Republican politicians are not good people.

They’re not brave people.

They’re not leaders.

They’re not “pro-life”

They’re not “Christian”

They’re not free-thinkers

Republican politicians embrace a form of populism that both encourages the worst in people and delivers the worst in government.

Republican politicians are pack animals following whatever leader they’re afraid of most.

Yes, many Democrats are terrible as well. But at least in the Democratic Party we see a diversity of ideas, challenges to the status quo, and healthy debate among its members.

The realities of COVID have shown how awful the Republican Party really is. Rather than view a pandemic as a threat that transcends politics, we’ve seen Republicans rejecting basic science, reason and human decency in ways that are killing hundreds of thousands.

Those Republicans who do seem to realize it’s a threat remain silent at the worst antics of their party and seek not to improve our response, but attack Democrats for it not being perfect.

It is rare that any of these Republican politicians can have a nuanced discussion of issues or take an authentic and strong position that contradicts people they’re afraid of offending.

For all their macho bravado and supposed embrace of individualism and free thought, the party is now the party of groupthink and fear where even the people who pretend to be outliers only do so when it comes at no political cost.