GOP: Standing by their raping man
At long last, no sense of decency
Jeffrey Denny
Breaking news: The GOP actually doesn’t care about morality.
It never really stood for all that Christian Moral Majority traditional American family values wedge issue hogwash from the Reagan years to today’s culture wars “to protect our children.”
Sorry, believers, it’s all just sound and fury signifying nothing more than election rigging by a desperate party as it lays dying. (Apologies to Shakespeare, Faulkner and lit profs for the references.)
Sentient Americans knew all along the morality play was nothing more than a political sword and shield. Especially when Bible-thumping politicians and millionaire megachurch preachers were caught with their pants down. Literally, and some with other men.
Only MAGAs — the hapless GOP-Fox fools and tools — still buy it, poor dears, bless their hearts.
But when the GOP vehemently sided with Trump against the woman he raped — sorry, “sexually abused” — and trashed the court and jury that held him accountable, the final verdict came in: The Republican morals “brand” is the Biggest Lie.
As if we needed more proof of Trump’s depraved moral turpitude and the GOP’s unconditional love like a permissive parent for a carjacking teen. While they accuse Democrats of coddling poor nonwhite criminals.
All’s fair in love and political war, right? Yet there’s nothing more immoral than lying about morality, like pedophile priests.
Whatever. Former First Lady Melania Trump’s infamous designer jacket as she headed to a border refugee camp captured the soul of the GOP: “I really don’t care, do u?”
You have to admire the GOP’s loyalty, however.
They defended Trump through his abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, incitement of insurrection, and thrill in watching the bloody violence against Blue Lives and hunt to hang his vice president.
They stuck with Trump as he denied a deadly pandemic, causing hundreds of thousands of Americans, especially his own people, to needlessly die to protect his reelection.
They pledged fealty to Trump even as he desecrated our presidency, damaged our alliances and global standing, and divided and destroyed our nation and society by normalizing vicious trolling.
The GOP’s love for Trump remains undying even through his hilariously sad claims that his reelection was stolen, and his criminal indictment with possibly more to come.
Like the Whitney Houston song, the GOP will always love Trump because their MAGA marks do. They don’t care about his lifelong rap sheet of lying, cheating and abusing — business-wise, politically, personally and sexually, or that he’ll be even worse if reelected. The GOP law-and-order brand stops at Trump.
Even though Trump is thoroughly and gleefully vile in every possible way, even though he violently violated a woman he didn’t know in a department store dressing room, even though most people would be murderously outraged if it happened to a loved one, a solid majority of Republicans would still reelect Trump in 2024.
But why?
It’s clear why MAGAs would. The worse Trump is, they more they adore him. They love Trump more than morality, America, or Jesus. But they’re the Immoral Minority.
More mystifying is why the more powerful Monied Majority — the decent, upstanding, educated, elite, privileged Republicans — would even consider putting Trump into power again.
Please don’t say it comes down to taxes and regulations. And on that count, any Republican — even Trump — is better than any Democrat. In other words, it’s a matter of money over morals.
No decent Republican would ever admit that. Hence the quisling quibbling commences.
Cold consolation, but it’s wicked fun to watch GOP leaders squirm through their defensive talking points dismissing Trump’s sexual abuse verdict:
- “I really can’t comment on a judgment in a civil case.” — Mike Pence (R-IN)
- [“____.”] — Ron DeSantis, (R-FL)
- “He said he didn’t do it. I don’t know the facts. It’s a New York jury, too.” — Sen. Rick Scott, also (R-FL)
- “The jury is a joke. The whole case is a joke.” — Sen. Marco Rubio, also (R-FL)
- “I’m not going to get into that. That’s something for Trump to respond to.” — Niki Haley (R-SC)
- “When it comes to Donald Trump, the New York legal system is off the rails.” — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
- “The verdict wouldn’t have an impact, given the strong opinions voters already have about Trump.” –Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
- “Yet another act in the ongoing legal circus in Manhattan to take down Donald Trump.” –Sen. Bill Hagerty, (R-TN)
- “It makes me want to vote for him twice.” — Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)
- “It’s not a disqualifier,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
It can’t be easy for decent Republicans to support Trump. But hey, politics are politics, votes are votes, and money is money.
Jeffrey Denny is a Washington writer.
