Mac1958
Diamond Member
Republican politicians have largely been afraid to admit that Biden won. Right now I think there's around 6 or 7 who have had the balls to do so. The reason for this blatant cowardice isn't exactly a secret: They're afraid that Trump and the Trumpsters will go after them.
(Parenthetically, here's yet another reason why we should have strict term limits: These people would surely behave differently if their top two priorities were not (a) fundraising and (b) re-election)
Anyway, this piece goes over it pretty well:
“It’s very difficult for Republicans whose leader got 71 million votes, the most by any Republican standard-bearer ever, to simply just turn their backs on him,” Timothy Naftali, the founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, told the New York Times. “The issue is now not so much Trump as loyalty to Trumpism. And I think that’s why you see the contortions now. If you’re a Republican and you get this wrong, you’re going to be primaried out.”
If we want to see how the primary politics of this play out, look no further than one that’s already in its early stages: the next Republican presidential primary, in which hopefuls like Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are not just keeping their silence, but actively spreading the voter fraud myths pushed by the Trump campaign. The irony for their presidential aspirations is that, even as they try to appeal to the base by aggressively backing the president, they’re fueling the martyr myth that would make the base choose Trump over them in 2024.
(Parenthetically, here's yet another reason why we should have strict term limits: These people would surely behave differently if their top two priorities were not (a) fundraising and (b) re-election)
Anyway, this piece goes over it pretty well:
Republicans Have No Way to Get Off the Trump Train
They'll still need to keep MAGA supporters happy after the Georgia Senate runoffs.
slate.com
“It’s very difficult for Republicans whose leader got 71 million votes, the most by any Republican standard-bearer ever, to simply just turn their backs on him,” Timothy Naftali, the founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, told the New York Times. “The issue is now not so much Trump as loyalty to Trumpism. And I think that’s why you see the contortions now. If you’re a Republican and you get this wrong, you’re going to be primaried out.”
If we want to see how the primary politics of this play out, look no further than one that’s already in its early stages: the next Republican presidential primary, in which hopefuls like Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are not just keeping their silence, but actively spreading the voter fraud myths pushed by the Trump campaign. The irony for their presidential aspirations is that, even as they try to appeal to the base by aggressively backing the president, they’re fueling the martyr myth that would make the base choose Trump over them in 2024.