Tweet of the Day

As I've written here in the past, I'm bemused (the polite term) by Republican analysts on TV who months ago were understandably and properly deriding Donald Trump loudly, but now that it appears he could likely be their party's nominee for president, they have begun twisting themselves in pretzel knots to explain the positive aspects of his support.  What they seem to have come up with is that the Trump popularity is due to him being the "Voice of the People," and a Good Thing that expresses dissatisfaction of "Politics as Usual."  (Alas, the once-wonderful Steve Schmidt and the rational, but less-wonderful Nicole Wallace are among those analysts falling into this category.)

With the Sunday morning talk shows doing some more of this pounding, it led to a tweet I left which expresses one way in which all this faux-observation is so deeply disingenuous.

If Republicans actually hate "politics as usual" as Trump supporters claim, I look forward to them voting against their GOP reps in Congress

— Robert Elisberg (@relisberg) March 27, 2016

By the way, Republicans in Congress may, in fact, have a hard time this year, though not because of getting rid of "Politics as Usual."  If it occurs, it will be because so many Republicans can't bear to vote for either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz in the general election that they stay home.  Or they're disgusted at their reps supporting Trump or Cruz, and so vote against them for that reason.

Mind you, "Politics as Usual" has long been been a shibboleth of the Far right that gets twisted in its meaning, along with things like "Original Intent" and "Advocate Judges."  As I've noted, as well, whenever Republican analysts try to justify their general position of how "The People" are upset at Washington and at "politics as usual," it misses the larger point that it isn't "The People" who are upset at politics, but conservatives who are.  Democrats and liberals have their disagreements with politics, to be sure, but they aren't the one who follow the Grover Norquist credo of drowning government in a bathtub until it's too small to function, or pushing for term limits (better known as, "Dear God, save us from ourselves"), or try to filibuster to  shut down government, or state publicly how compromising to get a fair settlement (which is considered the "art of politics") is anathema to their views.  

​So, no, The People don't hate Politics as Usual.  The Far Right does.  And pretty much always does.  Except when they're in power.  And even then it's not a certainty they'll be happy about it...