A peremptory order from former US president Donald Trump appeared on his personal social media platform on January 4: “[I]t’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY.”

Effect: Zero.

Rebellious Republicans — including some of the Trumpier than Trump variety — continued to vote against electing Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the new Speaker of the House. As I write this, McCarthy has failed of election on six consecutive ballots, and only God knows how long the circus will continue.

Whatever one thinks of McCarthy, or of who should be elected Speaker, or of the consequences of continued delay in choosing someone, Trump’s decreasing influence over the Republican Party seems worthy of note.

With at least some justification, many Democrats credited — and, more importantly, many Republicans blamed — Trump for the 2022 midterm election’s Mysterious Vanishing Red Wave. Democrats increased their majority in the US Senate instead of losing that majority, and Republicans seized a slim, rather than fat, majority in the House.

His 2024 presidential campaign announcement, shortly after the midterm trickle, came off more as a wet firecracker than an explosive development.

Even some of his staunchest supporters met his next major “major announcement” — Donald Trump superhero trading card NFTs! — with a mixture of scorn and disbelief. Although the NFTs quickly sold out at $99 a pop (putting more than $4 million in Trump’s pocket), then rocketed in price on the secondary market, they’ve since lost about 75% of that early value.

Ever since the GOP’s 2018 midterm losses, we’ve heard the question — and the plea — on a near-daily basis: When, oh when, will Republicans abandon Donald Trump?

Scandals weren’t enough. His supporters in the electorate made it clear that his values and behavior were irrelevant in the face of their desire to “own the libs.”

Policy differences weren’t enough. His supporters in Congress made it clear that they’d discard any and all supposed Republican principles on command, or at least continue to back him if HE did so.

Even two impeachments and several publicly confessed crimes weren’t enough. His supporters in the electorate and in Congress made it clear they considered him above the law.

Losing (or at least not winning very much) in the 2018 midterms, the 2020 presidential election, and the 2022 midterms didn’t LOOK like it was enough, at least until now.

And even now, I think there’s a bigger factor: Boredom.

It’s taken six years, but Trump’s whiny, spoiled, sore-loser shtick finally feels less like a rallying cry for angry Americans and more like the persistent, annoying buzz of a gnat in one’s ear on a hot summer day.

My prediction: By the end of 2023, the boilerplate GOP response to Donald Trump’s name (which Democrats will of course continue to invoke as often they think politically profitable) will be “Donald who?”

Personally, I think that’s a good thing.

On the other hand, forgetting Trump isn’t the same thing as letting go of TrumpISM as either touchstone or bete noire. That’s going to take longer.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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“The question,” Bonnie Kristian writes at The Daily Beast, “isn’t whether we want a Republican reckoning or not. It’s whether we want the dream of mass public repentance for bringing Trump to power or the reality of Trump remaining out of power.”

Kristian’s argument, in summary:

Seeking the former “could push wavering Republicans toward a reflexive defense of Trump,” keeping the tank full and the engine running on his attempts to remain relevant.

Letting bygones be bygones, moving on instead of expecting Trump voters to don hair shirts and loudly denounce themselves, on the other hand, might let a (still illiberal) GOP find its way out of the Orange One’s shadow.

Maybe she has a point. On the other hand, she seems to be missing a point as well: American politics is designed to minimize “reckonings” in the form of lasting consequences for massive failures like, say, nominating a Donald Trump for office.

Ballot access laws, debate exclusion measures, and either/or voting (as opposed to, for example, ranked choice) corral voters into a “two-party” system.

Gerrymandering makes some districts safe for one of the two parties; in “swing” districts, party loyalty may make small moves at the margins, but it’s still either/or, not “how about something else?”

Fixed terms (four years for president, six for Senate, two for House), as opposed to snap elections when the president loses a vote of confidence, mean we’re stuck for long periods with the same faces.

Maybe you’d just like to leave? That’s fine, if you’re willing and able to fly to another country, fork over hundreds of dollars to file a statement renouncing your citizenship, pay an “exit tax” on assets you take with you, and continue paying US income taxes for ten years. And your exit won’t change the system, even to the extent that it frees you from that system.

Political “reckonings” have become short-term inconveniences. Americans under 30 years of age or so missed an era when one party (the Democrats) controlled both houses of Congress for nearly 40 years. These days, control of one or both houses changes at least once per decade.

Even after nominating, electing, and re-nominating Trump, the Republican “reckoning” lasted only two years before they regained control of the House. And we can expect that slow teeter-totter to continue indefinitely with neither party taking a hard enough bump to be thrown off.

Could substantial reforms “fix” that problem? Maybe. Ranked choice voting, un-gerrymandered districting and/or proportional representation, and repeal of draconian ballot access laws would at least open the system up to real alternatives.

The bigger question is whether the system is WORTH fixing. The history of political government says no — that we’re better off without it.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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“Here’s some free advice for 2023,”  Erin Keller writes at the New York Post: “Delete all your personal information — and sexual content — from your electronic devices before donating them to Goodwill.”

The advice may be free, but it’s worth far more than we’re paying for it.

The “news hook” to Keller’s piece:  A TikToker’s revelations concerning an old router he bought at Goodwill for $15.  This particular router (a discontinued Apple model called a “Time Capsule”) did more than connect its user to the Internet. It also included a hard drive to store computer backups on.

Money quote: “There is audit history, credit card numbers, flight information. I have this man’s bank account number …”

Fortunately, “@dankeunextgay” isn’t  a bad guy. He’s not abusing, sharing, or selling the information. He’s trying to track down the router’s former owner or family to return it.

You might be surprised at how common this kind of thing is. An acquaintance of mine (who’s into retro computing) once bought a stack of 3.5″ floppy disks at a thrift store. When he got home, he discovered that their previous owner had been a hospital, and that they were chock full of, in US legal parlance, “Protected Health Information” on patients. He’s not a bad guy either, so he formatted the disks and filled them with his own stuff instead of prank-calling cancer patients or trying to pick up other people’s  oxycodone prescriptions.

There’s a lot of talk these days about a “right” to privacy. I’m skeptical of that notion (“information wants to be free”), but privacy is certainly a good thing. And it’s our responsibility to protect our own privacy and the privacy of those we’ve made promises to (e.g. a health provider’s promise of patient confidentiality).

So yes, if you’re going to drop your old laptop in a thrift store donation bin (or abandon it at a repair shop — yes, I’m talking to you, Hunter), for the love of Pete wipe your hard drive first.

But there’s more to it than that. Use strong passwords. Lock your phone with a pin, not a swipe or fingerprint scan. Use end-to-end encryption for your emails and texts where it’s available. Set up PGP to encrypt your private documents.

There are bad people and governments (but I repeat myself) out there who won’t hesitate to abuse your personal information for their own benefit.

If you value your privacy, guard it.

Happy New Year.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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