Ambivalence in an Ambulance Hurtling Toward Annihilation
So, this happened:
My feelings about this are a little complicated. On the one hand, I genuinely think Corker deserves credit for standing up to Trump. Corker is not running for reelection and doesn't have to care about anything anymore, but I'm sure it's still seriously unpleasant to stand up to Trump and incur the wrath of his idiotic supporters. Also, what Corker is saying here seems pitched at the correct level. It's not that Trump is a hypocrite on deficits or a bad person in general. It's specifically that he's a fucking child who can't be trusted for even a few hours without adult supervision. I feel a lot of criticism of Trump failed because it failed to capture the essence of his shittiness. Corker seems to be able to land blows that other pugilists haven't been able to.
On the other hand... what Corker is highlighting has been obvious to everyone since 2015, and Republicans were happy to put the country's nuclear arsenal under the control of this racist man-child and his avaricious, morally bankrupt children. The damage is done! The time to go public with your honest assessment of Trump was as early and as often as possible, to deny him the nomination or, failing that, the presidency. But very few Republicans did so—in fact, the only Republicans holding elected office who criticized Trump in honest terms were the Republicans running against him for the nomination, and most of them ended up endorsing him anyway.
So I guess... very partial credit? The other point here is that when I said "the damage is done," I was exaggerating slightly. The lion's share of the damage has been done. But Trump is being bottled up legislatively, and that's no small thing. Again it's very hard to tell how to allocate the credit. Obviously the Democrats have done a good job staying united against him so far (this hasn't been very difficult since Trump has only proposed massively unpopular legislation... if he had started with infrastructure things might have gone very differently). But I actually do give the Republicans who have stood up to him some credit. Again there's the timing issue. But it sometimes feels as though there is a tacit understanding that Trump gets judicial nominations and he gets to turn the executive branch into a racist hellhole, but that's it. Beyond that, Republicans and Democrats are trying to keep him from having any imprint on this country's laws, and they are succeeding.
That last sentence gives the Republicans too much credit—most of them voted for his shitty health care bills. Also, Republican leaders such as Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are allowing Trump's racist rhetoric to spread into their day to day messaging, which belies any notion that they are personally disgusted by Trumpism.
Anyway it's all a quandary, but if we don't all die in a nuclear holocaust, and if Trump signs no major legislation while he is President, then in 2021 we can hopefully pick up and start rebuilding the country. And Collins, Murkowski, McCain, and maybe Rubio and Corker, will deserve some modicum of credit for growing spines—too late, but not without some positive impact on the country.
(I'm embedding this tweet, rather than the tweets themselves, in case someone decides to delete them. Also, for the record, it appears that Trump is lying about Corker begging for his endorsement.)We have a fresh update this morning on the pivot to tax reform. pic.twitter.com/8894y5qMYH— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 8, 2017
My feelings about this are a little complicated. On the one hand, I genuinely think Corker deserves credit for standing up to Trump. Corker is not running for reelection and doesn't have to care about anything anymore, but I'm sure it's still seriously unpleasant to stand up to Trump and incur the wrath of his idiotic supporters. Also, what Corker is saying here seems pitched at the correct level. It's not that Trump is a hypocrite on deficits or a bad person in general. It's specifically that he's a fucking child who can't be trusted for even a few hours without adult supervision. I feel a lot of criticism of Trump failed because it failed to capture the essence of his shittiness. Corker seems to be able to land blows that other pugilists haven't been able to.
On the other hand... what Corker is highlighting has been obvious to everyone since 2015, and Republicans were happy to put the country's nuclear arsenal under the control of this racist man-child and his avaricious, morally bankrupt children. The damage is done! The time to go public with your honest assessment of Trump was as early and as often as possible, to deny him the nomination or, failing that, the presidency. But very few Republicans did so—in fact, the only Republicans holding elected office who criticized Trump in honest terms were the Republicans running against him for the nomination, and most of them ended up endorsing him anyway.
So I guess... very partial credit? The other point here is that when I said "the damage is done," I was exaggerating slightly. The lion's share of the damage has been done. But Trump is being bottled up legislatively, and that's no small thing. Again it's very hard to tell how to allocate the credit. Obviously the Democrats have done a good job staying united against him so far (this hasn't been very difficult since Trump has only proposed massively unpopular legislation... if he had started with infrastructure things might have gone very differently). But I actually do give the Republicans who have stood up to him some credit. Again there's the timing issue. But it sometimes feels as though there is a tacit understanding that Trump gets judicial nominations and he gets to turn the executive branch into a racist hellhole, but that's it. Beyond that, Republicans and Democrats are trying to keep him from having any imprint on this country's laws, and they are succeeding.
That last sentence gives the Republicans too much credit—most of them voted for his shitty health care bills. Also, Republican leaders such as Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are allowing Trump's racist rhetoric to spread into their day to day messaging, which belies any notion that they are personally disgusted by Trumpism.
Anyway it's all a quandary, but if we don't all die in a nuclear holocaust, and if Trump signs no major legislation while he is President, then in 2021 we can hopefully pick up and start rebuilding the country. And Collins, Murkowski, McCain, and maybe Rubio and Corker, will deserve some modicum of credit for growing spines—too late, but not without some positive impact on the country.
posted by James | 11:34 AM
2 Comments:
Yes. What a fucking travesty this is! Every time I seriously contemplate it, I become incredibly upset. I would literally give an arm and a leg to make it such that Clinton had won, and I feel guilty about not being absolutely readily willing to give my life or more. Humans have done many abysmal things, but the fact that so many of them supported -- and still support! -- this epically despicable representative of our species gets to me in a singular way. I can't help but have the utmost contempt for these people, and in my more manic or dark moods, I admit I entertain violent fantasies about what part of me wishes I could do to them.
The world is a terrible place. From an expected value standpoint, from behind a veil of ignorance or whatever, it is unambiguously better (for one) not to have come into it. Anyone who doesn't get this is an idiot -- this is not debatable! That said, I personally feel good about my existence; I love my life; I am incredibly fortunate on balance. And the selfish part of me desperately hopes this blessing is not stolen from me by the intolerable cruelty and incompetence of Trump and those who enabled and/or enable him. Fuck!
"The lion's share of the damage has been done" I have not yet been personally incinerated in a nuclear blast. Nor have hundreds of millions of others. On a vastly lesser, but still vitally extremely important matter, tens of millions still have health insurance. The damage has not yet been done, and it’s possible that it won't be done. Don't give up the ship!
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