If you want further evidence that Republicanism stands for nothing, that the party is broken, that the shattered remains of whatever "ideas" they once pretended to prop up are now swirling around a toilet bowl in preparation for joining the imaginary alligators of the nation's sewer systems—I know, you don't, but bear with me here—here's Republican freaking Senator Martha McSally going blue-screen after being asked the simple question of whether she still supports Dear Infectious Leader.
Oh, go on. It will be fun. It’s like watching a nature documentary.
Well, that was truly impressive. There may be no more shallow person in America—you can really see the gouge marks, there, where she took an ice cream scoop and scraped off as much integrity as she could manage in order to fit the new role required of principle-averse Republican sycophants. And it really speaks to the Republican Party's state that McSally is not just any Republican, but one chosen by the state party as representative of their highest possible talent.
Could have chosen any Republican in Arizona to fill the vacant Senate seat. Chose her. That's what they went with.
McSally had other humiliating moments during her, ahem, very weird debate with challenging Democrat Mark Kelly. Of special note was her insistence that Kelly was connected to an "extreme left-wing" group with "ideas that are dangerous for Arizona." Asked to explain What The Cactus-Studded Hell she was talking about, she refused to say the name, only continuing her insinuations.
While viewers attempted to parse for themselves just what McSally was trying to claim, Mark Kelly cleared up the mystery: McSally was talking about the gun control group founded by Gabby Giffords, a House Democrat shot in the head in an attempted assassination attempt in 2011.
Giffords is Kelly's wife.
McSally really is the poster child for Republicanism in the Trump era. She used to declare that she had certain specific principles; when Trump said otherwise, she fell in line behind the new stuff. When challenged on her support for Trump's erratic, devoid-of-morality fascism, she flings unrelated talking points at her questioner while the rest of her brain hunkers down in its safe room. Everything is now a conspiracy; every idea is now whatever the pre-prepared party line is this week, and heaven knows what it will be next week.
The whole party is broken. Unfortunately, that means they'll be taking more and more extreme measures to sabotage voting, rather than admit they've lost the plot (Hello, Texas Gov. Abbott!), and unfortunately Donald Trump has demonstrated that breaking laws and spouting conspiratorial insanity is the surest way to radicalize their remaining Fox-tainted base.
But jeez, Martha. Don't you have even a little dignity? That was terrible.