"Bad money drives out good," and cynical, thuggish and/or pandering elected representatives drive out the ones with a speck of backbone.
Mitt Romney was one of the few with a spine, or at least cartilage. He's decided he won't run again. An upcoming biography shares the details of his Senate peers, fellow Republicans, who privately expressed their concerns about Donald Trump, Trumpism as a movement and related topics -- and then went on TV or the Senate floor and enthusiastically supported the latest whim. Senators with degrees from Harvard and Yale who never swung a hammer or washed a single dish, expressing contempt for "elite rulers" and professing their solidarity with the working man in public while privately living the high life on the public's dime, fretful of growing authoritarianism but unwilling to risk their cushy spot by opposing it.
It sounds like a working environment that would test the steeliest of wills. And Senator Romney is only the latest in a long list of senior Republicans -- and a few Democrats - who have stepped away since 2016.
We're losing statespeople. We're gaining operators, punks, thugs and mooks.
And a large segment of the public loves being buffaloed, cheering for a chance to hit back at whatever target fits the feelings of the moment. How large? Guess we'll find out, by and by.
Update
6 days ago
2 comments:
I wonder how much the current health issues of Biden, McConnell, and Feinstein had to do with his decision.
Anonymous, I'll give you Mr. McConnell and Ms. Feinstein, but the President's health is a matter of public record. I'm not a doctor, but he appears to be in decent shape for a man his age. He's a lifelong stammerer and never was the most facile of public speakers.
Post a Comment