Republicans Have Traded Reagan for a Monkey

Spineless and Pitiful; Worse Yet, They're Begging Bonzo For Basics

Two stories commanded the headlines this week, one obvious, one less so.

The first, and most glaringly obvious one, was the complete capitulation of Trump to Russia and Vladimir Putin, and our offensive betrayal of a nation fighting for values we, as Americans, once cherished. It wasn’t just our betrayal of Ukraine, fighting for dear life against tyranny, but also our betrayal of our allies in Europe dealing with these issues first hand. What Trump essentially said was “Good luck, we’re done, you’re on your own” and wiped his hands of everything faster than you could say “Pontius Pilate.” No, what Trump was interested in was “a deal.” Of course, Trump is the worst at making any type of deal; it’s super easy to do when you have no stake, principle or conscience related to the outcome. The only issue ever is finding a stupid sucker dumb enough to deal with Trump.

Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave over this, and to even consider that the hard talking, anti-communist, pro-defense Republicans of the ‘80s have turned coward and are now silenced by an incompetent real estate billionaire and his low class entourage of halfwits just underscores how cowardly and pathetic they’ve become. They COULD make arguments against some of the worst impulses of the orange Jim Jones, but choose not to because it’s just easier to swim with the flow and not offend the halfwits in their districts. They’ve so corralled the local Republican voters into a single direction that it’s like the Running of the Bulls and they don’t want to get in their way. The only thing grassroots Republicans want, as far as a policy, is to stick it to the liberals (they don’t even care if government works for them or not, so long as Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are locked away forever) and that means leaders who go along with whatever Trump wants done because he ALSO wants to stick it to the liberals. William F. Buckley, the intellectual godfather of today’s conservative movement once opined,

“A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”  

Today’s Republican party wouldn’t yell, wouldn’t say stop and wouldn’t demonstrate anything other than staring at their feet, hands in pockets trying to look as insignificant as possible amidst the mob of grassroots Republicans spewing nonsense. God forbid the mob realize these spineless hacks actually have some level of power and control over what actually gets done.

The second story demonstrates why their craveness is so detrimental to everyone. While they have control of the Congress, and specifically the House of Representatives (which controls the purse strings), they’ve been more than willing to go along with severe Executive Branch cuts and DOGE making a mockery of paying out appropriated funds freezing hundreds of billions of dollars. Because that’s what Republcans do, scream about government largesse and always talk hard about gutting public funding and support. Well, this week a group of Republican Senators on the receiving end of Elon Musk’s wrecking ball came back, begging the Trump administration to release the funds. Begging. You know, like a dog. Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, whom you may remember from the Response to the State of the Union Hostage Video below, approached the White House about releasing the money because, well, it impacted HER particular states’ businesses and overall economy. Other GOP Senators and House members began speaking up too, but apparently didn’t want to be the first one to cowardly creep in and ask Donny if, you know, he could do his job, out of fear of a tantrum.

A nice summary of the events was provided in the Washington Post here:

So let me get this right, if you have to beg the President for funding already appropriated, and he can just pick and choose what he wants to spend it on, isn’t that still ceding Congressional power to the Executive Branch? What happens when a President gets elected that doesn’t like your state, can he just cut off all funding to that state? California/New York? For Republicans, that’s ABSOLUTELY! Michigan/Wisconsin? —Hmm, well, sure, but it’d be dumb to. The Deep South? Wait a minute here, nobody signed up FOR THAT?!?!?!?! That’s why appropriations bills are signed regardless of state they’re related to, and the Supreme Court invalidated the Line Item Veto (which is what Trump is de facto doing). What Trump/DOGE are doing are clearly unconstitutional, but there’s a lag until the courts actually step in to force payments out the door. You can cause a lot of pain within that lag.

I mean, since those states DEPEND on government money flowing to them, isn’t the current Republican stance in regard to this issue counterintuitive? If I were a Senator representing Mississippi for instance, shouldn’t I be screaming from the rafters to release the money and support my local constituents instead of kowtowing to an orange bully with a cricket bat where I’m screaming, “Thank you sir may I have another?”

Why are they so afraid of this toddler wearing an Armani suit? They have power too! They just don’t bother to use it. Do they realize that at all? They have spent so much effort and so much time shrinking in the corner with their tails between their legs they are afraid of their own voters. That is not the place you want to be if you are an elected official. It appears there isn’t a single leader left in the Republican Party anymore, a sad statement for the party that was born on the principle of ending slavery and led by the greatest leader of the Executive Branch we’ve ever had. Instead, they’ve just become this cadre of pathetic individuals who don’t know how to do anything and are afraid of their own shadows.

How far it has fallen.

The Republican Party has traded the party of Reagan in exchange for actually being Bonzo the monkey.

Now THAT is a bad deal.

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

The mantle of who is best to command the military and strongest on defense bounces back and forth between the parties. During WWII, the Democrats held that mantle. The Republicans at the time were considered an isolationist party that didn’t want to be included in world affairs. In the Post WWII era, Eisenhower presided over a more domestic oriented agenda and a stepping back (we had just finished an overseas war on two fronts after all) while staying engaged worldview. It wasn’t until Kennedy and LBJ got stuck in Vietnam did the sentiment switch sides. Anti-war rhetoric and the hippie movement caused the perception to be that the left was full of protesting peaceniks and it was the right that now represented a strong military defense. That was expanded on by Nixon, Reagan and George W. Bush.

More recently, we seem to be settling back into the pre-WWII mindset of the parties, with the right becoming isolationist and populist again, and the left becoming more interested in diplomacy, helping allies militarily and helping veterans. There is still a strong protest element on the left that prevents taking up the pro-defense position, but it seems to be swinging more towards them, particularly as Russia and China become more engaged in their spheres of influence and Democrats start to support defending those neighbors to them for which we are allied.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

The Republican Party was created in the old schoolhouse in Ripon, WI (hey, only 15 minutes from where I was born!).

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff