They stole a Supreme Court seat like a gang of thugs in a back alley, shoving democracy against the wall, rifling through its pockets, and grinning as they walked away, daring anyone to stop them. They attempted to overthrow the government—not in secret, not in whispers, but in the full light of day, draped in the American flag as they smeared blood and bile through the halls of Congress. They installed a diseased conspiracy theorist as the head of public health, ensuring that mass death became a partisan litmus test. They put a known foreign asset in charge of national security. They placed a frothing authoritarian in charge of the FBI, a man who promised to turn the power of the state against its own citizens. They have put a convicted felon—fake-businessman turned autocrat, a syphilitic wound on the body politic—in the White House, again, where he openly vows to dismantle the nation in retribution for daring to hold him accountable.
Yet, Bill, you ask where the Republicans are? You wonder if they might finally recoil at the sight of a deranged billionaire casually tossing around the word "treason" to smear a U.S. senator for the crime of standing with our allies? I have news for you, Bill.
Really bad news.
They aren’t coming.
They aren’t going to defend Mark Kelly, not because they fear Musk, but because Musk is them—an arrogant, gilded grotesque who believes that wealth is intelligence, that cruelty is strength, that democracy is something to be mocked, not upheld. The Red Party will not correct him because they do not believe he is wrong. They have no loyalty to truth, no fidelity to the Constitution, no interest in the republic as anything more than a vehicle for their own unchecked dominion.
This is not a party in decline—it is a suicide cult for democracy, a feral, collapsing machine that now exists only to consolidate power and punish those who refuse to submit. The rule of law is dead to them unless it can be twisted into a weapon. The Constitution is not a sacred document but a crutch, waved in performative reverence as they grind it to dust beneath their heels.
So no, Bill, they are not going to do the right thing. They cannot do the right thing. Their movement is beyond saving, beyond reasoning, beyond any last vestige of honor.
This is it. The death spiral is upon us. The question is no longer whether they will return to sanity. It’s when we stop pretending they ever will.Because this—this endless, pathetic waiting for the Red Party to wake up, to remember what a conscience feels like, to suddenly morph back into Republicans instead of an authoritarian death cult—isn't just lunacy. It’s self-inflicted delusion. Writing columns like this, as if moral shame could pierce the hide of a party that sold its soul for power long ago, isn’t just a fool’s errand—it’s the political equivalent of begging a mugger to give back your wallet out of the goodness of his heart.
They are not coming back. Let's stop pretending we think they are.
And still Trump around a 46% approval rating. You know what? Autocraticies never gain traction in healthy societies. Problem is, America was never particularly healthy. Just ask minorities and the waves of immigrants.
I’m going to push back a little on this and Bill’s view of the GOP. This idea that GOP was good and decent before Trump arrived on the scene is romanticizing a party that was never that great. These same Republicans barely spoke up at all the racist rhetoric against Obama and were perfectly willing to embrace torture during the Iraq war. Anyone who said that went against the rule of law and norms and American traditions was met with disdain and was labeled as too weak for the modern world.
The origins of the modern GOP’s grip on the south was based in racism and the seeds for Trump were laid a long, long time ago. (How many Republicans defended the Central Park Five from Trump’s calls for the death penalty years ago? Or fought that stupid birth certificate nonsense. Did we all forget Dick Cheney hijacking a part of the CIA to build a case for a horrific invasion?)
I’m sick of both parties at this stage, but neither are going to get better if we romanticize their past or present. I’m willing to forget the past to try and save America from Trump, but I ain’t buying this idea that either party has a legacy of moral high ground worth a damn.
I mean, if someone said to me, “Can you believe the party of Reagan is cutting off HIV treatments to pregnant women in Africa”, my answer would be, “Absolutely, yes. That sounds 100% on brand.” So would mass deportations, corruption, conspiracy theories, and racism. Reagan would be anti-Russian, but I don’t know that he would be anti-Trump. He’d probably find enough to like in the policies, if not the man.
Tell me there’s not a straight line from Reagan’s “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” to what Trump/Musk are doing right now to the federal government. That demonization of all things federal has been in the heart of the GOP for a long, long time.
100% agree. When Trump nominated his parade of clowns to his Cabinet there were so many opinions and articles hoping the Republicans would "stand up" for what is right. I saw this as such a sad, false hope. The Republicans are worse than useless. Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense? I knew the Republicans would confirm his nomination regardless of the fact that he is an imbecile, an alcoholic and a sexual predator because...Republicans. As you write, "they are not coming back" and I agree. Go ahead and imagine the worst and most egregious anti-American thing you are can think of... if Trump wants it...not one Republican will stop him. Not One.
This is the most clear-eyed description of America today that I've read. Every word is true. And it leads us to the inevitable question - given that these people are not coming back, given that they prefer authoritarianism to democracy, given their willful ignorance and hatred for most of their fellow citizens, given their willingness to step on the rule of law to achieve their ends - how do we survive as a democracy? How do we move forward as a single country under our Constitution?
I don't think we can. I don't know what that means for us, but we need to start contemplating that.
I couldn’t agree more. More people need to reach this conclusion. This experiment is over. I strongly advocate for emigration as the most impactful course of action. I’ve written about how even a small shift—just 0.6% of the population—can generate a $1.5 trillion impact over a decade. However, this doesn’t even account for the effects of brain drain. I believe the only way to reset America's power structure on the global stage is through financial means.
Oh, this is the good stuff, the sermon on the mountaintop of despair. The kind of truth so raw it makes centrists clutch their pearls and whisper, but surely not all Republicans... while the rest of us stand over the smoldering wreckage of democracy, pointing at the arsonists still holding the matches.
This isn’t a malfunction. This is the design. The theft of a Supreme Court seat was not a regrettable quirk of political gamesmanship. It was a full-scale mugging in broad daylight. January 6th wasn’t a misunderstanding or a “protest gone wrong,” it was an attempted coup in plain sight, carried out by deranged zealots so stupid they live-streamed their own sedition. And putting RFK Jr. in charge of public health? That’s just weaponized nihilism; they’re not trying to govern; they’re trying to break the system and dance in the rubble.
And yet, here we are, again, with people still peering hopefully into the abyss, waiting for the party of MAGA blood cultists to suddenly remember that they once pretended to care about things like law, truth, and basic human decency.
They aren’t coming back. They aren’t ashamed. They won.
Watching how Republican senators and congressmen grovel and do Trump's bidding only shows me how fantastic those legislative jobs must be. One would think the jobs would be nothing but headaches with all the fundraising, complaint-taking, boring legislative work, etc. that they have to put up with, but I guess the inside trading info, the power trip, and the recognition must make it all worth it. These people cling to these jobs. They would sell out their own mothers to hold on to them.
Such a good point! They must just LOVE their job so much that they are willing to sell out their fellow citizens and family every day. What a job it must be....
We have a society of people in America that are constant victims that blame everyone and anything rather than take responsibility for their shortcomings. Trump and Musk are two extreme examples. Both were born into wealth, both had abusive fathers and neither had to do a hard days work in their lives. Trump and Musk are illusions.
People equate Trump as a good businessman and deal maker. In reality he sucks at both. Musk claims to be a great thinker, a genius, we have found out he really is neither.
They are both excellent con men, self loathing that crave attention and adulteration. The cult seems to equate the accumulation of wealth as a confirmation of one’s value. Wrong… most of the billionaires that back Trump are people devoid of empathy, morality, ethics or integrity.
In short, they don’t give a crap about anyone but themselves. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are the exceptions.
Trump created evil in Doge and his cabinet. But his evil would be in check but for the sycophantic Congress, a weak Biden, a feeble and bumbling Merrick Garland and a Senate led by Mitch McConnell.
Well said and right on point. We all have to stop longing for something that is never gong to happen. The Republican Party, as we all knew it, is gone. Forever. This is no longer a debate. This is a fight.
The Democratic Party has also become irrelevant to moderates on both sides of the aisle. It’s time for new parties to form that actually represent their constituents and are willing to be independent thinkings rather than the lemmings they currently are.
So well written and powerful. Respect to Bill as a fellow human on this earth, but the party he so longs to be respected and relevant again is gone. Bill, stop mourning over the skeletal remains.
I think Bill can't face the truth about his party. First, the point you make. The GOP that he knew is dead and gone. It's never coming back. The second is that he can't admit that his party started us on the path to authoritarianism, that they were wrong about trickle down economics, that they brainwashed their working class voters to vote against their own and our country's best interests to enrichen the wealthy and corporations. That the right wing propaganda machine would be the envy of Goebbels. That demonizing the Democratic Party, minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ+, and others would unleash fear and hatred of, and violence towards those "others". To this day, he still can't say something nice about Biden without adding an age slur or nitpick a policy.
And the democrats, as a party, is gone. RIP both parties. It’s time for real leadership that represents their constituents will of the people who will protect our democracy and equality with freedom for all.
This is a well written piece that hits on my frustration with the whole 'when are Republicans going to do the right thing'. The GOP has always done the expedient thing and put lipstick on it. Given the anger exhibited at GOP town halls, in 2026 some of them will decide the expedient thing is to modify for votes, retire, or keep capitulating. If modifying keeps more seats than capitulating, 2028 will be interesting. This assumes we will still have elections.
I share your outrage, but asking the question isn’t for them, it’s for us. To remind us of our own decency, sanity, and patriotism which is challenged every damn day.
I suppose my growing concern is this: How many times can you ask the same question before it turns people off? How many times can you perform the same rhetorical ritual—"Will they do the right thing?"—when we all know the answer is no?
If this question is really for us—a reminder of something that, frankly, I can’t imagine needing a reminder about—then why not just say that? Why not be explicit instead of couching it in some pantomime of hope that no one actually believes? Writing like this, in a way that pretends there’s still an open question, feels either disingenuous or completely detached from the reality we are living in.
If the goal is to reinforce our own clarity in the face of madness, fine. But let’s not pretend that this is a conversation with the Red Party. They aren’t listening. They aren’t debating. They have made their choice. The only question that matters now is what/if anything can we do about it.
The Red Party isn't listening, that's for sure. However for me none of this is for the red party. I use these articles, podcasts, shorts, and X from various sources to address those conservatives who have their freaking heads stuck in the bubble who would otherwise be abhorred at what they don't know. I am doing my best to bring an awareness and activate some critical thinking.
It is working but I think this is very much like the challenge and slow road when trying to bring a person out of a cult. My family and friends aren't steeped in MAGA shit. They are just stuck in the bubble of Fox, The Five, and idiotic FB sources with no awareness. This is for them.
I live in a very red county. The hard-core MAGA appear to comprise about 2/3 of the local Republicon Party, which is now dominated by loudmouthed conspiracy-mongers. Some "normie" petit bourgeois biz types have tried to take back their party, in laughable failure. They are powerless against the radio grievance talkers and online rumor-spreaders.
Surprisingly, the MAGA candidate for sheriff was defeated by the "establishment" incumbent in last summer's primary. But the latter was a respected veteran of the department and lived in the most densely populated part of the county. The MAGA guy, a deputy in a neighboring county, ran as an independent in the general election and got even less traction.
I actually think its because they are completely selfish at the core. So while an economic impact on their lives may change their behavior, it will not change who they are as people.
No argument from me on that. But selfishness alone would favor them bailing on Trump when their personal finances tank. I think we have to add a significant dash of hate to their motivational stew.
JF - a neighbor once offered me that flu nonsense. I told him my daughter, med staff in large urban hospital ICU during Covid (at that point 2 years on), knew the difference even if he didn’t. I said I trusted her experience and since he had none, I wouldn’t listen to that nonsense. He hasn’t spoken to me since. I’m fine with that 😊
Whenever I encounter someone like that who claims to know more than the medical specialists, I want to suggest they contact a logger when they need open heart surgery; all that’s needed is a sharp tool.
You really want to lose your friends like I did? When they tell you they won't get a COVID booster because they don't understand what's in it or how it works, ask them how Tylenol works.
So well said Patrick and I agree. I hope The Bulwark writers mull this sentiment around, because I am getting tired of "when will Republicans do ___" pieces because of the reasons you stated.
As sad as it is, you are right. It's likely difficult when you can remember these individuals showing you one face years ago, and now showing their true face in the present. But they aren't coming back and that has to be realized. I sympathize with that dissonance and pain, but fully taking in the reality of the cowardice on display is necessary.
Trump’s answer to his bad economy, lack of diplomacy, and rising inflation…”It’s good TV.” Trump believes there is no difference between negative and positive attention as long as the attention is on him.
But remember it was Republicans that give us Bondi, Patel, Hegseth, Gabbard and Noem ( and other misfits) voting for their confirmation. It is the Congress abdication of their duty to oversee the spending of this country that is allowing the illegal activity of Doge.
And not only are they not coming back; they’ve taken a page from their leader and double down when faced with opposition. I wonder when/if that trick will cease working on their base.
You are right, people who aren’t willing to make any sacrifices won’t be able to leave (we will see if that works out) the benefit to leaving is for most you can legally not pay the taxes.
They stole a Supreme Court seat like a gang of thugs in a back alley, shoving democracy against the wall, rifling through its pockets, and grinning as they walked away, daring anyone to stop them. They attempted to overthrow the government—not in secret, not in whispers, but in the full light of day, draped in the American flag as they smeared blood and bile through the halls of Congress. They installed a diseased conspiracy theorist as the head of public health, ensuring that mass death became a partisan litmus test. They put a known foreign asset in charge of national security. They placed a frothing authoritarian in charge of the FBI, a man who promised to turn the power of the state against its own citizens. They have put a convicted felon—fake-businessman turned autocrat, a syphilitic wound on the body politic—in the White House, again, where he openly vows to dismantle the nation in retribution for daring to hold him accountable.
Yet, Bill, you ask where the Republicans are? You wonder if they might finally recoil at the sight of a deranged billionaire casually tossing around the word "treason" to smear a U.S. senator for the crime of standing with our allies? I have news for you, Bill.
Really bad news.
They aren’t coming.
They aren’t going to defend Mark Kelly, not because they fear Musk, but because Musk is them—an arrogant, gilded grotesque who believes that wealth is intelligence, that cruelty is strength, that democracy is something to be mocked, not upheld. The Red Party will not correct him because they do not believe he is wrong. They have no loyalty to truth, no fidelity to the Constitution, no interest in the republic as anything more than a vehicle for their own unchecked dominion.
This is not a party in decline—it is a suicide cult for democracy, a feral, collapsing machine that now exists only to consolidate power and punish those who refuse to submit. The rule of law is dead to them unless it can be twisted into a weapon. The Constitution is not a sacred document but a crutch, waved in performative reverence as they grind it to dust beneath their heels.
So no, Bill, they are not going to do the right thing. They cannot do the right thing. Their movement is beyond saving, beyond reasoning, beyond any last vestige of honor.
This is it. The death spiral is upon us. The question is no longer whether they will return to sanity. It’s when we stop pretending they ever will.Because this—this endless, pathetic waiting for the Red Party to wake up, to remember what a conscience feels like, to suddenly morph back into Republicans instead of an authoritarian death cult—isn't just lunacy. It’s self-inflicted delusion. Writing columns like this, as if moral shame could pierce the hide of a party that sold its soul for power long ago, isn’t just a fool’s errand—it’s the political equivalent of begging a mugger to give back your wallet out of the goodness of his heart.
They are not coming back. Let's stop pretending we think they are.
And still Trump around a 46% approval rating. You know what? Autocraticies never gain traction in healthy societies. Problem is, America was never particularly healthy. Just ask minorities and the waves of immigrants.
I’m going to push back a little on this and Bill’s view of the GOP. This idea that GOP was good and decent before Trump arrived on the scene is romanticizing a party that was never that great. These same Republicans barely spoke up at all the racist rhetoric against Obama and were perfectly willing to embrace torture during the Iraq war. Anyone who said that went against the rule of law and norms and American traditions was met with disdain and was labeled as too weak for the modern world.
The origins of the modern GOP’s grip on the south was based in racism and the seeds for Trump were laid a long, long time ago. (How many Republicans defended the Central Park Five from Trump’s calls for the death penalty years ago? Or fought that stupid birth certificate nonsense. Did we all forget Dick Cheney hijacking a part of the CIA to build a case for a horrific invasion?)
I’m sick of both parties at this stage, but neither are going to get better if we romanticize their past or present. I’m willing to forget the past to try and save America from Trump, but I ain’t buying this idea that either party has a legacy of moral high ground worth a damn.
I mean, if someone said to me, “Can you believe the party of Reagan is cutting off HIV treatments to pregnant women in Africa”, my answer would be, “Absolutely, yes. That sounds 100% on brand.” So would mass deportations, corruption, conspiracy theories, and racism. Reagan would be anti-Russian, but I don’t know that he would be anti-Trump. He’d probably find enough to like in the policies, if not the man.
Tell me there’s not a straight line from Reagan’s “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” to what Trump/Musk are doing right now to the federal government. That demonization of all things federal has been in the heart of the GOP for a long, long time.
100% agree. When Trump nominated his parade of clowns to his Cabinet there were so many opinions and articles hoping the Republicans would "stand up" for what is right. I saw this as such a sad, false hope. The Republicans are worse than useless. Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense? I knew the Republicans would confirm his nomination regardless of the fact that he is an imbecile, an alcoholic and a sexual predator because...Republicans. As you write, "they are not coming back" and I agree. Go ahead and imagine the worst and most egregious anti-American thing you are can think of... if Trump wants it...not one Republican will stop him. Not One.
This is the most clear-eyed description of America today that I've read. Every word is true. And it leads us to the inevitable question - given that these people are not coming back, given that they prefer authoritarianism to democracy, given their willful ignorance and hatred for most of their fellow citizens, given their willingness to step on the rule of law to achieve their ends - how do we survive as a democracy? How do we move forward as a single country under our Constitution?
I don't think we can. I don't know what that means for us, but we need to start contemplating that.
I couldn’t agree more. More people need to reach this conclusion. This experiment is over. I strongly advocate for emigration as the most impactful course of action. I’ve written about how even a small shift—just 0.6% of the population—can generate a $1.5 trillion impact over a decade. However, this doesn’t even account for the effects of brain drain. I believe the only way to reset America's power structure on the global stage is through financial means.
Oh, this is the good stuff, the sermon on the mountaintop of despair. The kind of truth so raw it makes centrists clutch their pearls and whisper, but surely not all Republicans... while the rest of us stand over the smoldering wreckage of democracy, pointing at the arsonists still holding the matches.
This isn’t a malfunction. This is the design. The theft of a Supreme Court seat was not a regrettable quirk of political gamesmanship. It was a full-scale mugging in broad daylight. January 6th wasn’t a misunderstanding or a “protest gone wrong,” it was an attempted coup in plain sight, carried out by deranged zealots so stupid they live-streamed their own sedition. And putting RFK Jr. in charge of public health? That’s just weaponized nihilism; they’re not trying to govern; they’re trying to break the system and dance in the rubble.
And yet, here we are, again, with people still peering hopefully into the abyss, waiting for the party of MAGA blood cultists to suddenly remember that they once pretended to care about things like law, truth, and basic human decency.
They aren’t coming back. They aren’t ashamed. They won.
Watching how Republican senators and congressmen grovel and do Trump's bidding only shows me how fantastic those legislative jobs must be. One would think the jobs would be nothing but headaches with all the fundraising, complaint-taking, boring legislative work, etc. that they have to put up with, but I guess the inside trading info, the power trip, and the recognition must make it all worth it. These people cling to these jobs. They would sell out their own mothers to hold on to them.
Such a good point! They must just LOVE their job so much that they are willing to sell out their fellow citizens and family every day. What a job it must be....
We have a society of people in America that are constant victims that blame everyone and anything rather than take responsibility for their shortcomings. Trump and Musk are two extreme examples. Both were born into wealth, both had abusive fathers and neither had to do a hard days work in their lives. Trump and Musk are illusions.
People equate Trump as a good businessman and deal maker. In reality he sucks at both. Musk claims to be a great thinker, a genius, we have found out he really is neither.
They are both excellent con men, self loathing that crave attention and adulteration. The cult seems to equate the accumulation of wealth as a confirmation of one’s value. Wrong… most of the billionaires that back Trump are people devoid of empathy, morality, ethics or integrity.
In short, they don’t give a crap about anyone but themselves. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are the exceptions.
Trump created evil in Doge and his cabinet. But his evil would be in check but for the sycophantic Congress, a weak Biden, a feeble and bumbling Merrick Garland and a Senate led by Mitch McConnell.
Well said and right on point. We all have to stop longing for something that is never gong to happen. The Republican Party, as we all knew it, is gone. Forever. This is no longer a debate. This is a fight.
The Democratic Party has also become irrelevant to moderates on both sides of the aisle. It’s time for new parties to form that actually represent their constituents and are willing to be independent thinkings rather than the lemmings they currently are.
powerful and right.
So well written and powerful. Respect to Bill as a fellow human on this earth, but the party he so longs to be respected and relevant again is gone. Bill, stop mourning over the skeletal remains.
I think Bill can't face the truth about his party. First, the point you make. The GOP that he knew is dead and gone. It's never coming back. The second is that he can't admit that his party started us on the path to authoritarianism, that they were wrong about trickle down economics, that they brainwashed their working class voters to vote against their own and our country's best interests to enrichen the wealthy and corporations. That the right wing propaganda machine would be the envy of Goebbels. That demonizing the Democratic Party, minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ+, and others would unleash fear and hatred of, and violence towards those "others". To this day, he still can't say something nice about Biden without adding an age slur or nitpick a policy.
And the democrats, as a party, is gone. RIP both parties. It’s time for real leadership that represents their constituents will of the people who will protect our democracy and equality with freedom for all.
The GOP was wrong about nearly everything. I think Charlie Sykes’ book It Was All a Lie sums it up perfectly.
Stu Stevens
That’s right. It was Stuart Stevens.
This is a well written piece that hits on my frustration with the whole 'when are Republicans going to do the right thing'. The GOP has always done the expedient thing and put lipstick on it. Given the anger exhibited at GOP town halls, in 2026 some of them will decide the expedient thing is to modify for votes, retire, or keep capitulating. If modifying keeps more seats than capitulating, 2028 will be interesting. This assumes we will still have elections.
Yep or change the subject
I share your outrage, but asking the question isn’t for them, it’s for us. To remind us of our own decency, sanity, and patriotism which is challenged every damn day.
I suppose my growing concern is this: How many times can you ask the same question before it turns people off? How many times can you perform the same rhetorical ritual—"Will they do the right thing?"—when we all know the answer is no?
If this question is really for us—a reminder of something that, frankly, I can’t imagine needing a reminder about—then why not just say that? Why not be explicit instead of couching it in some pantomime of hope that no one actually believes? Writing like this, in a way that pretends there’s still an open question, feels either disingenuous or completely detached from the reality we are living in.
If the goal is to reinforce our own clarity in the face of madness, fine. But let’s not pretend that this is a conversation with the Red Party. They aren’t listening. They aren’t debating. They have made their choice. The only question that matters now is what/if anything can we do about it.
The Red Party isn't listening, that's for sure. However for me none of this is for the red party. I use these articles, podcasts, shorts, and X from various sources to address those conservatives who have their freaking heads stuck in the bubble who would otherwise be abhorred at what they don't know. I am doing my best to bring an awareness and activate some critical thinking.
It is working but I think this is very much like the challenge and slow road when trying to bring a person out of a cult. My family and friends aren't steeped in MAGA shit. They are just stuck in the bubble of Fox, The Five, and idiotic FB sources with no awareness. This is for them.
Yep. That’s why the idea that sarah and bill held onto for so long, “the good republican,” needs to be tossed into the abyss
Which are challenged. My kingdom for an edit button.
The 3 dots on the right will let you edit.
I live in a very red county. The hard-core MAGA appear to comprise about 2/3 of the local Republicon Party, which is now dominated by loudmouthed conspiracy-mongers. Some "normie" petit bourgeois biz types have tried to take back their party, in laughable failure. They are powerless against the radio grievance talkers and online rumor-spreaders.
Same here in Arizona
Then why haven’t they joined the Democratic Party? Or at least become independent?
Habits die hard, especially when Dems are viewed as (a) Communists or (b) agents of the dominant big city of the state, whose influence is resented.
Same here.
Karl - perhaps a bit of sustained economic pain will shake some MAGA certitude?
Surprisingly, the MAGA candidate for sheriff was defeated by the "establishment" incumbent in last summer's primary. But the latter was a respected veteran of the department and lived in the most densely populated part of the county. The MAGA guy, a deputy in a neighboring county, ran as an independent in the general election and got even less traction.
Hey J, I wrote about this yesterday. It will, but it wont change them.
They are immutable. Because they aren’t fact-based.
I actually think its because they are completely selfish at the core. So while an economic impact on their lives may change their behavior, it will not change who they are as people.
No argument from me on that. But selfishness alone would favor them bailing on Trump when their personal finances tank. I think we have to add a significant dash of hate to their motivational stew.
As I say every time this logic is presented; they died of Covid, while echoing their dear leader that it couldn’t be Covid, maybe just the flu.
JF - a neighbor once offered me that flu nonsense. I told him my daughter, med staff in large urban hospital ICU during Covid (at that point 2 years on), knew the difference even if he didn’t. I said I trusted her experience and since he had none, I wouldn’t listen to that nonsense. He hasn’t spoken to me since. I’m fine with that 😊
Whenever I encounter someone like that who claims to know more than the medical specialists, I want to suggest they contact a logger when they need open heart surgery; all that’s needed is a sharp tool.
You really want to lose your friends like I did? When they tell you they won't get a COVID booster because they don't understand what's in it or how it works, ask them how Tylenol works.
With cuts to Medicare and Medicaid coming, we all will have to contact a logger for open heart surgery.
Must… resist…. temptation….
That sharp tool remark is a punch line waiting to load!
Nah. Even 10 years from now the brainless magats will still blame Biden.
So well said Patrick and I agree. I hope The Bulwark writers mull this sentiment around, because I am getting tired of "when will Republicans do ___" pieces because of the reasons you stated.
As sad as it is, you are right. It's likely difficult when you can remember these individuals showing you one face years ago, and now showing their true face in the present. But they aren't coming back and that has to be realized. I sympathize with that dissonance and pain, but fully taking in the reality of the cowardice on display is necessary.
Trump’s answer to his bad economy, lack of diplomacy, and rising inflation…”It’s good TV.” Trump believes there is no difference between negative and positive attention as long as the attention is on him.
But remember it was Republicans that give us Bondi, Patel, Hegseth, Gabbard and Noem ( and other misfits) voting for their confirmation. It is the Congress abdication of their duty to oversee the spending of this country that is allowing the illegal activity of Doge.
And not only are they not coming back; they’ve taken a page from their leader and double down when faced with opposition. I wonder when/if that trick will cease working on their base.
Hey there. I appreciate the comment, and the engagement here. I’ve written pretty deeply about the reality of our situation and why this is a best case 40 Year Plus Problem here: https://substack.com/@complexsimplicity/note/c-79872455 I’ve also written about the best possible path to getting to the starting point for change here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-156337720 and I’ve written about what I think is the most impactful sacrifice American’s can make here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-152108087
You are right, people who aren’t willing to make any sacrifices won’t be able to leave (we will see if that works out) the benefit to leaving is for most you can legally not pay the taxes.