Ben Sasse's letter that he published on Twitter today gives me hope that we might yet figure out how to make ambition counteract ambition. As Richard Cranium highlighted out of this letter, Sasse wrote: "We are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust". Sasse has a famous appreciation of dumpster fires, and may be outspoken and ambitious enough to finally do some actual good about right now.
We all know that that Republican leaders are totally incompetent, have the judgment of drunk teenagers, and are complete cowards. As cowards, they all have plenty of personal reasons (e.g. 2018 congressional elections, Mitch McConnell's conflict of interest with Elaine Chao's appointment as Secretary of Transportation). As a party, Republicans recognize they have a fleeting chance to have a decisive majority, and they owe it to Trump. Trump delivered Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania; states that Paul Ryan wasn’t able to help secure as Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 election. Trump has showed them they can have everything they want, and is demonstrating to them just how craven they can be. As Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters". Trump delivered.
The danger (for them) is outlined in David Frum's piece in The Atlantic:
Trump has scant interest in congressional Republicans’ ideas, does not share their ideology, and cares little for their fate. He can—and would—break faith with them in an instant to further his own interests. Yet here they are, on the verge of achieving everything they have hoped to achieve for years, if not decades.
They owe this chance solely to Trump’s ability to deliver a crucial margin of votes in a handful of states—Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—which has provided a party that cannot win the national popular vote a fleeting opportunity to act as a decisive national majority.
(note: if the full article is tl;dr for you, here's a summarized version of Frum's article)
Frum notes that the government as a whole will almost certainly follow through on clear evidence of illegal activity. Republican's best chance to keep the magic alive: their utmost not to find out about it. Paul Ryan tried to rebel, but he learned to fall in line:
Following the airing of Trump’s past comments, caught on tape, about his forceful sexual advances on women, Ryan said he’d no longer campaign for Trump. Ryan’s net favorability rating among Republicans dropped by 28 points in less than 10 days. Once unassailable in the party, he suddenly found himself disliked by 45 percent of Republicans.
As Ryan’s cherished plans move closer and closer to presidential signature, Congress’s subservience to the president will likely intensify. Whether it’s allegations of Russian hacks of Democratic Party internal communications, or allegations of self-enrichment by the Trump family, or favorable treatment of Trump business associates, the Republican caucus in Congress will likely find itself conscripted into serving as Donald Trump’s ethical bodyguard.
Sasse's letter declaring a “civilization-warping crisis of public trust” is off-script, but isn’t his first time. His dumpster fire comment probably didn’t earn him any points with the dumpster fire in the Oval Office. Sasse may have spotted the opportunity to gain national prominence by not being a conformist, and propel himself outside of relative obscurity by positioning himself as a principled opponent to Trump.
To be clear, what little I’ve learned about Sasse doesn’t give me hope. Snape’s “Rising Star” post from a couple years ago makes me a little fearful of lauding Sasse. As pollwatcher pointed out: “We need to stop this Republican worship every time they make one of these pearl clutching statements about how serious the situation is and how they're so damn concerned...” But as agnostic pointed out: “His words were so carefully chosen, one- to not piss off the Gropingfuhrer, and two- to leave open the unspoken. A realization that scares them and dominates their private conversations: That our president is mentally incapable of holding office.”
Frum makes the case that "Ambition will counteract ambition only until ambition discovers that conformity serves its goals better." Perhaps Sasse is taking a play out of Barry Goldwater’s book, and maybe he’s ready to declare that Trump “should get his ass out of the White House-today!"