One paragraph jumped out at me in this E.J. Dionne, Jr. Washington Post OpEd “The Trump coverup no one is talking about: The emperor has no money” which is about Trump’s failure on infrastructure. What got me thinking had nothing to do with the point of Dionne’s essay. This is the first paragraph below. For context I’ve included the next two paragraphs although they aren’t related to my point.
This fact underscores a widespread misunderstanding about our politics. “Normal” Republicans are regularly described as privately horrified with Trump. Trump is said to have engaged in “a hostile takeover” of the GOP.
In fact, it’s Trump who has been taken over. He campaigned as a different kind of Republican, and his infrastructure promise was a major component of his antiideological image. But on all the things the ideologues and right-wing business interests care about — tax cuts, corporatist judges, deregulation — Trump caves in.
We know the president’s boast that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any votes.” Perhaps Republicans in Congress wouldn’t go that far. Otherwise, they’ll keep standing with him as long as he prostrates himself before their tax-cutting god, even if this means showing he is too weak and powerless to fix the roads.
Horrified is a strong word as these synonyms illustrate:
1 she loved to horrify us with tales of ghastly happenings: frighten, scare, terrify, petrify, alarm, panic, terrorize, scare stiff, scare/frighten to death, fill with fear, scare someone out of their wits, scare/frighten the living daylights out of, throw into a panic, make someone's hair stand on end, make someone's blood run cold; informal scare the pants off, make someone's hair curl; British informal throw into a blue funk, put the wind up; Irish informal scare the bejesus out of; North American informal spook; vulgar slang scare shitless, scare the shit out of; archaic affright. 2 Lucien was horrified by her remarks, but said nothing: shock, appal, outrage, scandalize, offend, dismay, throw off balance; disgust, revolt, repel, nauseate, sicken; informal rattle, faze, knock sideways, knock for six; archaic pother. MacBook dictionary
I assume that by “normal” E.J. means “typical” not mentally stable, and that he is referring to GOP members of Congress.
Just who are the “normal” congressional Republicans who are privately horrifed by Trump and do they realize he is so similar to the man who inspired Hitler, Benito Mussolini?
And how do we know these Republicans even exist?
Because if they do we have a Congress where half of the members are no better than the politicians in Italy who propelled Mussolini to power in the 1920’s because he made good on his promise to rebuild the country’s deteriorated infrastructure.
Of course, Trump hasn’t even made good on that promise and members of his party still support him.
Among the members who are horrifed, I see three primary sometimes interrlated reasons these members of congress would support him: they are craven cowards, their homestate voters strongly support him, and/or they think he will advance their agenda of cutting taxes and appointing far right judges.