Chickenshit
Yesterday I spoke with a former Republican member of Congress whom I’ve known for years.
Me: What do you think of your party’s nominee for president?
He: Trump is a maniac. He’s a clear and present danger to America.
Me: Have you said publicly that you won’t vote for him?
He (sheepishly): No.
Me: Why not?
He: I’m a coward.
Me: What do you mean?
He: I live in a state with a lot of Trump voters. Most Republican officials do.
Me: But you’re a former official. You’re not running for Congress again. What are you afraid of?
He: I hate to admit it, but I’m afraid of them. Some of those Trumpistas are out of their fucking minds.
Me: You mean you’re afraid for your own physical safety?
He: All it takes is one of them, you know.
Me: Wait a minute. Isn’t this how dictators and fascists have come to power in other nations? Respected leaders don’t dare take a stand.
He: At least I’m no Giuliani or Gingrich or Pence. I’m not a Trump enabler.
Me: I’ll give you that.
He: Let me tell you something. Most current and former Republican members of Congress are exactly like me. I talk with them. They think Trump is deplorable. And they think Giuliani and Gingrich are almost as bad. But they’re not gonna speak out. Some don’t want to end their political careers. Most don’t want to risk their lives. The Trump crowd is just too dangerous. Trump has whipped them up into a goddamn frenzy.
That’s pretty contemptible. We’re all afraid of the Trumpistas, but the Republicans are responsible for Trump. We wouldn’t be in danger of seeing him in the White House if it weren’t for the Republicans, so I think they should be thinking about the safety of all of us more than their own at this point.
This, BTW, is why the rest of the [civilized] world thinks your “right to bear arms” is fucking lunacy.
If they were the kind to put others first, they wouldn’t have paved the way for Trump in the first place.
If they are as numerous as this guy claims, then they powerful if they speak up en masse. But they remain silent, wringing their hands and pretending to have nothing to do with him despite being part of the platform that elected him.
I did not know this. First I’ve seen of it.
They’re the ones who chose a public life. That’s like deciding to be a policeman. Part of the service is that you’re out there. Your *job* is to protect people from the crazies. You don’t get to draw the salary and not do the job. Yes, it’s scary that it’s dangerous. (It’d be a lot less dangerous if you bozos implemented some gun control.) But the danger doesn’t let you off doing the job. It’s what you signed up for. Being (hysterical laughter) a leader.
Anybody who merely walks down the street in Baghdad has more courage than these shambling excuses for a human being.
And, yes, they ARE Trump-enablers. The “innocent bystanders” who do nothing about bullies are the air that sociopaths breathe.
Oh, hell, ANOTHER Hitler parallel.
How many of Adi’s early sponsors in the German far-right, the aristocracy and the industrialists, thought they could ‘control’ or replace him, and then clung on for the whole ride to hell?
Exactly. If they weren’t all afraid that the Trump’s lunatic supporters didn’t all have private arsenals, they wouldn’t be so afraid, would they?
Gun control. Not such a bad idea after all, is it?
Bettin’ the founding fathers had some such notion in their heads when the stuck in the phrase “well regulated militia”.
“Regulated” – wonder what that means?
Quixote, in America, police officers no longer put public safety ahead of their own. That’s why it’s okay for them to murder children who had toy guns or looked at them funny. Or to tase a suicidal man on a ledge, because trying to get him off the ledge anyway other than falling might have conceivably presented a danger to the officer.