Republicans just keep stepping in it over Donald Trump indictment, and it’s a glorious thing to behold

| 10:10 pm EDT June 11, 2023
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Over the past few days the same pattern has played out repeatedly across social media. This or that Republican figure will take a position on Donald Trump’s Espionage Act indictment, and folks on our side will use it as an excuse to condemn that Republican figure. When a corrupt Republican like Lindsey Graham defends Trump, our side angrily rants about how awful Graham is for it. And when a corrupt Republican like Bill Barr admits that Trump is going down and deserves to go down, our side angrily rants about how Barr is still awful.

This endless cycle of looking for excuses to start angrily ranting is a complete waste of time, and frankly it’s psychologically unhealthy. But it’s worse than that, because it’s completely missing the point. This very ugly and damning Trump indictment is putting Republican figures in a no-win situation. If they defend Trump on this, they lose votes in the middle. If they condemn Trump for it, they lose votes on the right. And if any of them refuse to take a position on them, the media will spend every day asking them about it and running headlines about their cowardice, which also costs them votes.

In a word, we are watching Republicans losing. They can’t win with this one. Do they want to lose Trump voters, or do they want to lose voters closer to the middle, or do they want to pick neither one and have the media cost them votes? Those are their only options. It doesn’t even really matter which one they pick, because Trump is going down either way. They can’t help him. It’s way beyond that. At this point it’s a matter of the Republicans deciding which votes they’d like to lose over this.

This is a classic no-win situation for the Republican Party, which means it’s good news for us. We’re basically watching these Republican figures step up and punch themselves in the face. But instead of seeing it for the win that it is, too many folks on our side are too conditioned to treat every word Republicans speak as an opportunity to begin angrily ranting about them. And so we’ve got this angry horde of outrage addicts on our side throwing a fit about how Republicans are addressing the Trump indictment, even though the whole thing is one big win for us.

Again, it’s not just that the habitual angry ranters on our side are wasting their time (this behavior never nets our side a single vote) and engaging in psychologically unhealthy behavior (obsessively seeking out things to feel anger about is not a sustainable way of life). It’s that these outrage addicts on our side are too caught up in their desire to feel rage to even recognize a win when they see one. In politics, if you want to take advantage of a win, you first have to recognize that it’s a win. And every time a Republican figure is forced to take a position on Trump’s indictment, it’s a loss for them, and a win for us. Let’s start seizing upon these kinds of wins, so we can keep winning. After all, if we’re not here to try to win, why are we here?