# I pit "normal" "good" Republicans for pretending that you're not enabling traitors **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 6, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828 "2021-01-06T20:12:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/21 "2021-01-08T01:10:29Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Short of leaving the party, maybe not vote to put deranged people in office. […] After watching the last 4 years of unhinged shitshow, did you vote in 2020 for Trump to be the President? I try not to, and I did not. > [@Max\_S](#): > > State and national offices, well, my candidates have never won a single primary. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/22 "2021-01-08T01:11:31Z")
Cool. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/23 "2021-01-08T01:14:05Z")
If I read that right, you’re saying there are no good Republicans, but Romney and Rubio are good Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/24 "2021-01-08T01:17:38Z")
Or maybe it’s just that Romney and Rubio are better than the current Republican Party and thus should abandon it, even if one wouldn’t exactly call them “good Republicans”. Being better than the current Republican Party is not all that lofty an aspiration, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/25 "2021-01-08T01:24:03Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > Not in the primary election, I can’t. And D candidates have zero chance after the primary election. So, if the democrats have no chance of winning a general election, why not vote for them? They’ll lose, so you’ll get a Republican anyways, but at least you won’t have the stain of supporting a traitor on you. And hey, maybe if enough people decide not to support traitors, maybe the Dem might win. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/26 "2021-01-08T01:34:15Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > So, if the democrats have no chance of winning a general election, why not vote for them? They’ll lose, so you’ll get a Republican anyways, but at least you won’t have the stain of supporting a traitor on you. Max\_S hasn’t said he doesn’t vote for Dem candidates in the general election, given that his own preferred Pub candidates never get past the primary. He’s said he wants to remain a registered Republican because that way at least he gets to vote for his preferred Pub candidates in the primaries. I haven’t figured out from his remarks if he’d actually have significantly less impact on the outcomes voting for his preferred local candidates in general elections as a Dem. Personally, if the party of my affiliation never produced a state or national candidate that I could in conscience support, and if I could have just as much effective impact on the success of their local candidates voting as a member of a different party as I do now, I would not feel all that committed to or satisfied with my current party affiliation, but that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/27 "2021-01-08T02:58:01Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > You’re painting with a wide brush, it would be quite stupid of me to leave the party just because the state and national candidates suck. No. It would not be stupid. It would be recognizing that the leader of your party just tried to overthrow a democratic election and stage a fascist coup. How you can weigh that against having a say in local elections is . . . Incomprehensible to me. I know you are intelligent and willing to engage in reasoned debate. How you can fail to drop membership in the party led by a seditionist is hard to fathom. Because of its positions, the GOP has been the party that the dumb, the anti-intellectual, the fascist, and the detached from truth and reality have overwhelmingly sorted themselves into. Either a whole bunch of reasonable people would have to reverse the trend and join the GOP to reposition it – which won’t happen – or the remaining reasonable people in the GOP need to abandon it so that it can die, and some new party can take on the positions of the reasonable right. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/28 "2021-01-08T03:27:10Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > It would be recognizing that the leader of your party just tried to overthrow a democratic election and stage a fascist coup. How you can weigh that against having a say in local elections is . . . Incomprehensible to me. It’s a false dilemma. I can both recognize that top Republicans are way in the wrong, and still have a say in my local elections. Put yourself in my shoes. What you are telling me is sort of like people who say, “why don’t you vote third party?” ~Max ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/29 "2021-01-08T03:29:41Z")
I would leave my party in a heartbeat if they even nominated Trump, or someone like him, let alone if that person tried to overthrow American democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/30 "2021-01-08T03:30:42Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I haven’t figured out from his remarks if he’d actually have significantly less impact on the outcomes voting for his preferred local candidates in general elections as a Dem. I would probably have more of an impact on the Democratic primaries for local candidates than the Republican primaries, because there are so many fewer Democrats here. The point is that zero Democratic candidates have won a local race in something like fifty years, with one exception (the supervisor of elections, a Democrat until 2016). So registering D is essentially throwing away my local vote. Also, many times the (local) Democrat candidate is totally unqualified and runs unopposed in the primary. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them run just so the Republican primaries stay closed. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/31 "2021-01-08T03:57:24Z")
Barely tolerable, Romney more so than Rubes. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/32 "2021-01-08T04:01:32Z")
There are some Republicans who “came for the tax cuts” but aren’t total sociopaths – I put Romney in that category (I think). I’d be more of a believer if he’d help nuke the Republican party by organizing a mass exodus to independents a la Justin Amash and others who’ve had enough. But they can’t be “good” Republicans for long. They can’t have decency with an R by their name. Not anymore. Just like there can’t be any good Nazis. Don’t for a moment get fooled into believing these “resignations” with not even two weeks remaining mean shit. They obviously mean absolutely nothing. Profiles in cowardice. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/33 "2021-01-08T23:42:22Z")
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is a Republican of the old-fashioned New England kind, fiscally responsible without being a tightwad, competent, science-respecting, with an added bonus of socially liberal attitudes – what most Republicans these days wouldn’t hesitate to denounce as a RINO. He’s perhaps the most popular governor in the country, and deserves the respect. He is, of course, utterly unviable politically as a GOP politician anywhere else in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/34 "2021-01-08T23:48:44Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > Also, many times the (local) Democrat candidate Democratic. This is not difficult. Unless… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/35 "2021-01-09T00:20:41Z")
Anyone else who struggles with this, I’m here for a FREE education lesson. You’re welcome. Repeat the following sentence, even if your brain hurts when you say it: “The Democratic Senator eats lunch with his House colleague, who is also a Democrat.” Huh? Does it make your brain hurt? Something else hurt? Well, that’s your fucking problem. End of lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Tilt-A-Whirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@Tilt-A-Whirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tilt-A-Whirl)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/36 "2021-01-09T00:38:49Z")
I am a lifelong staunch Democrat, but I have on occasion voted for a Republican candidate in a local election when it was clear that they were the best choice for the job. I really am talking about positions at the “dogcatcher” level. I always researched each election, and felt disdain for voters who simply voted a straight party ticket, for either party. But no more. As others have suggested, I would no more vote for a member of the Republican Party than I would vote for a member of the Nazi Party. The very fact that they are a member immediately disqualifies them from being a suitable choice. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/37 "2021-01-10T02:20:13Z")
It was an accident, sheesh. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/38 "2021-01-10T02:27:39Z")
ORLY? You happen to ever make the mistake of speaking about the Republic candidate? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/39 "2021-01-10T04:50:24Z")
This sort of error doesn’t happen with the other party: “many times the (local) Democrat is totally unqualified…” “many times the (local) Democrat candidate is totally unqualified…” ~Max ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/40 "2021-01-10T06:25:49Z")
When folks are calling Republicans literal Nazis please don’t cry about your missing ic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828.md?page=3)