As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
As more rats jump ship, the Republican Party becomes the purest extension of the ego and whims of narcissistic moron Donald "Rump" Trump:
... Since Trump’s inauguration, a Washington Post analysis shows, nearly 40 percent of the 241 Republicans who were in office in January 2017 are gone or leaving because of election losses, retirements including former House speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), and some, such as [Michigan Rep. Paul] Mitchell, who are simply quitting in disgust.
The vast turnover is a reminder of just how much Trump has remade the GOP — and of the purge of those who dare to oppose him. Former congressman Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) lost his June 2018 primary after challenging Trump; he’s now a Republican presidential candidate. Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), the only Republican to accuse Trump of impeachable acts, quit the GOP in July citing the “partisan death spiral.” His political future is uncertain. [snip]The retirement numbers are particularly staggering. All told, 41 House Republicans have left national politics or announced they won’t seek reelection in the nearly three years since Trump took office. That dwarfs the 25 Democrats who retired in the first four years of former president Barack Obama’s tenure — and Republicans privately predict this is only the beginning.
They preferred it when dog whistles were used and the quiet parts weren't said out loud.Most of the departing Republicans publicly cite family as the reason for leaving. But behind the scenes, Republicans say the trend highlights a greater pessimism about the direction of the party under Trump — and their ability to win back the House next year.
Dave Leonhardt has just the facts about Trump, in 40 sentences. Here are his last 10:
He obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign.
He violated federal law by directing his lawyer to pay $280,000 in hush money to cover up two apparent extramarital affairs.
He made his fortune partly through wide-scale financial fraud.
He has refused to release his tax returns.
He falsely accused his predecessor of wiretapping him.
He claimed that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence, thereby damaging the credibility of criminal investigations across the country.
He has ordered children to be physically separated from their parents.
He has suggested that America is no different from or better than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
He has called America a “hellhole.”
Conservative academic Tom Nichols focuses on the Trump-Ukraine scandal and what it should lead to:He is the president of the United States, and he is a threat to virtually everything that the United States should stand for.
As the Ukrainian Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko told the Daily Beast when asked about the president’s apparent requests, “Clearly, Trump is now looking for kompromat to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison.”
Clearly.
If this in itself is not impeachable, then the concept has no meaning. Trump’s grubby commandeering of the presidency’s fearsome and nearly uncheckable powers in foreign policy for his own ends is a gross abuse of power and an affront both to our constitutional order and to the integrity of our elections.
The story may even be worse than we know. If Trump tried to use military aid to Ukraine as leverage, as reporters are now investigating, then he held Ukrainian and American security hostage to his political vendettas. It means nothing to say that no such deal was reached; the important point is that Trump abused his position in the Oval Office.
In this matter, we need not rely on a newspaper account, nor even on the complaint, so far unseen, of a whistle-blower. Instead, we have a sweaty, panicked admission on national television by Trump’s bizarre homunculus, Rudy Giuliani, that he did in fact seek such an investigation on Trump’s behalf. Giuliani later again confirmed Trump’s role, tweeting that a “President telling a Pres-elect of a well known corrupt country he better investigate corruption that affects US is doing his job.”The blabbering buffoon has now admitted he talked about Joe Biden in his call to the Ukrainian President. We rest our case.
Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog tells us the Trump-Ukraine smear is a foreshadowing that should wake Joe Biden up to reality:
What's ironic about all this is that Biden -- the only major Democratic presidential candidate who thinks he'll be able to work easily with Republicans if he's elected -- is the first candidate to be treated the way Republicans will treat any Democrat who manages to be elected president. The current thuggishness has the stylistic hallmarks of Trump, but notice that much of the party is closing ranks around Trump and trying to turn this into a smear on Biden. The GOP's propaganda arm, Fox News, is all in on the smear.
Joe, this is what your presidency will be like starting the moment you're sworn in. Every other top Democrat understands what's coming if they win. None of them expect to deal with the opposition party in good faith. They know that the fever won't break after the campaign is over.
You've gotten the first real taste of what a Democratic presidency will be like starting in 2021, if it happens. Any second thoughts about your plans to pal around with Mitch McConnell and the rest of the gang?Finally, please check out Infidel 753's latest link round- up for the best collection of interesting items you'll see until his next round- up. We thought we'd share a picture of the Oregon coast that he links to just for it's soul- cleansing power (click on image to enlarge):
Now, head on over there!
2 comments:
The more Republicans who resign or retire, the better. But I refuse to let them off the hook. If they're leaving because they don't like where their party is right now and they don't like being a pawn for Trump, then they ought to stand up and say so. None of this “spend more time with family” or “focus on local issues”, because they're supposed to represent family and local issues as Congresspeople.
If you're quitting, explain why and stop covering for the Party of Corruption. It's disgusting and cowardly, and you'll do more harm than good.
donnah -- you're right; they were happy to go along with the ugly devolution of their party for decades, up to and including the point where they got the Orange Menace as the purest form of Republicanism, as long as they got tax cuts for the rich and could stick it to the libs. But they don't have the guts or ethical cojones to challenge his autocratic behavior. Good riddance.
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