Fractured by Trump, the G.O.P. Can’t Agree on a Way Back to Power

By artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 6:39am |

analysis by Shane Goldmacher @ NYTimes, Jan. 11

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI): “Have you heard what some of these folks waving MAGA flags are saying about Republicans? They don’t identify themselves as Republicans.” https://t.co/56HS0UEQiP
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 12, 2021

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/republican-party-trump.html

13061 reads

Comments

Interesting newbie GOP Rep, Justin Amash's successor:

"His unwillingness to come to grips with reality is continuing to perpetuate this fraud, this deception, that is rankly unfit," Rep. Peter Meijer (R–Mich.) said of President Donald Trump.
https://t.co/yLFAvJ7KdO
— reason (@reason) January 11, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 8:11am

Every Republican needs to stand up and say that Joe Biden won the election and will the legitimate President of the United States. If they do not make this, or a similar statement, they are complicit.

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 8:44am

If they don't there's ample evidence now that they will find themselves very short of funds with which to campaign.

But I really do doubt they give a damn about outrage fests about being complicit from Dem and liberal voters on the internet.

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 9:39am

and I'd truly be willing to bet that Joe Biden himself would forgive and forget if they vote for his big infrastructure bill in like June when it's looking like a squeaker.

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 9:46am

A Capitol police officer was killed. They shouted, "Hang Mike Pence". This followed incendiary statements from Trump. If the lose funding, it says all we need to know about the Republican Party.

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 10:53am

What more did we need to know about the Republican Party for the last 15-25 years? And what exactly does "they lose funding" mean in this context? People find their balls and principles for about 15 mins, and then they forget & it's back to square one. Koch doesn't even remembered he funded this madness for 10 yrs or so.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 1:08pm

If the funding is restored it tells us all we need to know about the donors

The donors can face public shame

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 1:44pm

You act as if voters care about shame, are consistent, value morals and ethical behavior. Give it a month, few will care.

Did you know over 4000 died of Covid three days in a row this week? That we hit 308,000 infections in one day? Old news need something new...

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 2:48pm

I have no delusions about voters.

Trump was elected.

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 2:58pm

OIC, a riot is no longer the language of the unheard that must be listened to with tolerance and understanding and forgiveness. You're angry now that some people are not obeying the law. And not only that, police officers are people that should be respected.

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 1:20pm

This is not about BLM

The DC rioters wanted to throw out an election

OGD had a post about a police officer who helped a struggling woman

I praised the officer.

I want police reform to remove abusive police officers

Can we now get back to the subject at hand?

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 1:42pm

Actually, the specific subject is Fractured by Trump, the G.O.P. Can’t Agree on a Way Back to Power

You expanded it to express that a notion that they need to stand up and declare acceptance or they are complicit (with?), as if you are threatening them, as if they care about your vote that they were never going to get in the first place.

If you are going to expand it to that topic, I think that topic is the rule of law. The rule of law in this country was often challenged by many riots and illegal activity, including agitation against the Federal government and local governments, all summer.

Edit to add: The solution is rule of law. And encouraging the "police", that is the authorities, to enforce it, instead of discouraging them from doing so.

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 2:21pm

what is very equivalent: feeling entitled to pull down a statue without asking for majority consensus of the community simply because you and your tribe don't like the ideology of the statue Well, they don't like Biden, they want Trump, they feel entitled, so they not going to give a shit about obeying any damn rule of law or legal or electoral process , they are just going to do what they damn well please. You are either for the rule of law and democracy or you're for whatever you and your tribe thinks best at the moment.

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 2:32pm

Where is the threat?

I gave an opinion

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 3:05pm

"This is not about BLM"

Events don't happen in isolation from all other events and should be seen in a broader context. Like the twitter thread Arta linked the broader context is rule of Law or Mob rule. It has always seemed to me that you at least accept mob rule when you agree with the goal of the mob and want law to punish the mob when you disagree with it's goal. That's where Arta and I disagree with you. We all support police reform but Arta and I do not support mob violence to achieve it.

by ocean-kat on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 2:43pm

I understand the anger and frustration of the crowds after George Floyd

I never said that those who broke the law should not be jailed

Police abuse is real

The rioters in DC want to overturn an election based on lies.

Some of the rioters were police officers which gets me back to understanding the frustration and anger of the George Floyd protests

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 3:04pm

Arta and Okat would fit right in with the Knights of White Camelia around 1871:

"Look! Black (and white) BLM terrorists were running through the streets we saw them, scary, scary!"

"Don't look at the thousands of angry armed whites, with gallows set up w/ nooses, baseball bats, hockey sticks, homemade bombs, bullet proof vests, mace guns, ropes and handcuff ties, invading the Capitol and threatening elected representatives and the media as they destroy property, injure and kill law enforcement officers!"

by NCD on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:11pm

It is interesting

There are ongoing threats aimed at multiple Capitol buildings

The inauguration is in jeopardy

.........but, but BLM

The Woke are a bigger threat than the white supremacists

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 3:36pm

(to NCD) Where's this coming from? Much of the "BLM" protests were spoiled destructive white kids trying to pick up the baton - where many blacks didn't want them. And meanwhile the police were distracted or put on the back of their feet, so murders and other crimes skyrocketed. And this is exactly what AA's called out throughout the year. So enough with the Aunt Jemima accusations.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 3:38pm

Corrected it above, added whites to BLM.

Arta recently

It is not "Republicans", it's not even "white supremacists".

response to RM : "fight Giuliani yourself in hand-to-hand combat. I'd advise bringing the Wakanda Militia, that would scare him."

by NCD on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:13pm

Causation vs correlation

Crime went down with Stop and Frisk in NYC

Crime went down in cities that did not use Stop and Frisk

Crime did not increase with Stop and Frisk was stopped in NYC

Multiple cities have recent spikes in crime

Balitmore did not have spike nin crime after George Floyd

While homicides increased other violent crimes have gone down

There are likely other factors causing homicides spike other than police presence

There is no consensus on why homicides are increasing

https://www.vox.com/2020/8/3/21334149/murders-crime-shootings-protests-riots-trump-biden

The Vox article includes a graph of Chicago

Note that the was a dip in homicides followed by a rapid increase this occurred before the protests

(See black bar)

Homicides were increasing before the protests

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:48pm

"Don't look at the thousands of angry armed whites"

You are either a rather disgusting and stupid liar or you are too ignorant to read and understand other people's posts. I have never once said don't look at the thousands of armed whites. I very clearly called for every one of them to be arrested and jailed. Your problem with me is that I want the BLM rioters who were violent and looted and burned buildings arrested too. I'm against violent mobs no matter what color, black or white.

by ocean-kat on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:07pm

Thanks for that clarification. That was last year. It's over. Now we are dealing with a insurrection led by the President, who claims he won the presidential election in a landslide, an election in which you have said you wouldn't vote for Trump or Biden, as you hated Biden. Wondering if you now perceive a difference between the two.

by NCD on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:19pm

No clarification would be needed if your reading comprehension was higher than elementary school level and you didn't prefer lying about what people posted over rational dialog.

It's short term thinking that the mob violence today is totally unconnected to mob violence a couple of months ago. I try to look at long term trends, not to just react with emotion to single events.

by ocean-kat on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:33pm

OK never said he couldn't see a difference between the two. He said he didn't like it that Biden was such a mainstream sellout, which considering his credit card & insurance background and total non-rock-the-boat, and the time he undercut Harry Reid in the shut-down-gov game of chicken, he has a point. And so he didn't like either choice, and preferred to sit it out. I chose to vote for Biden. Part of politics is persuading people to vote for you, and scare of the alternative to vote mediocre does get old, as is Republicans running the car into the ditch and Dems having to repair - lather, rinse, repeat.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 4:29pm

The fundamental problem for the GOP is to find a way to argue for equal treatment under the law while preserving a special cache of privileges. They are not unique in this regard.

The obverse is not as easily declared.

by moat on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 5:26pm

There is zero short term political upside for @RepLizCheney. Up in the air if she's still conference chair on Friday. https://t.co/5rlwMfWDU6
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) January 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 11:54pm

Here’s the takeaway stat from the Axios poll: Josh Hawley underwater with Rs and not well liked even among Trumpy Republicans.

24-68 overall favorable
46-49 among Republicans
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 14, 2021

MO or nationally?
— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) January 14, 2021

National
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 14, 2021

Yep. Trumpism doesn’t stick to anyone else but Trump. No one can carry its mantle. Cruz and Hawley are idiots even by their own standards of success.
— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) January 14, 2021

They like Trump like a rock star or a comedian. It's about the show, it's completely irrational and culty. Does anyone ever take over a cult successfully?
— My issue is climate change (@MREathome) January 14, 2021

Rarely. Scientology, maybe. But most of the great flim-flam men have been one-hit wonders.
— Eric Morse (@eriq49) January 14, 2021

Flim flam man. Love that. So much less cool than con man.
— My issue is climate change (@MREathome) January 14, 2021

David Koresh
— LD Taylor (@SingleTaxTaylor) January 14, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 1:54am

While the cult and performance star element does underscore why it is difficult for others to inherit Trump supporters, there are other aspects to consider.

The transgressive nature of his attacks during campaign rallies and primary debates gave a way to say "Fuck your Feelings" nobody else was providing. The fans didn't care if Cruz's dad killed JFK, they loved that the guy said it with complete conviction and without apology. He indulged in a rhetoric of threats and intimidation that a private citizen has to refrain from if interested in having a job or staying out of jail. For many, politics became a way to live unavailable by other means.

One quality that permitted this orgy of irresponsibility to happen is the zelig quality Trump employed to deliver it. From the Rallies where he said "In the old days, we didn't let this kind of protest happen" to the "Good people on both sides" after Charlottesville, he lets people think what they think it means. He slips away from any responsibility as an agent of change. If you like him, he won't hate you. With those rules of transaction established, everybody could have their own version of what Trump was about. McConnell and Qanon could shop at the same gift store without friction.

While others like Goetz, Jordan, Nunes, and Gohmert try to use the same tricks, they cannot pull off the mirror like surface Trump presents. It just comes off as the pander that left the crowd so bored before the fun arrived.

The party is over.

by moat on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 12:58pm

really helpful input to that convo which I posted only because I found it intriguing

kind of ironic that they are losers without their chief loser. (inspired enough to go look up Cruz' approval ratings but the main Texas U polls haven't published any since October)

throw in that Biden will be trying to reach out to all and sundry, so they will get the obstructionist label without the dear leader with the special charisma

GOP truly does have to figure "something else"

aside: I guess I am complicit with the fuck your feelings zeitgeist, too old not to be elitist, don't give a shit if anyone else likes our little group analysis

by artappraiser on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 1:08pm

GOP lawmaker: Trump has no future in the Republican Party

BY JONATHAN EASLEY - @ TheHill.com, 01/13/21 04:40 PM EST

First-term Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Wednesday President Trump has "tarnished" his legacy and has no future in Republican Party politics.

Speaking on Fox News, Mace, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, said the president and some of his GOP allies in Congress were directly responsible for inciting the mob that overran the Capitol.

Mace was asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto if she thinks Trump has a future in the Republican Party.

“I do not,” she replied. “I don’t know how you go forward and defend the indefensible. What happened last week was a national tragedy.”

Mace hailed what she described as Trump’s accomplishments on the economy, lowering taxes and developing a vaccine, but said he had “wiped out” everything good he has done and that the party must now separate itself from him.

“I think the principles and ideas he espoused, we’re going to have to champion in the future, but without his support, his brand or his name,” Mace said. “It’s tarnished. I don’t know how you defend what he did last week by any means.”[....]

by artappraiser on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 2:21am

GOP defends fuckery of 4 years, pretending it was only this last bit that tarnished Trump. They've been as lawless as possible, including stealing Obama's Supreme Court and cheering the nasty treatment of immigrant kids, giving trillions to the wealthy, and not upholding the laws passed for any Obama legislation.they can go fuck themselves with their new narrative. The economy did not "do well" - it had some indicators to spread some wealth around, but real jobs with real benefits have sucked, and the safety net has gotten worse.

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 4:24am

Joe Scarborough tweeting a Peggy Noonan op-ed with a selected quote. (Keep in mind he served as the GOP rep. from FL-1 for four 4 terms, coming in with the Gingrich tide in 1994, thru 2002, was on major committees, and resigned for family reasons rather than disgust with the job):

“The distinguishing characteristic of the House Republican Caucus right now is that whenever you say, ‘Could they be that stupid?’ the answer—always—is, ‘Oh yes!’” https://t.co/57ihzUavL2
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 14, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 7:03pm

More stupid than you can shake a stick at, it seems

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_60005829c5b63642b7026784

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 7:24pm

analysis new polls of Republicans' (and general) approval of Hawley, Cruz and Pence:

[....] Hawley lost allies and a book deal, and he, like Cruz, faced high-profile calls for his resignation.

And now two new polls bolster that what may have seemed at the time like a sound political move — however craven — has earned Hawley few friends and many more enemies.

A poll from the Economist and YouGov shows that Hawley is still unfamiliar to many Americans, but among those who do have an opinion of him, it’s 2-to-1 negative. Thirty-five percent view him unfavorably, compared with 17 percent favorably.

The sentiment is similar in a poll from Axios and Ipsos. When people were asked whether they approved of the “recent behavior” of Hawley and other political figures, 68 percent disapproved, while just 24 percent approved.

Of course, to the extent that this was a political calculation, Hawley wasn’t necessarily trying to appeal to the broader electorate, as much as building a base within the GOP. Polling doesn’t indicate whether that has panned out, at least in the near term.

The Ipsos poll, in fact, shows that even Republicans are about evenly split on Hawley’s recent behavior, with 49 percent disapproving and 46 percent approving.

The YouGov poll is somewhat better for him, with 30 percent of Republicans having a favorable opinion of him and 16 percent having an unfavorable one.

But even in that survey, he doesn’t seem to have won over many people. Just 21 percent of Republicans have a “very favorable” opinion of him. He seems to have done much more to alienate the other side, with 54 percent of Democrats having a “very unfavorable” opinion of him.

Interestingly, Cruz fared somewhat better — at least with his own party. Although the Ipsos poll shows that all voters disapprove of his recent actions 65 percent to 30 percent, Republicans approve 61-36. But Cruz remains broadly unpopular, with the YouGov poll showing that Americans disapprove of him overall, 47 percent to 32 percent.

Hawley’s numbers are also notably worse inside the GOP than a man who made another key decision last week — but in the opposite direction. Vice President Pence rejected Trump’s entreaties to adopt another extraordinary measure [....]

But the vast majority of Republicans don’t seem to be holding that against Pence — despite Trump having criticized him for it. The Ipsos poll shows that 74 percent of Republicans approve of Pence’s recent behavior, compared with 25 percent who disapprove. [....]

from From bad to worse for Josh Hawley analysis by Aaron Blake @ WashingtonPost.com, Jan. 14

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 1:10am

Thread by Republican Congresswoman @HerreraBeutler...she voted to impeach President Trump. https://t.co/aqWgCUZ6pT
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) January 15, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 1:28am

Senator Lankford who enjoys a reputation as a GOP friend to Black Oklahoma leaders:

Letter is interesting/worth reading. Lankford has been really involved in the Tulsa reconciliation efforts and has enjoyed a rep as a GOP friend to Black Oklahoma leaders. https://t.co/hAfrfvtbSr
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) January 15, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 2:13am

Attacks on media was terrorism

Journalists planning to cover the inauguration next week or any of the numerous armed demos planned for Sunday should sign up for safety training. Please make sure you have the right gear, support & info before diving into a risky & unknown week. This is a good place to start https://t.co/eEMt1gIZqq
— Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) January 14, 2021

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 5:10am

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who planned to vote against certification of Biden, changed her vote after the violence

She laid the blame directly in Trump's lap

Ms. McMorris Rodgers’s remarks were particularly pointed.

“Thugs assaulted Capitol Police officers, breached and defaced our Capitol building, put people’s lives in danger and disregarded the values we hold dear as Americans,” Ms. McMorris Rodgers said in a statement, which she released a day after declaring she would object to the vote counts. “To anyone involved, shame on you.”

“What we have seen today is unlawful and unacceptable,” she added. “I have decided I will vote to uphold the Electoral College results, and I encourage Donald Trump to condemn and put an end to this madness.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/electoral-vote

reply

by rmrd0000 on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 12:25pm

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 3:36pm

Democrats are demanding an investigation to determine if Republicans in Congress provided aid and comfort to the insurrectionists.

You believe that these things cannot happen simultaneously?

by rmrd0000 on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 4:31pm

who are you talking to? not me. again, I'm the main one posting news on that very exact thing on a specific thread for it. You happened to post some actual news and I copied it onto the thread where I thought it more appropriate. Just like I would if someone posted it on twitter. I credited your find but I thought it misplaced.

How about if you read what I post on this site before asking stupid leading questions to a straw man. And I mean with an open, comprehending mind, rather than hunting in people's words for some straw man thing you are looking for. You could, as an alternate, find other people to talk to instead who like to do dittoes of your favorite simplistic partisan memes and just leave me to post articles and share more complex analysis with others.

You should go back and argue with Jeff somemore, he's like your perfect partisan doppelganger, you can trade partisan talking points jabs.

edit to add link

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 7:28pm

I told you why I created a separate post

Therefore I did not pay full attention to your post

I am not going to waste time arguing with you

Some members of the Democratic Party do not trust some members of the Republican Party

That is amazing

Those Democrats are not saying that they have policy differences

They suspect that some Republicans plotted to harm them

Mikie Sherrill, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerrold Nadler, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, all mention suspicions

Ali Alexander said that he had Republican help.

I am not cherry-picking words

Read what Pelosi said

I do not see the above facts as leading to a normally functioning Congress

by rmrd0000 on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 8:58pm

If you're not going to pay ttention to hers or argue with her, why are you over on her thread arguing with her?

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 01/16/2021 - 1:11am

Pew poll shows Republican approval of Trump going from a record 85 percent earlier in 2020 down to 60 percent - a 25 point decline pic.twitter.com/dF52AnLVvT
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) January 15, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 3:41pm

Imagine if Trump’s influence over the GOP faded away

Column by Paul Waldman @ WashingtonPost.com, Jan. 15

For some time, I’ve assumed that, after leaving office, President Trump would continue to dominate the Republican Party — not just in spirit but as a daily presence, maintaining the loyalty of much of its base and forcing its leaders to remain deferential to him lest they incur his wrath. But that has never looked less likely than it does right now.

For all Trump’s failures and misdeeds, before Jan. 6 there was every reason to believe that his hold on the party would be undiminished; that the members of the GOP base would be unflagging in their adoration for him. But the Capitol insurrection may have changed everything.

The Pew Research Center has released a large new poll taken after last Wednesday, and while it remains to be seen if the results hold up over time and in other surveys, they are remarkable:

Donald Trump is leaving the White House with the lowest job approval of his presidency (29%) and increasingly negative ratings for his post-election conduct. The share of voters who rate Trump’s conduct since the election as only fair or poor has risen from 68% in November to 76%, with virtually all of the increase coming in his “poor” ratings (62% now, 54% then).

Trump voters, in particular, have grown more critical of their candidate’s post-election conduct. The share of his supporters who describe his conduct as poor has doubled over the past two months, from 10% to 20%.

This is not to say that a wave of sanity has swept through the Republican electorate; 64 percent of Republicans still believe that Trump actually won the 2020 election. But his approval among his party has dropped to 60 percent, and when asked whether they’d like to see Trump remain a major political figure for years to come, only 57 percent of Republicans said yes, while 40 percent said no. (Overall, only 29 percent of those polled said they’ll like to see him remain a major figure.)

It appears that while Trump could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any support, the same could not be said of his inciting an insurrection.

The image of Trump’s most loyal supporters rampaging through the Capitol will haunt his post-presidency. The smashed windows, the overturned furniture, the Confederate flags, the police officers beaten, the deranged hatred for democracy itself — those will be the things Trump cannot escape with the rebranding he surely is already planning.

That Trump’s approval has fallen into the 20s (at least in this poll) inevitably reminds one of the last Republican president, who also left office in disgrace as he passed off multiple crises to his successor. When he departed, George W. Bush’s approval had also dipped that low; at one point Gallup recorded it at 25 percent.

Among other things, it meant that even Republicans who in the days after 9/11 had treated Bush like a kind of living god wanted no more to do with him. They started to highlight the times they had disagreed with his policy choices, and began claiming that he wasn’t a true conservative because he didn’t cut federal spending.

As time went on [....]

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 7:40pm

"Impeach him. Convict him. Remove him from office and bar him from holding federal office ever again. The man is not fit to serve and we all know it."- Eric, a Republican from Idaho pic.twitter.com/2ZuT83uLy3
— Republican Voters Against Trumpism (@RVAT2020) January 12, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 8:46pm

"Trump's words have ignited the worst parts of this country ... What happened down in Washington last week just makes me ill."- Jeffrey, Republican from Pennsylvania pic.twitter.com/8eodqsgxfF
— Republican Voters Against Trumpism (@RVAT2020) January 16, 2021

Thank you for doing the right thing, @TomRiceSC7. https://t.co/0NvM2Jq1xg
— Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) January 14, 2021

"We must never allow this to happen again and we must hold all who assisted accountable ... But most of all, we must hold Trump accountable. And that starts now."- Brandon from Kansas pic.twitter.com/ZFNUkfmZd5
— Republican Voters Against Trumpism (@RVAT2020) January 15, 2021

"I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That is the same oath that the members of Congress take, the oath which most in the Republican party violated." - Keith from Kansas pic.twitter.com/43dQCVPC64
— Republican Voters Against Trumpism (@RVAT2020) January 15, 2021

“For McConnell, his best course of action is to diminish Trump’s hold on the party going forward."

“I think his signal yesterday–as Liz Cheney did–is to encourage as many Republicans to vote for impeachment as possible.” – @AccountableGOP Executive Director @SarahLongwell25 https://t.co/WQrFXrn9t2
— Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) January 14, 2021

@AccountableGOP Co-Director @NeuSummits:

"I would strongly encourage any R official that has a platform & followers who believe the election was stolen, please, please, please, tell them it was not."

"This isn't about politics, this is about preventing the next set of attacks." pic.twitter.com/a1z6mexb9G
— Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) January 15, 2021

“This new belief system is unfalsifiable. It is virulent. It convinces people to take drastic actions that ruin their lives. And because this system has the support—sometimes outright, sometimes tacit—of the Republican party, it is in its expansion phase.” https://t.co/5moaC2S1Bb
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 15, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 8:53pm

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.): Trump “did not strongly condemn the attack nor did he call in reinforcements when our officers were overwhelmed,” Newhouse said in a statement explaining why he would vote for impeachment. https://t.co/s0W3u8tExO
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) January 16, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 01/15/2021 - 9:31pm

a writer at Reason complains that in the AZ GOP the that the Trump-and-like-politician cultists have totally taken over, leaving libertarians nowhere to go:

The organization has devolved from skepticism toward government to veneration of politicians.https://t.co/E5boobsmfG
— reason (@reason) January 17, 2021

by artappraiser on Sat, 01/16/2021 - 9:44pm

Ben Sasse vs. Rand Paul:

"We can be the party of Eisenhower, or the party of the conspiracist Alex Jones. We can applaud Officer Goodman or side with the mob he outwitted. We cannot do both."

-- @BenSasse:https://t.co/PGvOE8Azba
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) January 17, 2021

Sasse: The insurrection was “not a protest gone awry or the work of ‘a few bad apples...It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice.” https://t.co/7QSd2SAalN
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 17, 2021

.@RandPaul: One-third of Republicans will leave party if GOP senators go along with convicting Trump.https://t.co/V0EElzzRKw
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 16, 2021

He brings up valid points. https://t.co/Pkshn2RVcG
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 17, 2021

by artappraiser on Sun, 01/17/2021 - 9:32am

Both observations are true. Paul is one of the cowards Sasse is referring to.

by moat on Sun, 01/17/2021 - 11:44am

Ross Douhat: Could Mitch McConnell Get to Yes? Why the Republican leader should be tempted by the Senate’s opportunity to bar Trump from running for president again. Jan. 16 @ NYTimes.com

[....]The point wouldn’t be to punish Trump or alter the majority leader’s public reputation or create a moment for the history books. It would be to use a power that Senate Republicans have now, and will presumably never have again — the power to guarantee that Trump cannot be a candidate for president four years from now, which can be accomplished by a simple majority vote following a Senate conviction.

As a political move this would be a gamble whose costs can be easily foreseen. It would cast Trump as a martyr to the perfidious Republican establishment, and so struck down, he could potentially emerge more influential (with some of his supporters, at least) than before. Some of the scenarios I wrote about earlier this week, where the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot actually breaks the G.O.P., could follow from Trump’s conviction by the Senate: A surge of grass-roots rage, a raft of Trumpist primary campaigns against reality-based Republicans, and eventually the nomination of Don Jr., and a real schism, in 2024.

However, one of the striking things about Trump’s popular power is that it hasn’t been easily shared or transferred. There are various Trump-y figures flitting around the House of Representatives (from Matt Gaetz to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon congresswoman) and various senators and governors who have adopted bits and pieces from the Trumpist potpourri. But there’s nothing like a coherent Trumpist movement in the party, the way the Tea Party movement existed for a time as a reasonably coherent force. Trump’s inner circle has retained the misfit-toys quality that characterized his closest support in 2016, and lately it has shrunk enough to barely fill a presidential helicopter.

Meanwhile, long before his electoral defeat most of the Trumpist policy agenda had been diminished or discarded, reducing Trumpism’s animating purpose to its leader’s mere occupation of the White House — which enabled his supporters to “win” against a baffled, freaked-out liberal establishment by simply holding power in defiance of every norm and expectation [....]

by artappraiser on Sun, 01/17/2021 - 5:54pm

meanwhile Senator Lindsey Graham hath penned a letter to The Honorable Charles Schumer (and advertised it on Twitter):

My letter to Democratic Leader Schumer.

The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise. pic.twitter.com/fjVcf7iVPf
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 17, 2021

by artappraiser on Sun, 01/17/2021 - 7:09pm

Justin Amash gearing up to split off some voters, see tweets posted for several days around these two:

The GOP isn’t getting better anytime soon. If you’re a Republican who’s had enough, join me in the Libertarian Party. Reach out to me. I’m happy to answer questions about making the switch. We’re readying to make a big impact over the next few years.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) January 14, 2021

I’m committed to making the Libertarian Party a place for people of all backgrounds, with a diversity of views, commonly dedicated to fundamental American principles like individual liberty, the Rule of Law, and divided powers. Help reshape politics by joining us at @LPNational.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) January 15, 2021

by artappraiser on Mon, 01/18/2021 - 2:20am

Fractured by Trump, the G.O.P. Can’t Agree on a Way Back to Power

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