I saw somewhere the reminder that the 2016 "never Trumper" Scott Walker was now an ex-"never Trumper" which I have to say doesn't surprise me. There are so many of those in the Republican Party - Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, sometimes that revolving door of temporary expediency Mitt Romney, etc. - that I'd forgotten about the putrid Paul LePage of Wisconsin.
There are some Republicans, or ex-Republicans, "principled conservatives" who have been resolute and not hypocritical about that, their Lincoln Project and similar efforts have been much welcomed, I am grateful to them for those and I do admit that they gain some credibility for that.
But what happens if Democrats win big and take the elected offices, the Presidency, the Senate and House, many State Legislatures and Governorships, etc. When Democrats start doing what Democrats elected them to do - and that's not to get the talking heads of CNN happy - what will the resolute never-Trumpers do when the Democrats don't go along with what was a main-stream conservative agenda? I mean those who have supported Biden-Harris in order to stop the mad-man their (former) party put into power and who their fellow Republicans wouldn't investigate or remove even as he was not only a demonstrated criminal but also a traitor in the pocket of the enemies of American democracy, OF AMERICAN ELECTIONS!
I think that unless these conservatives own up to the fact that it is their party, the power-structure they were a part of which brought us here, the Republican promoting media, the networks, the cabloids, the gutter press from the National Enquirer, FOX, Sinclair, numerous local hate-talk radio venues up to and including the New York Times, NPR and PBS that those are the things that brought us to Trump their never-Trumpism will deserve the quotes as much as Scott Walker's did. I don't remember too many of them expressing the same kind of outrage when Walker in Wisconsin, the Republicans in Michigan and Maine were doing Trumpian things on the state level that Trump did nationally.
More telling is that I don't remember too many of them really being vocally opposed to the Citizens United or other Supreme Court decisions WHICH MANY ON THE LEFT POINTED OUT OPENED UP THE COUNTRY AND OUR ELECTIONS TO FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN A DANGEROUS WAY.
Unless they really own up to the fact that their own, main-stream conservatism was the vehicle that got us to Trump they really aren't opposed to it happening again. As I've been pointing out, if Trump had been every bit as evil as he is but was competent and crafty, things might look better but they would be far, far worse than they are now. If they are not willing to admit that their ideas are what led us to a Trump, any of us is rightfully suspicious of their intentions and their real objections to what their party has done to this country.
The never-Trump (former) Republicans will soon come to the real test of their sincerity. I would say that it reminds me of the real test of the American left that I have pointed to ever since I started this public writing, whether they would really want to make progress by winning elections, something the American left seems to be unwilling to do for going on more than a century. I have been unsparing in my criticism of the American left of which I am arguably a member, though I'm far to the left of that since I know that what happens in reality is more radical than anything that happens in theory or in the typical play-lefty play-time imaginings which will never happen. The American right has had power so their lapses are ever so much more dangerous than those of the play-left. Now is the time for them to find if they can do what the play-left seems incapable of doing, looking at the results of what they have done and learning from the dangers they have created.
No comments:
Post a Comment