(CNN)When conservative thinker and writer Jonathan V. Last declared that “Trump is forever” back in December 2019, he may not have known how right he would prove to be.
Last’s argument was, essentially, that Trump — or at least his radical approach to political combat — wouldn’t disappear once the President was, well, not the president anymore. That, in or out of office, the ways in which Trump had altered the Republican Party were so huge — and so wholly accepted by the rank and file and even the establishment — that they would still be with us.
“There is no reason to think—none at all—that he will discontinue his penchant for weighing in on American politics on an hourly basis. There is every reason to think that he will vigorously attack any Republican who was disloyal to him during his administration. Or retroactively criticizes his tenure. Or runs in opposition to one of his preferred candidates. Or jeopardizes any of his many and varied interests.
“What this means is that there is no way for a Trump-skeptical Republican to simply wait out the Trump years. There will be no “life after Trump” because Trump is going to be the head boss of Republican politics for the rest of his days.”
Which brings me to Tuesday night, and the news that Rep. Steve Watkins, a Kansas Republican, faces three felony charges and a misdemeanor in relation to a local 2019 election. And, specifically, to how he and his campaign reacted to the news.
“I think the elephant in the room were these ridiculous charges that were brought up a half hour before debate,” Watkins told a CNN affiliate in Kansas on Tuesday night. “Completely politically motivated. My lawyers and I are shocked. We’ve been fully supportive, and to me it’s just obviously politically motivated, just like all the investigations of Donald Trump. I mean that’s what it reeks of.”
In case you missed that point, here’s what Watkins’ spokesman told CNN about the charges: “Just like President Trump, Steve is being politically prosecuted by his opponents who can’t accept the results of the last election. Kansans and Americans are tired of these kinds of silly games.”
Steve Watkins: He’s just like Donald Trump! The victim of some sort of nefarious — if ill-explained — conspiracy by, uh, someone (probably the deep state) to push a true representative of the people out of Congress!
Watkins’ defense would be laughable if it weren’t so telling.
See, Watkins believes that his path to political redemption — he faces state Treasurer Jake LaTurner in an August 4 Republican primary — runs through throwing his lot in with Trump as the undeserving victim of some wicked plot.
Politics is a copycat business. Always has been. If something works for one politician, everybody else tries to copy it (usually with less positive results). That’s exactly what’s going on here.
Watkins has watched over the past few years as Trump has somehow managed to keep his base almost entirely united behind him despite the Russia investigation, the Ukraine impeachment, and myriad other scandals and questionable behavior on the part of the President and his administration. And Trump has done so by insisting he is being unfairly targeted because the establishment or the elites or someone is scared of all the changes he is making in the country.
While that’s a bit more of a complicated argument for a first-term House member — why, exactly, would “they” want to get him? — it’s still the argument Watkins thinks gives him the best chance of surviving all of this. Because it worked for Trump.
In other words: “I learned it by watching you!” (I see all my 1980s heads bobbing out there!)
Trump’s influence — some might stay stain — on the Republican Party isn’t going to end when he is out of office. Because he — and what he has done to the GOP — is never going to be gone as long as there are acolytes like Watkins willing to embrace Trumpism for their own selfish goals.
