This is ordinarily the time of year or specific portion of an election cycle when Republicans would announce their grand plans to oppose and obstruct the incoming Democratic presidential administration. I'm sure you recall Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledging to make President Obama a "one term president" in 2008 before the latter even took office.
But Republicans can't do that right now because they're not suppose to acknowledge that Joe Biden will be president in two months.
Politico reports that conservatives groups and think tanks can't talk about their future plans or hire Trump regime alumni because planning for anything except more Trump is considered heresy.
Organizations can’t sound the alarm about President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda. Conservative reporters won’t take pitches about Biden’s rumored Cabinet contenders, insistent on covering evidence-deficient claims of voter fraud instead. One conservative group involved in policy advocacy backed off from hiring two soon-to-depart Trump administration officials after growing concerned about the consequences. [...]
Those who have run afoul of the dictate have faced swift repercussions. Some have received angry emails from donors accusing them of siding with the “liberal media.” Those who have tried to start revving up the grassroots engine — warning of what could unfold in January, particularly if Democrats win control of the Senate via two runoff races in Georgia — have been likened to turncoats by colleagues.
“I sent out a weekly email and mentioned something about a potential Biden administration and the fallout was ridiculous,” said an employee at one prominent conservative nonprofit.
My initial reaction to Politico's report was that this couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of assholes, but I think this also reveals a new standard and dangerous amount of radicalism that all future Republican candidates for office with national implications will be held to.
I am not among those who believe Trump will run again in four years because I think state prosecutors and tax authorities will be coming for his ass over the next several years, but the next crop of GOP candidates are all going to do their best Trump impressions. They'll probably court his endorsement and pledge to finish what he started.
The election of Joe Biden is not going to inspire the GOP to look inward and reflect. They're not going to become reasonable. And it's okay for Joe Biden to say he wants to hold reasonable dialogue with congressional Republicans because that's what a lot of Americans voted for him to do, but at the end of the day he can't force them to be reasonable.