Republicans are under Trump's thumb.
If Trump says "jump," they must jump. Or else.
Trump is an enforcer.
Oregon voters have their ballots in hand. Remember as you vote:
Governor candidate Christine Drazan is Trump. Governor candidate Chris Dudley is Trump. U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz is Trump. State Senate candidate Brad Hicks is Trump.
President Trump's first term was a learning experience for him. This term Trump himself decides what is true and what is legal. He appoints and supports people who do things his way.
Trump purges Republicans who show independence. The world is full of Republican roadkill examples: Vice President Mike Pence, Senators Jeff Flake, Mitt Romney, and Thom Tillis, U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I have been critical of my congressman, Cliff Bentz, who dutifully fell in line to disallow counting of the 2020 votes from Pennsylvania, and then voted to help Trump hide the Epstein files. Bentz voted to substantially reduce medical insurance for the working poor (though this district is the third most reliant on this benefit of the country's 435 districts); and he remains silent when Trump's tariff policies conspicuously injure the district's wheat farmers. Bentz is a toady for Trump. Perhaps I should be more kind. After all, he is under orders. If he voted his conscience he would be "primaried."
Officeholders must obey the Trump script, or else, even when they know better.
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| Click: YouTube clip |
An election today in Indiana will show whether GOP primary voters will confirm the defenestration of eight Republican state senators who decided that the existing congressional maps in Indiana were reasonable and fair, and thus did not consent to the mid-cycle partisan re-draw that Trump demanded. We won't know the voter's verdict until tomorrow, but we know the conditions for the vote now. Trump condemned those eight state senators. Trump called them "WEAK" and "PATHETIC" and RINOs.
Voters frustrated with Oregon politics and potentially open to electing Republicans have a dilemma. Trump said, "We must keep the MAJORITY at all costs." Trump is demanding that Republicans take extraordinary steps, including this mid-cycle redistricting. He cited in a Truth Social post the pretext of a "Rigged Census" in Indiana. A Republican governor in Oregon could face a similar demand from Trump. A governor Drazen or Dudley might need to claim an excuse to void votes in Democratic-majority Portland. There are a million possible pretexts. As Trump said in Georgia, "Find 11,780 votes." Or perhaps more easily, disallow that many Democratic votes on a pretext. After all, win at "all costs."
A Republicans elected to the state Senate -- for example Brad Hicks -- would be under similar pressure. The local Republican Party voted for a resolution saying the 2020 election should be awarded to Trump. A Republican majority in the state senate might submit a GOP slate of electors for the Republican candidate, notwithstanding the actual vote. Really? Yes, really. That is what Trump demanded in Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania and other battleground states in 2020. Kim Thatcher, a state senator and former candidate for Oregon secretary of state, the chief election officer in Oregon, led the fight in Oregon to join Texas' demand to void the 2020 election. She was not condemned by Republican voters as a dishonest danger to democracy. She was re-elected, and is a state senator today. She has a future in the Oregon GOP.
If elected, would a Drazan, Dudley, or Hicks create a pretext for following Trump's orders? That is the experience: Cliff Bentz did exactly that, and he remains in office. Kim Thatcher did, and she remains.
Trump understands how to exercise power and enforce his will. No other president in my lifetime is anywhere close to Trump in the ability to force his will. Trump is decisive and cruel. He rewards loyalty by pardoning people who committed criminal acts on his behalf. He punishes opponents by prosecuting them. He purges and vilifies members of his own party who dare be independent. He is vigilant. He notices what takes place in state legislatures, county commissions, and election boards. He is keeping a list of who has been naughty and nice.
Could Drazen, Dudley, Bentz, or Hicks act with independent integrity? They could. It is possible. But I do not see any evidence than any of them shows the tiniest bit of independence from Trump. How can they? They are Republicans running in a Republican primary.
Until Republicans free themselves of Trump, voters need to conclude that any Republican they elect would be a grave risk to democracy. We don't have to imagine it. We see it.
[Note: I do not disapprove of Republicans as a group. Many were clients. Many are friends. I disapprove of Republicans who consent to being compliant with Trump when is dishonest and does blatantly unconstitutional acts. Trump has destroyed the GOP, as both Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz warned a decade ago.]
[Note: To get daily delivery of this blog by email go to https://petersage.substack.com. Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]
5 comments:
Absolutely right, but they don't need Trump to be corrupt, they can handle it fine all by themselves.
Drazan might welcome a chance to contradict Trump to make herself more popular with Democratic voters.
What is there about Kotek that would make voters enthusiastic about her, other than the letter D?
Thank you Republicans for the mess we are in. Thank you for higher gas prices, for healthcare without subsidies, for higher grocery prices, for increased bankruptcy, for supporting the attempt to undo our election, for not having the guts to stand against a clearly impaired president.
Contradicting Trump’s baldfaced lies wouldn’t help Drazan much with Democrats, but it would result in her being labeled a Wacko In Name Only and losing the support of Trump's chumps.
Under my thumb
The girl who once had me down
Under my thumb
The girl who once pushed me around
It's down to me
The difference in the clothes she wears
Down to me, the change has come
She's under my thumb
Ain't it the truth, babe?
Under my thumb
It's the squirmin' dog who's just had her day
Under my thumb
A girl who has just changed her ways
It's down to me, yes it is
The way she does just what she's told
Down to me, the change has come
She's under my thumb
Ah, ah, say it's alright
Under my thumb
It's a Siamese cat of a girl
Under my thumb
She's the sweetest pet in the world
It's down to me
The way she talks when she's spoken to
Down to me, the change has come
She's under my thumb
Ah, take it easy babe
Yeah
It's down to me, oh yeah
The way she talks when she's spoken to
Down to me, the change has come
She's under my thumb
Yeah, it feels alright
Under my thumb
Her eyes are just kept to herself
Under my thumb, well I
I can still look at someone else
It's down to me, oh, that's what I said
The way she talks when she's spoken to
Down to me, the change has come
She's under my thumb
Say, it's alright
(Say it's all)
(Say it's all)
Take it easy, babe
Take it easy, babe
It's alright
Take it easy, babe
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