There are so few Justin Amashes because the Republican party has created a toxic political ecosystem that acts almost like a cult. It’s an ecosystem created through gerrymandering, right wing media, right wing political activism, and oligarchal control of the political party’s structure. Criticizing the cult is a crime against the cult, and the punishment is exile.
Because most Republicans have huevos. Huevos grande. Really big huevos. Huge.
And as for the democrats, well… Transgenderism, and all that.
It’s a pretty simple. The Republican definition of “principled courage” involves sticking it to the outsiders and defending their cause to the bitter end.
The first Republicans to stand up to trump will be seen as traitorous chickenshit pariahs. The last ones will be seen as heroic stalwarts whose hand was forced by circumstances.
Everybody wants to be the hero, nobody wants to be a traitorous chickenshit pariah.
That is because he’s comparing what would it take to generate a similar kind of devotion from the “base”, not what would be equivalent deeds from a privileged-observer POV.
The hard left would not be satisfied and would keep bitching and whining as long as their guy/gal failed to achieve complete fulfillment, and even then then probably would throw in their face that s/he waited 3 or 7 years to achieve specific thing X or Y; and/or keep bringing up that back in 1999 s/he did/said/wrote something un-woke.
The hard right OTOH are satisfied enough with seeing fulfillment of the liberal agenda being hindered for at least another generation through judicial appointments and the crippling of the “administrative state” to the point it would take over a decade to rebuild competency and trust, and who cares about style.
The cult Trumpetistas meanwhile are happy both with seeing the libs triggered and seeing “polite society” old-elite Republicans having to shuffle out the door in embarassment or else bend the knee and bow their head. To them, ***that ***is delivering what they want. Mainstream principled conservatives who dare ask “but at what cost” are called RINOs or tools of the Establishment and primaried if politicians or sidelined as weak bores if commentators.
Eh… yes and no. Yes, everyone needs to clearly see that Republicans are irredeemable bad-faith governing partners and act to marginalize them politically.
I don’t know about actually punishing them. Punish them by depriving political power, sure. Punish them by investigating and prosecuting all their shady bullshit, sure.
As far as the actual Republican voters, I don’t see any value in punishing them. Given that they already live in a 24x7 persecution fantasy, they won’t be able to connect actual punishment to their actions. It’s inhumane to punish those who can’t learn from their actions.
Northeast Refugee-
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