Thread by @jonathans_tobin

1) Not every column is vindicated by subsequent events but, unhappily, this one in @JNS_org from Monday was: Why the #Georgia Senate runoff hinges on the tribal culture war about @realDonaldTrump. bit.ly/3ojQNCQ

2) The GOP's loss of both #Georgia Senate runoffs was in part caused by changing demography & weak candidates. But it was also entirely avoidable. Instead of a referendum on #Warnock & #Ossoff, it was a referendum on #Trump.

3) Had the president & those who believe every word he says & every conspiracy theory floated by his acolytes who won't accept the reality that a majority of the nation rejected him, not spent the last two months re-litigating that loss, the Senate would not have been lost.

4) Trump visited GA only twice to campaign in that time & spent both ranting about the delusion that he won instead of trying to ensure that the GOP had the means to prevent a radical transformation of the country that would erase his legacy.

5) Yes, the Dems are hypocrites & there were irregularities & likely some fraud as is the case with every election. But the idea that magical Communist software or mass dumps of illegal votes decided the election was as much of a conspiracy theory as Russian collusion.

6) The problem is that Trump & many of his followers didn't understand that his losing wasn't the end of the republic so long as the GOP held the Senate & was in position to win back the House in 2022 & the White House in 2024.

7) But by obsessing over the myth of his winning when he lost & by foolishly claiming that all elections were frauds despite the fact that Republicans did well in other House & Senate races, Trump & the true believers have now ensured the worst possible outcome for conservatives.

8) Challenging election results isn't an assault on democracy but it treated Trump's rage & sore loser attitude (& yes Dems were sore losers after 2016 as the collusion hoax & impeachment showed) as more important that Republicans fighting for the future of the country.

9) Moving on & showing some class about Nov. 3 wouldn't have been weakness. It would have meant a commitment to future victory. Instead, Trump has engaged in a destructive Gotterdammerung act in which he has dragged the GOP onto his funeral pyre & lost the Senate.

10) Everything that follows from the loss of the Senate & the radical disasters that the Democrats will impose on the nation will not be the fault of RINOs but be the result of Trump's destructive & selfish behavior over the last 2 months.

11) Trump's presidency had its ups & downs but his achievements for conservatives on the courts, the economy, trade & foreign policy were real & deserved to be continued. And might have been if not for the pandemic. But the answer to losing in November was not to blow up the GOP.

12) The Republican Party is not destroyed because nothing is permanent in politics. Given the disaster that a Biden presidency & a Dem Congress is likely to be, its prospects for 2022 & 2024 are still bright.

13) But if Trump & the segment of the party that is going down with the ship with him continued to sink the GOP in a morass of conspiracy theories & denial that led to defeat in Georgia, then the disaster will be complete & possibly permanent.

14) The last two months of conspiracy theories have been a self-fulfilling prophecy for some on the right as they have truly made this a Flight 93 election with implications that are truly frightening.

15) But it didn't have to be that way. By listening to Trump's delusions, they have made it so. And, though they'll never admit it & will continue to deflect & foolishly cast blame elsewhere, what happened in Georgia & the implications of a Dem Senate is on his and their heads.