These Republicans have some nerve
By now it’s well known that Donald Trump is the Master of Projection. Whatever he accuses others of, there’s a good chance he’s guilty of doing it himself. See his “Big Lie – that the election was “stolen” from him, after he did all he could to suppress Democratic votes, such as by sabotaging the Post Office through his henchman, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, to undercut mail-in voting. See also his post-election rants that stirred up the Capitol Insurrection, along with the spurious lawsuits filed by his “lawyers” and attempts to have State Legislators, and ultimately Congress, overturn the will of the people in voting him out.
Now, it appears that projection is yet another way that Trump has reworked the Republican Party in his image. A cornerstone of Republican orthodoxy is that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and/or President Biden are “captives” beholden to the “radical leftist” wing of the “Democrat” Party. While this does not actually appear to be the case, it certainly seems that the Republican Party itself is now a captive of the trumpiest, looniest wing of the party, represented by new media darlings Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Republican leaders have, to date, refused to repudiate the repugnant positions and repulsive actions of these lunatics for fear of “alienating” Trump’s base, on whom they all depend.
And Senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley encouraged the mob that stormed the Capitol, but suffered no censure by Republican leaders. Instead, 45 Republican Senators said Trump should face no consequences for fomenting an insurrection.
So Republican hacks that rail against the professional ruling class in Washington, D.C. are frightened to death that if they take a principled position against insurrection and sedition, they’ll be “primaried” and will lose their exalted positions. This is more than ironic – it’s moronic.
