So. On that piece about what didn't happen. We're really just absolving all the supposed R's that care about democracy, are we? There's been a lot of talk about Manchin, but as I recall, ZERO republicans supported his voting rights bill. Not Romney, not Murkowski, not Blunt, not Portman, not Toomey, not Shelby, not Burr. In case you're curious, the last five of those are retiring. In the house, neither Kissinger or Cheney support voting rights legislation, and actively voted to shut down the government during this pandemic we're in.
At some point, we need to call a spade a spade. Either there are no good republicans, or the standard of 'good' is so meaningless as to be useless. Because all the people we're told are 'good' are entirely geared towards supporting Trumpism. They might not publicly speak the hymns, but they vote accordingly. And what one does is always more important than what one says.
There's a lot of recriminations that the left would go after Manchin, a man who spends his time creating bills that will die, supporting measures that would put more of his constituents into poverty, and generally being a pain in everyone's rear. But he's got no answers for what he intends to actually do now. He made a bill that was meant to get GOP support, and not even Murkowski, who CO SPONSORED THE BILL, voted for it. Which means that any GOP officeholders are not willing to walk the walk when it comes to actually fighting Trumpism.
This, to me, seems apt. After all, this is how the conservative movement has always operated. It prizes 'respectability' over actually doing the right thing, which is how we get praise for Buckley, a man who said segregation was good and civil rights were bad, and how we get praise for Goldwater, a man who wanted to nuke Russia, and who was later seen as not conservative enough.
If we truly believe that democracy is in peril, then we should be raking people like Romney over the coals. We should be putting Blunt and Toomey's feet to the fire and asking 'what are you doing to save your own party?' If the answer is 'nothing' then they're no better than Trumpists like Hawley and Cruz.
So. On that piece about what didn't happen. We're really just absolving all the supposed R's that care about democracy, are we? There's been a lot of talk about Manchin, but as I recall, ZERO republicans supported his voting rights bill. Not Romney, not Murkowski, not Blunt, not Portman, not Toomey, not Shelby, not Burr. In case you're curious, the last five of those are retiring. In the house, neither Kissinger or Cheney support voting rights legislation, and actively voted to shut down the government during this pandemic we're in.
At some point, we need to call a spade a spade. Either there are no good republicans, or the standard of 'good' is so meaningless as to be useless. Because all the people we're told are 'good' are entirely geared towards supporting Trumpism. They might not publicly speak the hymns, but they vote accordingly. And what one does is always more important than what one says.
There's a lot of recriminations that the left would go after Manchin, a man who spends his time creating bills that will die, supporting measures that would put more of his constituents into poverty, and generally being a pain in everyone's rear. But he's got no answers for what he intends to actually do now. He made a bill that was meant to get GOP support, and not even Murkowski, who CO SPONSORED THE BILL, voted for it. Which means that any GOP officeholders are not willing to walk the walk when it comes to actually fighting Trumpism.
This, to me, seems apt. After all, this is how the conservative movement has always operated. It prizes 'respectability' over actually doing the right thing, which is how we get praise for Buckley, a man who said segregation was good and civil rights were bad, and how we get praise for Goldwater, a man who wanted to nuke Russia, and who was later seen as not conservative enough.
If we truly believe that democracy is in peril, then we should be raking people like Romney over the coals. We should be putting Blunt and Toomey's feet to the fire and asking 'what are you doing to save your own party?' If the answer is 'nothing' then they're no better than Trumpists like Hawley and Cruz.