Quote (IceMage @ 25 Jun 2020 21:56)
That doesn't really make sense though.
The vast majority of Republicans in politics spoke out against Trump in some way or another. We can all pull up clips of Cruz, Graham, and Paul speaking honestly about Trump during the campaign, saying things that are obviously true, but now they lick his boots because of cowardly political considerations. Right-leaning journalists will tell you that the majority of Republican politicians talk behind closed doors on what a shitshow Trump and his administration are. Some in conservative media like Glenn Beck opposed him, but came around because otherwise they wouldn't have an audience. The Trump administration and campaign are starved for talent so if you're a Republican operative, it's more lucrative and better for your career to become a Trump defender.
So pointing to the handful of Republicans, like Romney, Bill Kristol, or Tim Miller, who have more incentives to go along with the ridiculousness, but instead choose to oppose it because they have integrity and character, seems kind of silly. It's completely tribalistic to attack the motives and good faith of people who criticize Trump while you basically concede the majority of their criticisms. You're trying to have it both ways.
I guess I just have a really cynical take on politics. True Integrity in politics imho is as rare as a unicorn. *shrug*
Anyway, it's not tribalistic to put the "good faith" of these establishment Republicans into question. The establishment of the Republican party is utter garbage. These are the people who are responsible for the vast majority of the problems facing the country today; their policies are responsible for the poverty, the inequality, and the toxic grievances that propelled Trump to the White House in the first place. The Bush administration used an elaborate plot and lied on the world stage so they could trick the country into an unnecessary and disastrous war that killed thousands of Americans, millions of Middle Easterners and cost trillions of dollars - but they did so with a friendly face while talking about "compassionate conservatism" and stuff like that, so I guess they are the good guys with "integrity and character" while Trump is the villain because he's saying mean things on twitter.
To put this as bluntly as possible: in my personal view, the Republican party was already a shitshow before Trump took over, just with a thin mask of civility and sophistication. He forced them to correct course on a few key issues where I wanted a paradigm shift for a long time; and Trump is probably the only shot we'll ever get for this paradigm shift to actually stick. At the same time, I somewhat liked the Democratic party during the 90s and early 2000s, but am absolutely vehemently against the direction they have taken in recent years. They have turned into an abomination, and all the establishment Republicans like McCain, Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney ever did is roll over to them and their allies in the media. They effectively treated the triumph of liberalism as an inevitability that can at best be slowed down. Trump is the only Republican in god knows how long to bring the fight to them and to try to actually stop (and perhaps roll back) liberalism instead of playing by their rules. These considerations to me outweigh all his tweets and blunders, his lies and bad conduct.
By the way: I totally get where you're coming from, I get that your perspective and your priorities are very different from mine, and that you're therefore arriving a very different assessment of the Trump presidency.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jun 25 2020 03:16pm
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