From: tRON <x@y.com>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.trump,alt.politics.liberalism,alt.politics.democrats,alt.politics.usa.republican,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,can.politics
Subject: Rightists, Nazis and MAGAPIGS so fucking scared of Trump exposing the deep state's and swamp's criminal activity... makes shit up out of whole cloth
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 02:08:17 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Heres exactly why Republicans are afraid to criticize Donald Trump
Donald Trumps control of the GOP is near-total. So dominant and
domineering a figure does the former President cut within the Republican
Party that almost no elected official is willing to criticize even his most
outlandish claims.
New data from Pew makes abundantly clear why.
More than 6 in 10 (63%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents
think that the party should not be too accepting of elected officials who
openly criticize Trump. Three in 10 say the party should not accept any
criticism of Trump from its elected officials.
Compare that to the 6 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents
who say their side should be at least somewhat accepting of elected
officials who criticize President Joe Biden and you have some sense of just
how much the Republican Party has devolved into a simple cult of
personality.
Whats remarkable at least to me is that the utter fealty to Trump
expected by the bulk of Republican voters has continued even though the
former President is no longer in office.
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Despite his lack of political office and his much-debunked claims about the
2020 election being fraudulent, Trumps grip on the party base and,
therefore, its elected leaders remains firm.
The political incentive for a Republican to cross Trump publicly in this
sort of environment is close to zero. Whether its Jeff Flake or Justin
Amash or, more recently, Liz Cheney, stepping out of line to offer a
critique of Trump ends badly in raw political terms for the person
willing to take a stand.
The smart thing to do politically given how Republicans feel about Trump
is to keep your head down when you disagree with one of the former
Presidents many impolitic comments or apostasies of once-untouchable
conservative belief.
That is also the opposite of leadership. Which is why the Republican Party
is struggling to define what, exactly, it stands for these days.