I knew Trump would create a mess, but I didn't think he'd be this self destructive while, so far at least, not doing that much damage to anyone else. It's possible that he'll find a way to recover, but it looks less plausible with every passing day.
Trump, like all national politicians, has to know how to play both the outside game and the inside game. The outside game only really matters in presidential politics every four years; the inside game has to be played every day with people within the Beltway. Trump has proved he can play the outside game very effectively, but whatever power he derives from his outside game is neutralized by the intense pushback by anti-trump folks in the streets and at the town halls. And he has shown no aptitude whatsoever for the inside game. At best the insiders look at him as a useful fool, but as soon as he proves himself more useless than useful, they will happily let him go.
The GOP Beltway establishment has no investment in his success. Trump has no powerful allies among insiders, and it's hard to see how he will be able to win any. Bannon might be clever, but he has no one competent to work with. Trump will become more and more isolated as his astonishing incompetency and blundering continues and as this Russian collusion fiasco develops. The GOP establishment is in a wait and see pose now, but they would just as soon work with Pence, rather than this unstable loose cannon.
I'm sure my mood will change, but right now I am feeling rather optimistic regarding the fulfillment for the opportunities presented by scenario 1 in psost s wrote on November 9 and November 10. The vacuity and political obtuseness of the Ryan/Pence wing of the Republican establishment will be on display for all to see, and then it's up to the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party to seize the opportunity being offered and finally change the Neoliberal rules of the game. Obama missed his opportunity to do it after the crises created by Bush/Cheney. We needed another crisis too provide the opportunity for a dramatic change, and Trump is obligingly providing it in a way that Clinton's election would not have.
But unlike 2008, this is n opportunity that must be seized, and there are good signs that finally the forces of sanity are roused enough to seize it. The first test will be in November 2018.
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