When feeling defensive about their love for Donald Trump, it's become common for MAGA Americans to pretend it's about "his policies," not his personality. This is, of course, a lie, and not just because none of them can produce an example of a Trump "policy" they like. Everything that decent people find repulsive about Trump — his criminality, his racism, his genital-grabbing misogyny — is what draws the MAGA base to him, like flies to garbage. We know this because his poll numbers with GOP voters rise with his number of felony indictments. We know this also because his primary opponents share his "policies," yet none of them can compete with Trump's villainous air. Even Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has the energy of a henchman and not a wannabe gangster, and so is losing interest from the base.
Now there's even more evidence that what really gets the MAGA juices going is a politician who is extravagantly evil: The impeachment and trial of Texas's attorney general, Ken Paxton, a man so audaciously malignant that he might make Trump jealous.
Paxton's unbridled corruption has been long understood by Texas Republicans, who have, until recently, not had a problem with it. He was indicted on securities fraud in 2015, on allegations that he recommended that investors purchase stocks without telling them he was getting a kickback. He's employed Trumpian delay tactics to evade a trial date for 8 years. He routinely abuses his powers for political stunts, such as using false allegations of fraud to sue to invalidate President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral win. He refuses to do the basic work of the attorney general, representing state agencies in court, likely because he can't use it for fundraising and campaigning. He once got so aggressive trying to escape a subpoena that the process server described him dashing to a car and peeling away.
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Then there's his relationship with Austin real estate investor and big-time GOP donor Nate Paul. Paul is under 8 felony indictments for fraud. He is reported to have responded by asking his buddy, Paxton, to retaliate with nuisance investigations of people he believes turned him in. Four whistleblowers who work for Paxton allege that Paul bribed the attorney general with free home renovations. I regret to inform readers there's a sexual angle, as well: Paul reportedly helped Paxton carry on an extramarital affair by giving his mistress a job and footing the bills for phones and taxis to keep the relationship secret. Paxton responded to being outed by illegally firing the whistleblowers.
Everything that decent people find repulsive about Trump — his criminality, his racism, his genital-grabbing misogyny — is what draws the MAGA base to him, like flies to garbage.
None of this seems to have bothered the leadership of the Texas GOP until the whistleblowers won their lawsuit against Paxton's office, which put the state on the hook for over $3 million. Some Republican state legislators started to worry it was politically unpalatable to use taxpayer money to finance Paxton's bottomless corruption. By a vote of nearly 3-to-1, Texas House Republicans voted to impeach Paxton in May, and now he's on trial in front of the GOP-controlled Senate.
But even though Paxton is being held to account by other Republicans, the MAGA machinery kicked into gear to paint him as an "innocent" Republican victim of Democratic witch hunts. Failed Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake laughably claimed Texas is under control of an anti-conservative "Uniparty."
Donald Trump claimed it's a "RINO" attack on Paxton, even though over 70% of House Republicans voted to impeach. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., last seen pretending Democrats want to ban beer, called the impeachment a "travesty." Steve Bannon has been raving on his podcast that the trial is proof "the Bush junta has teamed with Democrats." Donald Trump Jr. went full gaslighting mode, by claiming the floridly corrupt Paxton "will survive and will continue to combat the Swamp in Texas."
This "rally 'round the bad guy" effect is showing up in polls. While 47% of Texans overall think Paxton should be removed from office, only 24% of Texas Republican voters agree. As Sergio Martínez-Beltrán of the Texas Newsroom reports, Republicans across the state are defending Paxton in language that is familiar to anyone who has heard similar excuse-making for Trump. "Is there, perhaps, some sinister plot behind getting rid of the attorney general?" John Myers, vice chair of the Collin County GOP, told Martínez-Beltrán.
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The question is rhetorical, but in truth, the answer is obvious: No, there is not a sinister plot. The evidence is overwhelming that Paxton took massive bribes, including assistance in adultery, to help a friend in criminal trouble and then retaliated against employees who spoke out about it. The man oozes corruption from every pore. He's so bad that the Texas GOP felt he had crossed a line. That's like finding a cannibal serial killer so gory he grosses out Jeffrey Dahmer.
It's unlikely that Paxton's supporters are unaware that the man is pure scum. As with Trump, they love Paxton because, not despite, his massive corruption. When people like Paxton or Trump break the law with impunity, it reinforces a core MAGA belief, captured famously in "Wilhoit's law": "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." In MAGA's view, conservative white men should get to break whatever law they want, if only to prove they can get away with behavior that would ruin anyone else. What is privilege, if you can't flout it?
Paxton has only doubled down his commitment to showy shamelessness in light of his impeachment trial. As Martínez-Beltrán told Slate, he and his legal team have been loudly complaining he has supposedly not had "an opportunity to defend himself from these articles of impeachment." But one of their first moves this week was to argue Paxton had no duty to testify in his impeachment trial, which the Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick agreed to. Instead of defending himself, as he claimed he dearly wished to do, Paxton has peaced out to get pricey massages at a local spa.
And, in true Trumpian style, he's fundraising off this impeachment trial, with protest-too-much denials that he's considering resignation.
Just to make the whole thing weirder, Paxton's allegedly cheated-upon wife, Angela Paxton, is a Texas senator. The rest of the state senate has decided she can't be allowed a vote because, believe it or not, they believe she's still prejudiced in his favor. After all, she played the role of the getaway driver when he fled the process server last year, so clearly she's got a history of being a willing patsy for her husband's shady behavior. After all, she also got some lovely free house renovations out of the whole deal.
Whatever Republicans who control the Texas senate decide to do, the whole debacle underscores what is apparently now a MAGA commandment: Being opposed to corruption in any way makes you a RINO. A true Republican not only accepts all bribe-taking and law-breaking. To be really MAGA, one should go out of his way to cheat the system as often as he can, just to show that he can. After all, the more flagrant the abuses, the more the base will love you.
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