# Spineless, gutless Republicans **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [March 10, 2025, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402 "2025-03-10T19:53:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/1 "2025-03-10T19:53:05Z")
The Republicans, I feel, don’t get nearly enough vitriol for the way they’ve not only fallen in line behind their emperor, but also for how they’ve been enthusiastically polishing his knob every chance they get. He could kick them square in the balls, and they’d simply say “Thank you sir, may I have another?” Anyway, what really got me going was this story from the New York Times about the ways Trump keeps his minions in line. > **[Trump, With More Honey Than Vinegar, Cements an Iron Grip on Republicans](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/us/politics/trump-republicans-congress.html?unlocked_article_code=1.204.tSzJ.uTjXr9pJT5PO&smid=url-share)** > > In his second term, President Trump is cultivating warm relationships with G.O.P. lawmakers — and using the implicit threat of ruining them if they stray — to keep them in line behind his agenda. > They described an approach in which Mr. Trump, who has spent years showing Republicans that he can either be their greatest champion or their worst political enemy, focuses intently on wooing and socializing with G.O.P. lawmakers, relying on the implicit but rarely stated threat of ruining them to get his way when they stray from his demands. > > And they said Mr. Trump’s tactics were more carrot than stick. He relies on the trappings of the presidency — rides on Air Force One; visits with their spouses to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.; White House tchotchkes; and seemingly endless Sharpie signatures on Trump-branded merchandise — to make Republicans members of Congress feel special and indebted to him. That’s right, these assholes are selling out their country for, among other things, a bunch of autographed Trump-branded crap. But, at least they can show off the pictures of themselves at Mar-A-Lago as their congressional powers get neutered and this country careens off a cliff. And, these are just the people who are explicit in their love for the Orange One. What pisses me off almost as much are the folks like Susan Collins who profess to be “concerned” about Trump, but will acquiesce to him 99 times out of 100. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/2 "2025-03-10T20:03:10Z")
I am so looking forward to the day that they hide the Trump-branded stuff out of embarrassment at ever having been associated with him. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/3 "2025-03-10T20:10:59Z")
I have an image of landfills of nothing but Trump-branded stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/4 "2025-03-10T20:22:46Z")
I kind of wonder if they hang photos of themselves shaking hands with Trump near photos of themselves shaking hands with Ronald Reagan, or any other mainstream Republicans. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/5 "2025-03-10T20:40:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I am so looking forward to the day that they hide the Trump-branded stuff out of embarrassment at ever having been associated with him. I am starting to understand why the Chinese had re-education camps where people were required to ritualistically humiliate themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/6 "2025-03-10T23:27:39Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I have an image of landfills of nothing but Trump-branded stuff. Trump Dumps ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/7 "2025-03-10T23:40:08Z")
A bill to rename Nashville’s airport in honor of DJT gets resurrected. [https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/bill-to-rename-nashville-international-airport-for-president-donald-trump-revived/](https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/bill-to-rename-nashville-international-airport-for-president-donald-trump-revived/) This same crowd got a section of the road next to city offices named after Reagan, just to stick it to the blue city in the red state. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/8 "2025-03-11T00:12:18Z")
Why Nashville? What connection does Trump have with the city? ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/9 "2025-03-11T00:17:28Z")
None. We just have spineless, gutless Republicans in the state house who want to stick it the city, especially after it rejected the opportunity to host the RNC. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/10 "2025-03-11T00:19:56Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I kind of wonder if they hang photos of themselves shaking hands with Trump near photos of themselves shaking hands with Ronald Reagan, or any other mainstream Republicans Seen it: yes, yes they do. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/11 "2025-03-11T00:25:47Z")
Another fine example of a Republican debasing themselves: [Elon Musk and Marco Rubio Share Awkward Social Media Embrace After White House Confrontation - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/us/politics/musk-rubio-usaid-cuts.html) > Mr. Rubio and Mr. Musk clashed during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House last Thursday, in which the world’s richest man jeered the secretary of state for failing to make more sweeping staffing cuts to the agencies under his purview. In the same meeting, Mr. Rubio bristled at how Mr. Musk had undercut his leadership to flatten the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government’s lead agency for distributing foreign aid. > > On Monday, Mr. Rubio thanked Mr. Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency for aiding in making the drastic cuts he had resisted, and announced that the agency’s remaining work would be subsumed under the State Department. What a weenie. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/12 "2025-03-11T00:47:06Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I kind of wonder if they hang photos of themselves shaking hands with Trump near photos of themselves shaking hands with Ronald Reagan, or any other mainstream Republicans > > Seen it: yes, yes they do. And none of them notice the disconnection? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/13 "2025-03-11T05:53:23Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > That’s right, these assholes are selling out their country for, among other things, a bunch of autographed Trump-branded crap. _”If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and [ride in their Air Force Ones] then vote against them you’ve got no business being up here.”_ — Jesse M. Unruh (The bit about Air Force One was not in the original) > [@drewbert](#): > > A bill to rename Nashville’s airport in honor of DJT gets resurrected. I _could_ support this on the condition that it’s understood that _you don’t name things after living people (because it’s just tacky)_, and steps were taken to immediately make the tackiness moot. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/14 "2025-03-11T14:45:29Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I kind of wonder if they hang photos of themselves shaking hands with Trump near photos of themselves shaking hands with Ronald Reagan, or any other mainstream Republicans > > Seen it: yes, yes they do. Wondering if any of them still have pictures of themselves with George W. Bush or Dick Cheney on display. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/15 "2025-03-11T17:17:48Z")
What’s Republican politicians polishing Trump’s knob has been somewhat amusing. I forget the House member, from Texas I think, who said something about it being their responsibility to push Trump’s agenda through no matter what. Not our agenda or the GOP’s agenda but specifically Trump’s agenda. They’re cowards. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/16 "2025-03-11T17:20:38Z")
My point was that Trump’s attitude towards Russia is the opposite of Reagan and those of his generation. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/17 "2025-03-22T03:35:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I am so looking forward to the day that they hide the Trump-branded stuff out of embarrassment at ever having been associated with him. The MAGA movement is just the 4th incarnation of the KKK. > **[Ku Klux Klan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan)** > > The Ku Klux Klan (/ˌkuː klʌks ˈklæn, ˌkjuː-/),\[e\] commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian extremist, white supremacist, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction in the devastated South. Various historians have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group. The group contains several organizations structured as a secret society, which have frequently resorted to terrorism, violence and acts of intimida The first K... Anytime marginalized groups and minorities grow in number and power, white supremacists grow in power to put them back in their place. The first incarnation was after the civil war when black people grew in power. The second incarnation was in the 1920s with mass immigration from europe and womens suffrage The third incarnation was in the 60s with civil rights, second wave feminism Now we’re in a fourth wave as a pushback against American becoming more brown, feminist, secular, LGBT friendly and full of immigrants. In the long run, Trump will be seen as a response to Obama and a way to reestablish white supremacy/patriarchy/christian dominionism, and the MAGA movement will just be seen as a new brand name for the KKK. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/18 "2025-03-22T04:14:55Z")
[Are you sure…?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lelb1dB988) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/19 "2025-03-22T22:00:00Z")
I can dig it. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402/20 "2025-04-02T06:45:36Z")
Another Republican coward who has bent the knee to Trump, this time Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The New Yorker recently conducted a Q&A with him. [How Donald Trump Is Teaching Christians to Abandon Empathy | The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-donald-trump-is-teaching-christians-to-abandon-empathy-albert-mohler) > **Do you still think President Trump is an embarrassment?** > > Now when you say those words, you are going back to 2016? > > **2020. You said that to me.** > > O.K., I need context here. I supported President Trump’s election in 2020. > > **I know you did, but when we talked you said, “President Trump is a huge embarrassment, and it’s an embarrassment to evangelical Christianity that there appear to be so many people who will celebrate precisely the aspects that I see Biblically as most lamentable and embarrassing.”** > > Yeah, I mean, I said that in a context. I mean, frankly, many of the particulars of the story of Donald Trump are embarrassing to evangelicals. But, at the same time, I unapologetically supported him in 2020, and I supported him in 2024. And, by the way, I supported him as President once he was elected to his first term. I don’t think it’s fair to have that statement as an isolated statement. Donald Trump’s not the only politician that has embarrassed me that I have supported. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spineless-gutless-republicans/1015402.md?page=2)