We caaaaaaaan’t
Sen. Chris Coons has been on CNN this morning, suggesting that in private Republican senators are asking him to convey best wishes to president-elect Joe Biden while stating that they cannot yet say that in public because of Trump’s insistence on not conceding defeat.
I’m not seeing the insurmountable obstacle.
Of course they can say that in public despite Trump’s grotesque rude authoritarian disruptive refusal to concede – they can and they absolutely should, in order to shine a harsher light on Trump’s authoritarian flouting of the norms. What they mean is that they don’t want to, and that’s contemptible.
Coons also said “This is an uncertain time these next 71 days. I think it is past time for Republican leaders to stand up and say we should accept the results of this election.”
I’ll say. Way past time.
Susan Collins for one is bravely waffling.
I guess that’s what passes for “moderation” in the gop.
The GOP wants to hold onto power; if it takes a giant man-baby breaking things to do it, they will. But…
If Trump becomes a dictator for life, that is not good for the GOP. They will be nothing but stooges in his regime, and soon won’t be that. He’ll do what he wants, they will have no control, and it will be all about Trump. The GOP won’t matter, and won’t count. Which would be good, if we could marginalize them without Trump breaking things, but we can’t.
The only way for the GOP to survive is to ensure the country remains a democracy, which means accepting the election results, recognizing a Democrat as incoming president, and moving on. Allowing Trump to continue his tantrums indefinitely as president-self-declared (he self identifies as the president elect?) will ultimately destroy the GOP, the Democrats., the Independents, the Green party, the Libertarians, and all the other mish-mash of strange bedfellows this country is made of. Trump will make them kiss his ass, and sing his praises, and then he might think they are kinda good fellows, but he will not share his power or his ice cream with them.
Both Democratic politicians and journalists keep falling into the same trap. They assume that, when a GOP official says one thing publicly, and another privately, it’s the latter thing that must be the thing they truly believe, while the former is just a show for the rubes (the GOP base).
Sometimes that’s the case. GOP politicians are often putting on a show for their supporters. But sometimes they actually believe in the things they say, and it’s their Dem colleagues and the media who are the rubes getting played (“oh, I don’t REALLY want to do these things!” Ooh, how reasonable and moderate!).
It’s like assuming that the married person you’re having an affair with is lying to their spouse and the world at large when they go around saying how much their love their spouse, because, after all, they told YOU that the marriage is miserable and YOU’RE the one they really love. Sure, sometimes that’s true. But sometimes, you’re the sucker.
The time for accepting bad faith as good faith for the sake of politeness is over.
The GOP is now the party of MAGA and QAnon. Those remnants of the old GOP power block who cling on and put a ‘conventional’ face on the party are doing so to cling to their last scraps of power and relevance. Maybe a couple of them actually believe that they can hold the tiger by the tail, but frankly they’re deluded.
The Overton window has now moved so far to the right that a ‘moderate’ Republican is one that doesn’t outright advocate for voter suppression, election stealing and destroying the Government. A ‘moderate’ Democrat is now one who resembles a hard line GOP politician from the early 2000’s. Ridiculous.
Rob,
I agree with your comment except for this part: ” ‘moderate’ Democrat is now one who resembles a hard line GOP politician from the early 2000’s.” That’s not really true, at least not in terms of specific policy positions. Someone (I think Matt Yglesias?) has recently been tweeting excerpts from the Democratic Party platform of 2000, and … there’s a lot of stuff that would get you drummed out of the party today.
Okay Screechy, maybe I did engage in a smidge of hyperbole in that last sentence. That’s allowed under the 1A right? To be fair, I don’t follow the nuances of American political parties official policy platforms that closely. They never seem to be deeply relevant, at least from afar, given the increasing lethargy of the lower house, toadying obstructionism of the upper house and ever more autocratic rule from Presidents.
I’d rather have a Democrat for a President any day, but even our right wing politicians would sit well toward the left of the current Dems; and that’s despite our own Overton window having moved rightward. The thought of any politician with serious asperations now publicly expressing economic or political philosophies once common place in the 1970’s is well beyond belief.
Rob,
Yeah, not trying to nitpick you, just saying as a “look on the bright side” kind of thing. There really has been progress on some issues that is entrenched now.
True! Attach a smiley to my last post. Some shit has got worse if you’re a natural liberal/progressive which I consider myself to be. I’d give ‘us’ a score of progress, but increasing volatility.
Senator Collins, should Sara Gideon be afforded the opportunity to challenge the election’s outcome?
What gets me about this half-arsed coup is how little the plotters and enablers are risking. In a Latin American country of around the 1970s they would have had a chance of the firing squad, a horrible prison or exile. You can actually have a modicum of respect for their physical courage. Here – what will they get? A break in their careers maybe?