No. of Recommendations: 9
If none of these options are appealing, why are these mythical moderate Republican not responding by hitting the eject button? By doing the right thing over the remaining months of the term, accepting a primary defeat or general election defeat in 2024 and walking away on January 1, 2025?
Because they're more aligned with the GOP than the Democrats.
I would say yes and no.
Someone who still identifies themselves as a moderate Republican is likely doing so out of pure political / rhetorical "muscle memory" rather than reality. In fact, they have likely completely lost their political (and moral) bearings. In my standard visual analogy of America's artificially simplified system, "politics" have been boiled down to a reverse game of football with "points" measured in movement in a single plane with each team trying to drag the opponent towards their endzone. For play by play simplicity, everyone refers to the two directions on that plane as "left" and "right" but at this point, the labels are meaningless -- they could be "entertainment elites" versus "natural resource plunderers" or any arbitrary terms.
From the beginning of the 1900s, the ideas debated on the field might have reflected positions at nearly any point across the width of the field, endzone to endzone, but the vast majority of political scrimmaging took place between the 35 yard lines and much of that between say the 45 and 45. That's the field moderate Republicans still THINK they're playing on and the position they think they're holding. In reality, the fringe of the Republican party so bent on unwinding "left"-centered programs, policies and precedents has become so focused on becoming "anti" anything labeled as "left", that fringe has morphed into a force which actually is working to dismantle nearly every aspect of government. And if they can't win at the ballot box to dismantle old legislation and policies with new legislation, they have discovered they can simply interfere with the operation of the government itself and grind it to a halt, achieving 70% of the desired result. MOST DANGEROUSLY, they have discovered it is possible to achieve that interference not only from a minority position in the larger two-party charade but even as a minority faction within the Republican caucus.
The process of pursuing this roll-back and interfering with the daily operation of government, courts, education systems, etc. has stirred up so much dust over the last 15-20 years, the "field" is now completely obscured but these mythical moderates still think they're plugging away somewhere around the fifty yard line. In reality, the line of scrimmage has moved to about the ten yard line of the "right" side yet the right doesn't acknowledge it and continues screaming for more rollbacks to the good ol' days. They are no longer content dragging the country to their endzone, they want to end the game entirely and move to a new stadium in a much rougher part of town.
There's no way a true "moderate Republican" who used to support a strong defense, guardrails around Russia to protect our European allies, appropriate taxes to build highways and infrastructure to support industry, and yes a lighter regulatory touch rather than a heavier one would recognize the aims of today's Republican Party, much less support them.
* rolling back civil rights and voting protections as if 1964 never happened?
* withdrawing aid from Ukraine and allowing Russia to swallow an ally?
* blocking disaster relief to American states as political punishment?
* nominating Speaker candidates who voted to ignore the ballots of MILLIONS of Americans in multiple states?
* what happened to "thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican?"
If Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan attended the next Republican convention, they would be dragged off the podium and dumped outside by MAGA goons as leftist pansies.
It's the portion of the Republican Party (elected officials and voters) reflected by that cowering faction of 50-100 votes in the House who are enabling their party to be highjacked by this fringe minority. It's the political equivalent of continuing to drive the getaway car for a bank robber even after discovering they have no gun and you have the upper hand.
WTH
