On Monday, Rep. Devin Nunes let it be known that he would be retiring from the House in order to become CEO of something called “Truth Social,” which is supposedly a new social media platform owned by Donald Trump. As Fox News put it, Nunes “got a job offer that he can’t refuse—CEO of a new Trump media org.” In other words, Nunes isn’t really changing jobs. Just titles. That Nunes would decide to leave Congress and pursue this “opportunity” might be surprising, as Republicans keep expressing their certainty about taking control of the House following elections next November. Even barring other consequences of such a victory, that would have positioned Nunes as the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, making him one of the most powerful politicians in the nation. Nunes has always been eager to demonstrate to Trump that he places what’s good for Trump over what’s good for the Republican Party, and certainly over anything so abstract as the health of American democracy. Even so, this seems like an extreme when it comes to taking Trump over everything. On the other hand, in historical terms, Nunes may have simply found the role of Joseph Goebbels more interesting than that of Hermann Göring. As the last head of the Reichstag, Göring’s task mostly involved voting away his own powers, dusting the last signs of representative democracy into the trash bin, and turning off the lights. Goebbels not only got to lie all he wanted, but for fun and profit, he also got to be Chancellor of all Germany. For a day. Read more