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- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 6
Mitch McConnell, who once scorchingly denounced Donald Trump, has now endorsed him, saying he had “the requisite support” of G.O.P. voters.
With the erstwhile Republican party it is always party above country.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Yeah, I just don't get that.
For me (I won't speak for anyone else), if -say- Menendez was running for POTUS against McConnell, I would have to hold my nose and vote McConnell. If he were running against Trump, I'd not vote at all since they are comparably slimy (arguably, Trump is better at it).
But Reps today fall in line behind the "R" candidate, no matter how bad he/she is. I at least can have some respect for the Lincoln Project republicans. They aren't falling in line. They see the king has no clothes, and they are trying to make everyone else see. They aren't RINOs, they actually care about their party.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Yeah, I just don't get that.
Seems pretty obvious to me. If you believe that Republican policies are best for the country, then even the worst of Republicans will be better for the country than almost any Democrat.
So it's perfectly consistent for someone in the party to think a given candidate is one of the worst possible Republicans to nominate for a particular post - but if they win, they're still a better choice (given the GOP's beliefs about what's good for the country) than the opponent.
No. of Recommendations: 1
If you believe that Republican policies are best for the country, then even the worst of Republicans will be better for the country than almost any Democrat.
Trump already disproved that notion. Trump did tremendous harm, mostly because he insisted on trying to govern through EOs instead of, ya know, passing bills. Yes, they did get the SCOTUS, but that was mostly McConnell. Trump made us a laughing stock, he weakened our alliances, he strengthened/emboldened our enemies...the list is pretty long.
You're talking about a normal Republican. Like McConnell. I would get them lining up behind him. I think he's despicable, but he also is capable.
Trump seems to be more like a cult of personality, like Jim Jones or David Koresh, or even Joseph Smith. I don't like using the word "cult", but that's what it seems to be. Joseph Smith is especially apt because they knew at the time that he was a con-man, but they built a whole church around him anyway.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Trump already disproved that notion. Trump did tremendous harm, mostly because he insisted on trying to govern through EOs instead of, ya know, passing bills. Yes, they did get the SCOTUS, but that was mostly McConnell. Trump made us a laughing stock, he weakened our alliances, he strengthened/emboldened our enemies...the list is pretty long.
Better than Clinton, if you're a Republican.
It doesn't matter how ineffective your party's candidate is. If they do nothing in their four years in office, it's still better for what you want than letting the opposing party have four years in the chair. All of the appointments, all of the department heads, all of the policy decisions - even if they're not advancing your goals, at least they're not reversing things you want.
Again, if your views of what's good for the country lean strongly towards the GOP perspective, then even the worst of Republicans is better for the country than even the best of Democrats. For a bury-the-needle conservative like McConnell, he'd rather have Trump in office than Biden any day of the week and twice on Sunday - even though he'd rather have any Republican other than Trump.
No. of Recommendations: 2
For a bury-the-needle conservative like McConnell, he'd rather have Trump in office than Biden any day of the week and twice on Sunday - even though he'd rather have any Republican other than Trump.
Which is inconsistent with what he said 4 years ago after the Capitol was besieged. At the minimum, he strongly implied Trump was responsible, and -as I recall- delivered a monotone, but scorching, speech about it. And now he's saying "better an insurrectionist than a Democrat"? That amounts to treason in my book.
It's not that Trump did nothing. In doing nothing, he made things on several fronts far worse (e.g. Russia, China, South China Sea, trade relations, NATO, tariffs that hurt farmers, etc). Plus he appointed a bunch of crooks to positions of power, many of whom he later had to pardon when they got caught. How can any thinking person regard that as "better", unless they are a mindless drone of their party?
I would rather have McConnell than Menendez, for example, because Menendez is openly corrupt, and does not have the best interest of this country at heart. Same as Trump. I may not agree with McConnell about much, but I'm pretty sure he wants what he thinks is best for the country.
As a rather shaky analogy, if my wife is going to leave me for another man, I'd rather it be a good man than a wife-beater. Trump is a wife beater (at least metaphorically for this illustration).
No. of Recommendations: 3
How can any thinking person regard that as "better", unless they are a mindless drone of their party?
Because by being in power instead of Hillary Clinton, he kept the Democrats from implementing any of their policy preferences or objectives through the Executive for four years. If you are a Republican and believe that GOP policies and preferences are significantly better for the country than those of Democrats, you are going to regard that as far better than the alternative.
I'm sure McConnell thinks that Trump is loathsome - and that a loathsome Republican is still better for the country than Joe Biden.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Although I realized what Trump would be in 2016, I get that many others didn't. I'm not talking about 2016. In 2020, enough people saw Trump for what he was that they showed up in record numbers to defeat him. So now we're in 2024, and everyone should know about Trump. I'm genuinely surprised that Trump will take the nomination. Initially there were several candidates that weren't BSC. Or, like Haley, only somewhat BSC.
We know what Trump is now. Most people do. A serial felon, with more charges pending trial, only interested in himself and his enemies list, and pardoning himself. McConnell is letting his ex-wife go with a wife-beater, to continue my analogy, without any objection. That is just disgraceful. The Lincoln Project Republicans are patriots because they are putting nation before party, even if they don't like the Dems.
No. of Recommendations: 2
McConnell is letting his ex-wife go with a wife-beater, to continue my analogy, without any objection.
Elections are a choice. So if that's your analogy, there has to be a choice - an alternative that the ex-wife could have gone with. And so continuing the analogy, McConnell is letting his ex-wife go with a wife-beater instead of a wife-murderer.
That's the key point. For someone who genuinely believes that Democratic policy positions and choices would be bad for the country, any Republican - even a very bad Republican - is better for the country than letting a Democrat win. This dynamic is mocked as "party over country," but that ignores the reality that most partisans genuinely believe that keeping the other party out of power is best for the country also.
I'm sure McConnell regards Trump as loathsome and terrible, and maybe even bad for the country - but I'm equally certain that he regards Joe Biden as bad for the country. Not because Biden is loathsome and terrible, but because Biden holding the office means that all of the personnel and policy choices and permanent appointments from the Executive over the next four years will near-uniformly reflect Democratic priorities, which McConnell generally disagrees with.
