A case in point is Trump saying flat out he won't sign a GOP loyalty oath, promising to support the GOP nominee whoever it is.
I wouldn’t sign the pledge. Why would I sign a pledge if there are people on there that I wouldn’t have? I wouldn't have certain people as, you know, somebody that I endorse. So they want you to sign a pledge. I can name three or four people that I wouldn't support for president.
There. Was that so hard?
Apparently so, for most Republican officeholders when asked about supporting Trump. Even people who openly say that Trump is unfit to be president, that he is a danger to American democracy, that he intentionally incited an insurrection to overturn an election, and that he lied about losing an election, still cannot bring themselves to say they wouldn't support his return to the Oval Office.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who says that the DOJ's prosecution of Trump is well-founded and that Trump certainly appears to have flagrantly carried out felonies in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, still could not say that he wouldn't vote to return him to office.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who says Trump made the treasonous decision to put himself above his duty to the Constitution, still avoids saying he wouldn't vote for him again.
Even Chris Christie, the supposed blunt, truth-telling critic of Trump, tangles himself in deflection when asked the direct question if he would support Trump if Trump were the nominee. Christie retreats to the rambling response used by other Republicans: I'm sure someone other than Trump will be the nominee.
This past week Ron DeSantis reluctantly made a partial acknowledgement that Biden is the president. He had this exchange with NBC reporter Dana Burns:
Burns: "But respectfully, you did not clearly answer that question. And if you can’t give a 'yes' or 'no' on whether or not he lost —"
DeSantis: "No, of course he lost. Joe Biden’s the president."
So Trump lost the election, but maybe, sort of, shouldn’t have, DeSantis said. Biden took the oath of office. Trump lost, but the election wasn’t perfect. Will DeSantis support a person who conspired to stay in office despite having, as he now says, lost? DeSantis still refuses to say.
What mealy mouths.
Liz Cheney is the exception. She is clear, saying Trump "clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again." For her, conspiring to overthrow an election is a deal killer. Period.
The tiny shift in message happening with DeSantis and Trump's other opponents hinting that well, yes, Trump did lose the election and is lying about it, digs the GOP deeper into an anti-democratic hole. By agreeing that Trump lost the election and is lying to overturn it, but is still not unacceptable to them as president, they validate that overthrowing an election isn't a deal killer in a democracy.
Trump is profoundly dishonest. Profoundly selfish. He is openly hostile to the institutions of democratic government. There is a lot to dislike. But give him his due. Trump does not pussy-foot around. He speaks and acts with boldness and clarity. He says what he wants and he says what he dislikes. He gives direction. He acts like a leader -- a bad and dangerous leader -- but a leader.
That is what makes him both dangerous and popular. He won't be replaced in the GOP by mealy-mouths.
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10 comments:
It is very simple. He is a life-long professional con artist.
Sure, but there's a bigger reason for the hedging.
There are only two possible scenarios for the Republican nomination; either Trump or a Trump backed candidate who will promise to pardon him, which make no mistake, they all would do, "for the good of the country". However, publicly vowing to pardon effectively voids the prosecutions, which most of them hope will weaken Trump enough to give them an opening. By the way, Christie says that Trump wouldn't accept a pardon because it requires admitting guilt, which he would never do. If you can believe that I have a bridge for ya.
Yes, all the Republican candidates for President either overlook or condone an attempt to overthrow a democratic election. Quite a pack of charmers.
They are all conmen who can't be trusted with our country.
Leadership requires courage. None of these GOPee candidates have courage.
Politics is a difficult art: you have to appear to be honest and straightforward, and simultaneously appeal to a majority of the voters.
Someone once said, once you can fake sincerity, everything else is easy.
Ronald Reagan,Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump all had that ability. It’s a component of charisma.
Hillary Clinton and Ron DeSantis do not.
Speaking of the "republicans" as stupid is too kind. They are cowards, yes and venal in their thirst for Power, without ethics or what was referred to as "moral courage" on the Officer Efficiency Report forms of my short (4 year) tenure as a Commissioned Officer during the late 60s and a negative report in that block was enough to kill a potential Career, dead in its tracks.
Trump's effect on people reminds me of the action pathogens use to infect a host. Pathogens rely on exposure, susceptibility, and sustenance. The pathogen found in cat feces can contaminate an area that mice and rats frequent and infect the host (mouse) moving to the brain. Once in the brain the pathogen reduces or eliminates the normal fear response to the presence of the feline. The lack of fear evokes a pause, which is documented, gives the feline sufficient advantage to capture, kill, and consume the mouse or rat thus infecting another feline. There is no cure for this pathogen.
To me, Trump's speech pattern appears to have the same effect on the susceptible individual brain turning them into a MAGA radical. I expect to see the next Onion headline to be "Trump pathogen identified, there's no cure to date, research is ongoing."
Hitler, Pol Pot ,Jim Jones , David Koresh were straight talkers. The content of straight talk matters. Agreeing with and enabling straight talkers is accepting the content.
Yes, Hitler, Pol Pot, Jim Jones, David Koresh and others were willing to say things that some people disagreed with. That gave their message power with audiences, even mass audiences. Being mealy mouthed come across as weak, indecisive, the so-called weathervane politician people hate.
Trump is a sociopath--and yet many people love him, and very possibly enough people in the right states to give him an electoral count victory. It is not praising him or enabling him to examine and report what seems to make these monsters popular and credible. It DISables them, by revealing part of their source of power.
I urge people dismayed by Trump to look closely at him, including the things that make him powerful as well as dangerous.
Peter Sage
What makes Trump powerful and dangerous are the dismaying number of people who support his attempt to overthrow the government, ready to trash our republic in favor of an autocracy led by such a madman. They’re traitors by definition, every bit as bad as the Confederates, whose monuments to treason and slavery they so effusively praise.
Have readers and the author of the blog heard of Will Hurd?
He is a black Republican from Texas. He served in Congress and previously was a "clandestine CIA officer."
He is openly critical of the Former Occupant. I have seen him being interviewed. He recently spoke with Margaret Hoover on PBS.
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