“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done."
Trump tweet 2:24 p.m. EST, January 6, 2021, during the height of the Capitol riot.
A new norm has taken a foothold in the GOP. Laws are for losers, saps, the weak, and people who lack the courage to seize opportunities.
My U.S. representative just endorsed Donald Trump for president.
Cliff Bentz is joining a crowd of fellow Republicans. As of January 2, 18 U.S. senators and 96 House members have endorsed Trump. The nomination fight is still underway, but they have staked their ground.
There are Republican alternatives to Trump, even after the Iowa vote. Republican voters and officeholders can support one of several conservative, anti-abortion, Democrat-loathing, secure-border-supporting Republican candidates, without endorsing Trump. By endorsing Trump Republican leaders endorse what Trump has done. They are saying lawbreaking doesn't matter. They are normalizing flouting of the justice system.
Nikki Haley does not dare say outright that Trump did anything wrong. She hides behind the passive voice.
I believe Donald Trump was the right president at the right time; I agree with a lot of his policies, The truth is, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. We can’t have a country in disarray in a world on fire, and be dealing with four years of chaos. We won’t survive it.
Rightly or wrongly," she says, making no judgement. He doesn't create chaos and a world on fire by openly and proudly breaking laws, she says. No. Somehow, mysteriously, "it follows him" with a mind of its own. She says she will pardon him if she is elected and he is convicted, and that she will vote for him if he gets the nomination. He is imperfect, but OK.
My U.S. representative, Cliff Bentz, does a version of passive voice blame-shifting. Other Republicans support Trump, and Bentz is looking to them. Others have agency and judgment. He doesn't judge.
We have a republic, not a democracy, for a reason. Democracies are prone to stampeding. Humans look to leaders, presumably people with information and judgement. We elect representatives. I blame Republican leaders who saw a fork in the political road and chose the Trump road.
Republican leaders in the states and Congress could have taken the position that lawbreaking matters. It is an honorable position. It probably would have withstood criticism from Trump, especially had multiple political leaders joined in showing a consensus. But instead of isolating Trump, nearly all Republican leaders chose to excuse Trump. That validated him. Trump was OK.
The MAGA mindset could have incorporated law abidance, and its message would have been differentiated from that of "soft-on-crime" Democrats. They support sanctuary cities, tolerated bad actors who infiltrated Black Lives Matter protests, and failed to keep order on the southern border. Republicans could have held the defensible line that Republicans are the law- and-order party. But no.
Trump and Republican officeholders put their party into the position of condoning a president who attempted to overthrow the government with an openly-acknowledged plan to create fake electors for his vice president to accept as legitimate. Trump doesn't call that a misunderstanding or a mistake. He defends that position. Republican voters got a taste for willful lawbreaking if it helps "us" against "them," and they like it. Trump is a fighter. Not a good man. Not honest. Not respectful of the law and democratic norms. But he is a brawler and that is even better.. Republican voters got permission from Trump, and then confirmation-permission from Republican leaders, to flout democracy. It's the new norm. So, of course my congressperson goes along.
This is a dark path for American democracy and the rule of law. Republican leaders could have taken a stand that Republicans believe in being faithful to democratic norms. Instead they chose Trump.
Note: Written while stuck at the Portland airport, amid cancelled flights, followed by more cancelled flights. I may need to cancel the trip to New Hampshire.
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13 comments:
The problem is that nearly all Republican leaders are complete cowards, Cliff Bentz being no exception of course. You can count on one hand the number of high ranking Republicans who aren't cowards (Cheney, Romney, Kinzinger) and exactly 0 of them hold elected office anymore.
I would say you're not assigning enough blame to another group which is conservative media in general. Starting with Fox News and talk radio in the 80s, many people have made HUGE profits off creating media propaganda that allows the modern Republican to live in a virtually fact-free alternative reality in which up is down, 2+2=5 and a thrice married serial adulterer is an avatar for "evangelical" values.
Trump is openly talking about building concentration camps for millions of non-white skinned people and talking of white people having their blood poisoned by immigrants. It literally is the same language used by the Adolph Hitler. And if Trump is allowed to retake power it will almost certainly lead to the same place.
The imperative of electorally destroying Trump cannot be understated.
That Qliff Bentz endorsed Former Guy is no shocker, as Bentz is utterly without imagination or courage. If he had been a resident in any of the Soviet satellite Countries, he'd have been a faceless apparatchik in the Bureaucracy.
The only "Republican" I'm aware of trying to Primary Bentz make Marjorie Taylor Green look like Eleanor Roosevelt.
His name is Jason Beebe, and he is at keast worth looking up to find out just how appalling he is.
The GOPee has no leadership, values or courage.
Bentz is a chicken.
BAWK!!!
Some folks hoped the polls might be wrong and that more Republicans would prove to be sane in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, but no such luck. In Iowa, as everywhere else, they overwhelmingly favor the traitor with 91 felony counts. Trump’s pathological lying and contempt for the rule of law make him uniquely suited to represent the values of today's GOP. And thus begins America’s slide into the fascism that supposedly couldn’t happen here because we’re so exceptional.
PS: Yes, Peter, you should cancel your trip. Not only does the weather suck, but what’s happening in the Republican primaries is all too predictable. The only question is how much appeal Trump’s madness will have to those who haven’t been swept up in his cult.
Mc ; I have hens which show more leadership cabilities than Qliff Bentz. In any district but ORD 2 he'd be dead meat politically.
I agree, Mike.
Come home, Peter and watch the Freak Show on TeeVee.
Hens are useful.
I agree. How is covering this horserace helping your neighbors?
That TFG won a red state is no surprise. It's "dog bites man."
If Rep Bentz had just said “I endorse Trump” that would be no surprise, after all he voted not to accept State certified votes on 6 Jan. This statement is beyond cowardly and worthy of contempt.
"Before finalizing my decision...."
It was a real Cliffhanger.
Certainly more useful yhan Qliff, and honest, theyvare. Feed and water, and theybprovide nutrition, without asking for anything more.
LD, thank you ! Your response was the best thing I've seen all day.
What a weak ass attempt to appear thoughtful. What a waste of oxygen he is.
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