How much is a soul worth? How much are you willing to debase yourself, to throw your scruples to the winds of ambition, to betray yourself? Your country?

It turns out the price is not very much. And that probably explains why the likes of those Profiles in Compost in the U.S. Senate like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Ron Johnson and others were willing to become Donald Trump’s servile toadies in a futile effort to keep the Bluto Blutarsky of the West Wing in office.

What have we learned? That there is a fine line between sedition and stupid?

Let’s be clear. The coup-lite attempted by these Republican senators and members of the House had absolutely nothing to do with the sanctity of the 2020 presidential election. After all, the Trump campaign had failed in every legal challenge to overturn the vote.

There have been recounts, re-recounts, re-re-recounts court challenges and no small amount of bloviating from the Commander-In-Cheat. Yet nothing changed the outcome.

Trump should have known his plot to remain in office was more doomed than the likelihood of Melania hanging around very much longer when the best he could come up with to defend him consisted of Lin Wood, Sidney Powell and Rudy Guiliani, the Moe, Larry and Curly of jurisprudence.

Trump has flailed and whined and pouted that it was inconceivable he could have lost to President-elect Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes? Why is that so implausible?

After all the American people had four years to witness the tantrums, the mindless feuds, the incessant tweeting, the 20,000 lies, the preening, the posturing, the backstabbing and the sheer overwhelming incompetence. That was more than enough to time for the body politic to collectively conclude: “Ohmygawd! What have we done?”

Cruz and Hawley, and who knows how many others who go to bed every night humming Hail to The Chief, have made a bet. They are wagering that to further their political delusions it is better to remain on Trump’s good side at the expense of their oaths of office, or any remote sense of patriotism.

And they will lose. They will lose because for all their craven pandering they neither understand Trump, nor American popular culture.

We live in society preoccupied with reality television, which has a shelf-life of an ice cube. Who will the bachelor pick? Who is that masked singer? Who will win “Survivor”? In the end, who cares? There is always another glimmering piece of palaver to divert our attention.

As Donald Trump embarks on the next phase of his checkered career as a professional defendant, who will soon be spending more time in court than Perry Mason, the Cruz/Hawley axis of insanity is going to learn some harsh lessons, not the least of which is they have less chance of ever assuming the presidency than Lyndon LaRouche.

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It is true Trump will likely enjoy a short window of opportunity as powerbroker on fringe media outlets. But “Fox & Friends” will no longer be at his beck and call. This is what happens to — ahem — losers.

Without vast media attention, Trump’s influence will steadily dwindle. See, Huckabee, Mike. By 2024, Trump’s so-called “base” will pretty much consist of the Proud Boys, Alex Jones, Sidney Powell and the tiki torch crowd. Now there’s a gathering of braying beagles for you.

The conventional wisdom has been Trump will command the public stage for the foreseeable future because he was so successful in grifting upward of $500 million from his unsuspecting disciples since his defeat to use as his own personal slush fund and/or political sledgehammer. Do you get the feeling right about now Bernie Madoff is asking himself, “Why didn’t I think of this?”

What everybody seems to be forgetting is that Donald Trump is simply a lousy businessman. He is about one click away from becoming the Willie Loman of Mar-A-Lago.

Trump is personally in debt to the tune of $421 million. He blew through $1 billion in campaign contributions. Then there are all the bankruptcies, the failed companies, the lawsuits. No American bank will loan him so much as a bus token.

By 2024 would anyone be surprised to find Trump pimping My Pillows on Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theory radio show?

Will anybody even bother to listen? Or remember who Donald Trump was so long ago in 2020?