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The past month of political theater from elected GOPers is emblematic of damage they've wreaked on our institutions for the past decade.
People who are ultimately unaccountable for their actions ratcheting things up to 11, with no effective gatekeepers to hold them in check.
People who are ultimately unaccountable for their actions ratcheting things up to 11, with no effective gatekeepers to hold them in check.
Nobody actually responsible for management or certification of elections has indulged POTUS's attempt at autogolpe. There were the 2 Wayne canvassers who briefly took that step, but they reversed course. When they "tried" to reverse that, they knew the horse had left the stable.
In Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the people ultimately accountable have held firm. The people who have no actual power to challenge the outcome have made a show of fighting the result. It's telling.
They know polarization has given them constituencies who either support their actions or, like some people I know, consider it pure political theater but within legality...therefore no harm, no foul.
They have no incentive to course correct, whatsoever.
They have no incentive to course correct, whatsoever.
Welcome to the past decade of GOP national politics. Congressmen and Senators grandstanding with extremist, or otherwise obstructionist positions, knowing full-well none of the policies they promoted for the rubes at home would ever pass into law.
How many Obamacare repeals did the House vote on? They knew these efforts would never pass the Senate, or Obama. They could vote & vote & vote and not take away anyone's healthcare. In 2017, with full control of government & no serious replacement plan, they couldn't repeal it.
The government shutdown in 2013 should have imposed consequences, but the disastrous ACA launch bailed them out. Following their recapture of the Senate in 2014, there was nothing but obstruction. And show votes they knew Obama would veto.
A while back I did a thread (since deleted) about how power in GOP presidential primaries had shifted from governors to senators. It's because governors who hew to the hardline positions espoused by people like Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton end up like Sam Brownback and Bobby Jindal.
Conversely, people like Cruz, Cotton, Josh Hawley, and half a dozen others in Congress have long been able to grandstand on extremist positions, and now support Donald Trump's illiberal, un-democratic actions without owning the consequences for those actions.
And that's also where the courts come into play. Put folks into positions from where they cannot be removed, who have no qualms about making decisions of consequence. It allows cowards like Ted Cruz from having to cast votes passing policies with negative consequences into law.
The 2013 shutdown was Ted Cruz's attempt to position himself as an extreme fiscal conservative for the 2016 primary. Purely cynical theater for personal gain. And the country suffered for it. https://twitter.com/mitrebox/status/1336506948108349443
And there are no media gatekeepers anymore. Fox has obviously been all too willing to indulge it for more than a decade. And there's no turning back, lest they lose the crazed segment of their audience to Starship Troopers-esque pro-Trump propaganda shops.
In any event, the worst actors continue to not face consequences for their words and actions. They know defiance of Trump will cost them their office, and that playing along won't hurt them at all.
And at the state level, people like David Shafer and Doug Collins see this "game" as an opportunity to win Trump's support against incumbent Republicans in 2022. They know it won't work; they know he won't win. So what's the harm?
Just our constitutional democracy I suppose.
Just our constitutional democracy I suppose.
