When a Republican realizes, too late, what a sap she’s been
It’s always a bit shell-shocking to come back to normality after a long holiday weekend, especially one that involves travel, as mine did. In my case, coming back means publishing this daily blog, which more than two years ago (September, 2016) I turned into an anti-Trump platform. Usually, the blog practically writes itself: Trump’s blunders, his patently fake statements and tweets, his attacks on perceived “enemies,” the perfidious behavior of his confederates, his obvious and soon-to-be-proved criminality, etc. etc. present the writer with an endless source of subject matter.
But yesterday, after a fairly grueling time spent on California’s freeways (actually, not too bad for the Monday following Thanksgiving), when I got home and sat down to create this post, I was confronted with the choice of what to write about. With so much happening, how to choose? After all, there is
- The Mueller investigation and pending report
- The Mexican border crisis
- The Federal government’s global warming report
- The Mississippi election and Hyde-Smith’s blatant racism
- General Motors’ huge layoffs and factory closures
- Russia’s firing on Ukranian ships
- The impending Democratic takeover of the House
- Trump’s disapproval ratings, which just hit an all-time high
- Trump’s increasingly wobbly emotional state, undoubtedly due to all the above
And that’s just for starters.
But on reflection, I think I’ll write about this little tidbit, via NBC: “Losing GOP Rep. Mia Love tears into Republicans over treatment of minorities.”
Mia Love, as you may know, lost her re-election bid in Utah to the Democrat, in the #BlueWave that just spread across America. After the embarrassing Republican losses, Trump was sarcastically critical of Love on (where else?) Twitter: “Mia Love gave me no love. And she lost. Too bad.”
Mia didn’t like that, so she fought back. Trump’s hit on her, she said, “gave me a clear vision of his world as it is — no real relationships, just convenient transactions…I’ve seen the cost of conservatives for not truly taking people into their hearts…what did [Trump] have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican?”
Oh, poor, poor pitiful Mia Love. She’s feeling sorry for herself, betrayed by the president she defended for nearly two years, whose tax, environmental, voting and other policies caused immeasurable harm to the American people, including those from her Utah district and, in particular, to her fellow “minority communities” (in her words).
Why did Mia Love wait for so long to note Trump’s sociopathy? Where was her “clear vision” before Trump slammed her? As long as she was collecting golden eggs from the goose, she was happy to be a rightwing conservative. From her perspective, who knew how bright her future might be if she stayed with the man who commanded the loyalties of 90% of Republicans? How high was the sky? Did visions of Congressional seniority dance in front of Mia’s eyes? Maybe a Cabinet position down the road? Vice President? Maybe even (gasp) POTUS? Who knew?
There’s nothing wrong with ambition. But every school child knows that you shouldn’t become amoral in pursuit of personal glory, and that’s what Mia Love did. She stood by, letting the catastrophe in the White House wreak violence and destruction in America, up-end morality and ethics in government, lie pathologically, destroy norms, stain the Oval Office by his presence, the whole disgrace of Trump and Trumpism. She did nothing to stop him, allowed the sickness to spread, smiled, showed up for photo ops, and remained a Republican.
Yes, she occasionally told the truth about him, as she did when she criticized his “shithole countries” remark. But far too often, she “praised” him, and her record shows that she voted for his agenda 95.6% of the time.
So it’s really disingenuous for her to whine now about his “convenient transactions.” Reader, did you perceive Trump’s “convenient transactions” a long time ago? I did. His inauthenticity, lack of moral fiber, narcissism, throwing supporters under the bus if it made him richer or more powerful—everyone with a brain saw all of that even before he took the oath of office. Why didn’t Mia Love?
Every decent Republican should already have left the party. Mia Love should have taken a message from Steve Schmidt, who quit the GOP in June, calling it a “threat to liberal democracy,” which it certainly is. Schmidt had the courage to leave the party in which he’d been raised, and that raised him to power. Mia Love did not.
So I feel no sadness for her. I feel no empathy. She’s hurting in the wake of her defeat. Good. Let Mia Love go off someplace for a while, lick her wounds, and find something useful to do. And let every Republican who still remains in office wonder about his or her future. How long will it be until Trump insults and betrays them? How long will it be before the electorate kicks them out for their abysmal support of Trump (as California just kicked almost every Republican representative out of office)? Not much longer, Lord, not much longer.
The hope is that this was a learning curve for her, just maybe.