Oct. 26 Open Thread: The GOP’s Tiny Violin Orchestra

Blog patron saint Sir William of Ockham is best remembered for a simple rule to apply when choosing among possible solutions to an unknown — the simplest explanation is most likely to be the true one.

He was obviously a liberal, probably hired by an ancestor of George Soros.

Given a set of facts — primitive bombs, or at least bomb-like contraptions, sent through the mail to a dozen (and counting) Democratic politicians and other prominent critics of Donald Trump. The simplest explanation is pretty obvious — somebody doesn’t like the recipients, who have nothing in common except for their Trump criticism. So, for conservatives, that likelihood is clearly wrong. They smell a rat, and they’re ready to search everywhere but their own house. Their logic: If it makes Trump or Republicans look bad, it must have been done to make them look bad. This logic makes perfect sense to Republicans, because they spend most of their time trying to make Democrats look bad and assume that, like them, Democrats don’t have anything better to do.

Adam Serwer examines the right’s embrace of white identity politics, in which a ruling party that holds all levers of government but can’t figure out how to make the thing work portrays itself as victimized by a cabal of sinister forces that, as always, is populated by a feared minority group and organized by the Jews:

America is not, strictly speaking, a center-right or center-left nation. Rather, it remains the nation of the Dixiecrats, in which the majority’s desire for equal opportunity and a robust welfare state is mediated by the addiction of a large chunk of the polity to racial hierarchy.

Too many Trump idiocy stories to read them all, so just the highlights:

* Remember that 6-foot portrait of Trump that Trump bought with $10,000 from his Trump Foundation? That “charity” is being sued by the state of New York for misuse of funds, but Trump’s lawyer explained why the purchase was legit: It was a charity auction, and Trump made a ceremonial first bid. In a ringing endorsement of his leadership, nobody else bid on it, so Donnie Two Scoops was left holding the bag. The money went to charity, so he paid for it from his charity.

* Trump’s two-a-day Nuremberg rallies are supposedly in support of Republican candidates. Only problem is that some of them, especially those running in statewide races, don’t want to be seen at his rallies.

* Naturally, Trump considers that a personal insult, and is reportedly keeping a grudge list in case he runs out of other targets for his vengeance.