This makes a number of assumptions. First, that people like Cheney or Kinzinger have any future in GOP politics. If they require help from the democrats to win, they don't have a future, period. The fact that he's retiring says that he understands this: he can't win against his own party, and his own party would destroy him otherwise. He…
This makes a number of assumptions. First, that people like Cheney or Kinzinger have any future in GOP politics. If they require help from the democrats to win, they don't have a future, period. The fact that he's retiring says that he understands this: he can't win against his own party, and his own party would destroy him otherwise. He serves no purpose to anyone.
At this point, he's a gangrenous limb on Trumpism. He's not going to be the thing that defeats it, and he wouldn't be the one to rise after it, anymore than someone like Mitt Romney would. There's no hope in him existing as some kind of 'see what you could be, GOP?'
And the reason for that is GOP voters. GOP voters do not want people like Kinzinger. They see what he's selling, and they've chosen against it. They continue to choose against it. the gop voters themselves would prefer a MTG to a Cheney. They would prefer a Josh Hawley to a Mitt Romney. They prefer Trump to everyone. And why? Because the voters do not care one bit about policies anymore. The GOP voter is not motivated by anything resembling actual policy, because decades of GOP messaging about how government is bad and can do no right have borne fruit.
It turns out that if you tell people government is evil and can't help you, people will stop caring about who is in charge. There's no 'allies' in these dead representatives walking, only the slow inevitable defeat. Either they lose in primaries to Trumpy people, or they are redistricted out of existence. But there is zero chance of doing anything on their own.
And at this point, choosing to support Trumpist policies while saying you don't like him is a false choice. To support such things means you support the man, because helping his policies is the same as helping his reelection.
There is no 'well, I was totally on board with the fascists until they started talking crazy' position that you can take. You can choose to join them, you can choose to join their opponents, but you can't support every part of them and then act like you're not with them. That's an untenable position, because they're not going to care what your policies are if you don't support the leader, and your enemies aren't going to support you for supporting everything they hate.
This makes a number of assumptions. First, that people like Cheney or Kinzinger have any future in GOP politics. If they require help from the democrats to win, they don't have a future, period. The fact that he's retiring says that he understands this: he can't win against his own party, and his own party would destroy him otherwise. He serves no purpose to anyone.
At this point, he's a gangrenous limb on Trumpism. He's not going to be the thing that defeats it, and he wouldn't be the one to rise after it, anymore than someone like Mitt Romney would. There's no hope in him existing as some kind of 'see what you could be, GOP?'
And the reason for that is GOP voters. GOP voters do not want people like Kinzinger. They see what he's selling, and they've chosen against it. They continue to choose against it. the gop voters themselves would prefer a MTG to a Cheney. They would prefer a Josh Hawley to a Mitt Romney. They prefer Trump to everyone. And why? Because the voters do not care one bit about policies anymore. The GOP voter is not motivated by anything resembling actual policy, because decades of GOP messaging about how government is bad and can do no right have borne fruit.
It turns out that if you tell people government is evil and can't help you, people will stop caring about who is in charge. There's no 'allies' in these dead representatives walking, only the slow inevitable defeat. Either they lose in primaries to Trumpy people, or they are redistricted out of existence. But there is zero chance of doing anything on their own.
And at this point, choosing to support Trumpist policies while saying you don't like him is a false choice. To support such things means you support the man, because helping his policies is the same as helping his reelection.
There is no 'well, I was totally on board with the fascists until they started talking crazy' position that you can take. You can choose to join them, you can choose to join their opponents, but you can't support every part of them and then act like you're not with them. That's an untenable position, because they're not going to care what your policies are if you don't support the leader, and your enemies aren't going to support you for supporting everything they hate.