party has morphed into a malignant and profoundly dangerous threat to the country and the long-term prospects for our democratic stability.

But is it too late?

I know we all are sure that the Supreme Court will not give these seditionist wingnuts what they want with this lawsuit.

But what happens if, for some reason, they do?

— digby (@digby56) December 11, 2020

I don't know the answer to this. A general strike? A civil war? Do we need to take up arms?

I laughed at the Texas suit. But the entire Republican Party seems to be treating it the way Trump treats every unpleasant reality he faces: He throws a tantrum, and the tantrum never ends, and he counts on the rest of the world to alter the reality he doesn't like, just to shut him up.

It sometimes works. I hope it doesn't work now. But there has to be a cost to the tantrum-throwers for doing this. But I don't know what it should be, or what's possible.