Republicans can’t do anything right, not even throw a party

The Conversation is a weekly dive into the most popular stories on Daily Kos and what it tells us about the national political environment.

Republicans suck at governing. That’s not a partisan observation.

Objectively, Republicans prioritize ideology over competence and expertise. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the party insisting that government can’t work also can’t run one. Yet voters keep giving them another chance.

So we remain trapped in an exhausting cycle. Democrats inherit a mess, fix it, prosperity returns or at least starts to, and voters decide it’s time to hand power back to Republicans so they can wreck everything all over again.

The Trump administration, however, has distinguished itself with a level of incompetence all its own. Everything it touches ends up broken.

The Great American State Fair coverage has been particularly hilarious, with Fox going all-in on breathless, on-the-scene reporting from what was, for all practical purposes, an empty field.

It is yet another reminder that Trump is simply incapable of turning his fantasies of grandeur into reality. Remember last year’s military parade in Washington, D.C., on his birthday? He clearly imagined ranks of North Korean-style troops goose-stepping past the reviewing stand in perfect lockstep. Instead, he sat dejected through cheerful American soldiers casually waving to a thin, low-energy crowd. It was closer to a hometown parade than an authoritarian spectacle.

People watch a U.S. Army robotic dog at the Great American State Fair on June 28.AP

It’s hard to imagine he envisioned anything different for America’s 250th anniversary. In Trump’s mind, this wasn’t supposed to be a celebration of the nation’s founding. It was supposed to be a celebration of the nation for choosing him. He pictured a grand national fair framed by a swimming-pool-blue Reflecting Pool, gold-accented monuments, his face on a $250 bill, and an arch bigger than anyone else’s—especially that French one. If Napoleon could have a giant triumphal arch, surely Donald Trump deserved an even larger one.

Now take a moment to stop laughing at the buffoonery and appreciate this: Republican strategists believed these celebrations would help save their electoral prospects this November.

“We will make sure that people are aware of the fact that we are the party of patriotism and love of country, and the Democrats are just … not proud to be Americans,” one strategist told NOTUS back in May.

Turns out, the people who can’t help themselves are Republicans, who seem constitutionally incapable of getting out of their own way. At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked if this weekend’s fireworks display fizzled or literally flamed out. It’s already likely to cause hazardous air pollution.

Meanwhile …

I will never get tired of reading about those idiots.

On the other hand, I am getting extremely tired of watching the right systematically dismantle America’s media institutions.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Celebrate the country. Just don’t let Trump convince you he’s synonymous with it.

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