The corruption of the GOP

There really is no doubt that Trump did what Democrats accused him of doing. But so far, Republicans have been unwilling to admit it. They may be dishonest, and they’re almost certainly acting in bad faith, but are they being irrational? Not necessarily.

I reached out to David Jolly, a former GOP Congress member from Florida. Jolly left Congress in 2017 and has since renounced his membership in the Republican Party. He explained his reasoning in an article last year, rejecting not only Donald Trump, but what the Republican Party had become.

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"As for Congress, I think we just have to recognize how culturally broken our politics is. There is real animosity between the two sides that gets reinforced due to gerrymandered districts that insulate members from accountability, and we have a media environment that funnels partisan news to target audiences.

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"I can’t tell you how many Republican members of Congress have told me, “I’m just trying to keep my head down and not get noticed.” They see all the excitement stirred up by people like Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes but at least half the caucus wants to stay the hell out of the media. They’re not looking to make a name through this, they’re looking to survive this.

"I struggle with whether some of their behaviors are an intentional decision on their part to engage in either misdirection, or to overlook the facts because they have a fealty to the president or because they want to put a stake in the ground in right-wing media or because it just works in their districts. Or are some of them just duped into it?

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"If you say [what Trump did] was wrong but not impeachable, that’s a legitimate national conversation. You can run for office in the future and that argument could stand the test of time because it at least acknowledges what most of the country knows, namely that what Trump did is obvious and wrong. "But if you stay with not proven, it’s as though Republicans have decided to simply overlook the truth and look the other way and that’s where I think it will have long-term consequences [...] for the party at large.

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"I know Lindsey Graham well. We traveled the world together. I had enormous respect for him. The one area where I would say Lindsey has been more honest than any other Republican is in how he made the pivot.

"He said, “This guy [Trump] beat me. He won. The voters chose him and my job is to reflect the will of the people, so therefore I’m going to protect this president and do everything I can in his defense.” At least he acknowledged that he was flipping for reasons of public opinion and politics within the party.

"I think the Lindsey Graham we’re seeing today is the real Lindsey Graham. This is a political opportunist who will flop with the winds and do whatever it takes to serve his own self-interest. That’s who he is.

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"I don’t think we will see a reversal the day Trump leaves office. I’m curious who follows Trump because the politics aren’t going to change so dramatically. I don’t think it’s Mike Pence’s party when Trump’s gone. Anyone who wants to win in this party will have to appease the Trumpist base one way or the other. "And this whole impeachment saga is showing us that it’s not just Trump and Trumpism, it’s also Congress. I mean, Republicans in Congress right now are tearing at the fabric of the Constitution every bit as much as Donald Trump’s actions, because this is now their responsibility. It’s not their responsibility to defend Trump, but that’s what they’re prioritizing. And they’re undermining the institution of Congress every bit as much as Trump.

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"[T]oday’s Congress is so suffocated by leadership that there is really no room for independent behavior. The only people that can successfully behave independently are those who are able to create a national constituency. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a great example of this on the Democratic side.

"People like AOC are the exception, however. Otherwise, everything flows through leadership, particularly money. Leadership turns money on or off for rank and file members. The number one rule is just don’t step out of line. If you’re Kevin McCarthy, your job is to protect Donald Trump and keep your members in line.

"So the hyper-partisan members don’t have to worry about any of this. But people like me, the moderates or independents, depend on the party for financial support and that’s a huge driver of behavior.

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"Trump has exposed a lot about who we are as a country and who Republicans are as a party. But the partisanship problem is less about the people in the party and more about the structural forces driving hyper-partisan decision-making. The big three for me are gerrymandering, closed primaries, and big money. All of this puts so much pressure on people to conform or compromise.

"If we unrigged the system, if we had competitive districts with open primaries and public financing, you’d see people behaving very differently because there would be a completely different reward structure.

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"The Republican Party is in long-term trouble. The demographics of the nation are shifting away from hardcore Republican conservatism and they’re basically doubling down on that while relying on these rigged elements of the system to help them keep power. That’s not a good place to be in.

"The reason Trump won was because he brought in populism, not conservatism. I don’t see who follows that. Who’s the populist in the Republican Party that comes next? I don’t see one. I think it’s a return to conservatism and largely white male flyover state conservatism, which statistically just isn’t going to put Republicans in office a decade from now."

  Vox

Pray to god he's right.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.