A deadly singularity
Charles Blow points out that the Republicans are caught in a rage spiral.
Flake wasn’t only excoriating Trump, he was also excoriating his fellow elected officials, particularly Republicans, and the Republican Party, which finds itself caught in a perpetual rage spiral, in which no one but extremists are pure enough. The circle of inclusion is being drawn smaller and tighter around an electorally deadly singularity: White people who espouse Christianity, accept patriarchy and misogyny, and turn a blind eye to (or sometimes openly encourage) white supremacy.
They also hate fags and furriners.
I’m growing increasingly angry with Republican lawmakers expressing grave concerns about Trump in private and on background, but biting their tongues in public.
It is no coincidence that the Republican legislators in Washington who have been most critical of Trump — Flake, Bob Corker and John McCain — are those who are definitely not seeking another term, or are unlikely to do so. Even George W. Bush criticized Trump (without saying his name), but he too has nothing to lose electorally.
It’s easy to see why no one wants to give up the chance to be in Congress…except that it’s hard to see why all that isn’t ruined for them by the Buffoon in the White House.
It is understandable for Trump to assume Republican senators adore him if, in public, they shower him with adoration. Three times, Trump has referred to getting a standing ovation at a lunch he had Tuesday with Republican senators.
When you bend to lick a boot you relinquish the posture required to stand and tell the truth.
Why did they do that? We know that at least some of them despise him, because Corker and others have told us so – so what did they do it for?
What has happened is that the ground keeps lurching more rightward beneath Flake’s feet, toward fundamentalism and fanaticism. Indeed, Flake was a Tea Party darling who got scalped by Steve Bannon-ism.
Trump-era Republicans have accepted depravity and vitriol as the price they’re willing to pay to have a person willing to fight the people and institutions they distrust and detest. Encouraging violence isn’t disqualifying. Defaming Mexicans and Muslims is not disqualifying. Bragging about sexual assault is not disqualifying. Being a pathological liar is not disqualifying. Coddling white supremacists is not disqualifying. Attacking Gold Star families is not disqualifying.
None of it is disqualifying. To the contrary, it is supremely satisfying. the Moral Majority has become the iniquitous minority.
It’s a spiral of iniquity.
the country may be gripped by an opioid epidemic but the kool-aid epidemic is far worse.
So many of the politicians now expressing disgust (publicly or privately) spent their whole career building the system that ultimately led to Trump. As they noted, Flake was a tea-partier. The tea party and their blinding rage about having a non-white person in the White House led the way to a populist nativist candidate who would stoke the fears of the public even further. I’ve heard people blaming this rightward movement on feminism and Black Lives Matter; they fail to understand that it is the other way around. This movement (which is only in degree, since these social justice movements have been needed for a long time) is responsible for feminism and Black Lives Matter. If we had a just world, and if the populists truly were economic populists rather than nativists and misogynists, these movements (i.e. feminism and BLM) would not be needed. And if we lived in a just world where misogyny and racial hatred were not a thing, Trump could never have gotten elected.
Iknklast, that’s an excellent point I’d been unable to quite articulate until reading it from you. And the people who rail against ‘identity politics’ at best seem to tacitly admit that ‘sure it’s UNFAIR that white dudes still have all the power, but saying that out loud means you’ll never get elected, so it’s best to act strategically.’
#2 yes – excellently well said. As always.
I imagine that elected Republicans still able to hear the pained, anxious whisper of conscience and interested in re-election may tell themselves that by remaining in office, they’ll be able to put some sort of brakes on the Molester in Chief and much more willing to do so than some even further right-ward replacement, and they can’t do that if they lose the support of the White Hate voting bloc.
There may be a little bit of truth to that, but it’s certainly a grand excuse for moral cowardice.
Rage spirals and purity campaigns… sounds familiar.
Doesn’t it though.
Not purity of behaviour, mind you. Only purity of rage.