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These three Senators are the three Republicans who voted against Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. Know it or not, they (and others like them) are the reason we have Trump as president. Trump would never be president without them. He probably would never have run. But the spinelessness on display last night has been emblematic of large swathes of the Republican Party for decades. They campaign as rock-ribbed, fire-and-brimstone conservatives … but once in office, it’s all nuance and compromise and work across the aisle. And on almost every issue, Republican voters get something they didn’t vote for, while Democrats - with the assistance of these squishy Republicans - go from success to success.
Eventually, voters had enough. And they didn’t just go looking for a sturdier kind of Republican; they went looking for a bare-knuckle brawler… someone who’d emerge from the scrum laughing with blood on his teeth… Trump.
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Spot on! I like it because even many of the slow-brained can understand a short and clear explanation, accompanied by a current high-powered example, of how and why we got here.
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For perspective, ...
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The Turtle has exposed himself Big Time! The phony 'conservative' image that he thrusted upon the gOp for far too long has long ago been removed for all to see ... What a putz.
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It looked like another Act in the usual Senate theatre. The terrible three surely acted to a pre-determined script. Collins and Murkowski’s statements seemed written by the same person. Tillis used his bit part to get something. As you say - they are weasels of the worst sort.
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When McConnell was handing Trump a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court he was loved, wasn’t he?
This is one of those times when voters display their cognitive dissonance. They say they want government to adhere to its founding constitutional principles - which in this case means the Congress acting as a co-equal branch of government and the Senate taking their advice and consent role seriously - but yet yearn for a rubber stamp parliament where the president has the power to withdraw the whip.
In 1774, Edmund Burke, a member of the British parliament and now seen as one of the founders of the conservative movement on both sides of the Atlantic, said this, “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays you instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
Pete Hegseth, or someone who shares his views, is exactly what the Pentagon needs. I wish him great success. If he has it, not many will remember the circumstances of his confirmation.
But speaking of those circumstances, it is notable that it is not the first time a Marine Corps enlisted (JD Vance) bailed out an Army Major (Hegseth) in trouble.
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