The GOP’s Gossip Girls
President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, meets with Republican and Democratic legislative leadership members Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019, in the Situation Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead).
Hmmm.
Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent said Thursday some of his former colleagues in the House of Representatives have privately told him they are “absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the President’s behavior.”
Dent told CNN’s Ana Cabrera on “Newsroom” that House Republicans are standing with the President at the moment because of base pressure, but said “they resent being put in this position all the time.”
There’s something familiar about all this. Wait, I know, it’s from back in June:
President Donald Trump’s allies have been privately critical after he told ABC News he’d consider accepting incriminating information about an opponent from a foreign government without calling the FBI, according to multiple sources.
Those who regularly defend the President and some who have worked in senior roles in his West Wing were incredulous Wednesday, cringing at the President’s remarks.
“It’s really bad. It’s really, really bad. He shouldn’t say it, and if he were to do it, it would be impeachable. If a President took information from a foreign government that would be impeachable,” a senior Republican source told CNN’s Jamie Gangel.
No, wait, that’s not it. Ah, maybe this from January:
Right now, reporting abounds of Republican senators and representatives privately expressing their ire at the president. Even as some questioned the motive or timing Mitt Romney’s diatribe against Trump’s character and performance in office, off the record it was widely acknowledged that everything Romney said was true.
No, no. I’ll get there. How about this from a year ago?
Outgoing Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) did not hold back when giving a scathing assessment of the Republican Party and President Trump, saying GOP senators privately say Trump is “nuts.”
…
“Now they’ll tell you, if it’s just the two of you, ‘The guy is nuts, he doesn’t have a grasp of the issues, he’s making rash decisions, he’s not listening to people who know the subject matter,’ ” she told CNN. “But in public if they go after him … they know they get a primary [challenger], and they know that’s tough.”
No, that’s not it. Wait! By Jove, I’ve got it:
[Jacob Wohl] has been the subject of a viral Twitter meme mocking Wohl’s repeated claims of visiting “hipster coffee shops” around Los Angelesand overhearing conversations in which anonymous customers are discussing their support of Trump or opposition to his enemies.
I just left a hipster coffee shop in downtown LA. There was a group of young Democrats murmuring to each other that they know the “Suspicious Packages” were an inside job to make Republicans look bad — Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) October 24, 2018
I just left a hipster coffee shop in the Fairfax District, here in Los Angeles. I can tell you one thing: Jewish support for President Trump is higher than ever! — Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) October 27, 2018
I just a left a hipster coffee shop. It was packed with liberals, whispering amongst each other about what a commendable job President Trump did with Vladimir Putin this morning in Helsinki — America is PROUD! 🇺🇸 — Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) July 16, 2018
I was in a hipster coffee shop (safe space) here in LA and the libs were whispering to each other how @realDonaldTrump is doing great for the economy, got them a raise at work and will definitely be re-elected in 2020 — Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) January 13, 2018
Even coffee shop hipster liberals are marveling at President Trump’s success with North Korea — Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) April 20, 2018
Even coffee-shop-hipster liberals are in awe at President Trump’s diplomatic breakthroughs all around the world — Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) May 10, 2018
It’s kind of amazing when you think about it. When Jacob Wohl used to tweet (from his now defunct account) about hipster coffee shops filled with secret Trump supporters, it was immediately and rightfully recognized as humbug. And yet, we’ve now had approximately 18 million of these “Republicans are secretly disgusted with Trump” stories that are just as diaphanous, just as unsubstantiated, and yet are taken seriously.
I guess it’s understandable. Those of us who dislike Trump want to believe that there is some secret cabal of Republicans who privately oppose him but publicly support him out of fear. The theoretical existence of said cabal would be a safeguard against Trump doing something really crazy. Indeed, this fantasy is supposedly a hard reality, if we are to believe the self-involved naval-gazings of Anonymous.
But, it really goes a bit deeper than that. I’ve occasionally made reference to the Inside the Beltway crowd’s fascination with itself. There is nothing more fascinating to our Washington media than Washington gossip about Washington people doing Washington stuff in Washington. And nothing could be more illustrative of this News Ouroboros than the continual insistence that there is a shadowy faceless mass of Republicans who secretly disapprove of the President and are just aching to turn on him with an ache that would make a harlequin romance novel heroine’s ache for love pale by comparison.
The trouble is, when you read this turgid prose with a skeptical eye, it reads less like a harlequin, which can be enjoyable on its own merits, and more like dumb teenagers gossiping in Study Hall on a rainy Monday morning.
“Do you want some tea? Lindsey is totally unhappy with the way we treated the Kurds.”
“I know, right? And Marco said if there’s one more payoff to a porn star, he’s, like, done with all of this.”
No, I take that back. And I apologize unreservedly to the teenage gossips of the world. At least if teenagers are gossiping about who fooled around in the utility closet last weekend, someone cares. But the Washington gossip game is just that: a game. In this case, either a game the media are playing to convince themselves that Trump’s support will collapse any day now. Or a game the GOP is playing to try to persuade their Never Trump friends to support them. None of it is real. No one actually fooled around in the closet.
It comes to this: I will not believe that the GOP is tired of Trump until they say so … publicly. Until that moment, they own this mess. All of it. Every corruption, every racist utterance, every violation of norms. Every dollar of debt, every pardoned war criminal, every dead Kurd. Gossiping off the record to the Washington Post that you secretly, like, totally disapprove of this means less than nothing. It doesn’t make the debt one dollar smaller or bring one dead Kurd back to life.
There may come a day when the GOP is held to account for this disaster of a Presidency — either after 2020 or (more likely) after 2024. I wouldn’t bet too much on it, since political memory spans are short. But if it comes, I’m not going to forgive the Republicans because when they claim they were never really a supporter of Trump, that they were actually against him and they said as much to CNN. No matter what the mass movement is or how repulsive it is, everyone claims, post-facto, to not have been a part of it. But unless you publicly oppose it, you are are a part of it. For better or for worse.
The media lives in a Sorkinian bubble of narcissistic self-regard and delusion about its own role in our political landscape. Since roughly 2003 its been clear that very little that’s reported without a name attached should be taken seriously and that little that can be must come with an abundance of evidence supporting whatever was asserted, plus probably some willingness of politicians to actually act based on it.
One thing journalists’ biases prevent them from seeing is that we have one rickety coalition that, while incoherent, trends towards solidarity due mostly to fear and another that, while more robust in theory, trends mostly towards circular firing squad due to hubris. In that context none of this ‘humbug’ matters or is worth the digital ink used to write it.Report
I’ve actually said the same thing numerous times on Robert Reich’s Facebook page, where he has publicly said numerous times that “Important Republicans” he knows are disgusted with the man and ready to dump him. They are all power drunk cowards, until they lose their seats or decide to retire so they don’t have to defend him anymore.
Its also why the Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee can find no Ukrainian interference in our elections and LA Senator Joe Kennedy can lie about it multiple times. Richard Burr (R-NC) who chairs that committee will not slap his colleague down for lying about this because Burr believes he won’t survive a primary fight.Report
I disagree that it doesn’t matter.
It proves that the people saying this shit on the QT are even more pathetic and craven than their public statements suggest. Say what you will about the likes of Matt Gaetz and Louis Gohmert: at least they don’t know any better.Report
“This is really, really bad.”
“Would you rather have Warren?”
“Well… it’s not *THAT* bad.”
Iterate a thousand times and end up here.Report
In order to be a Party member in good standing today, one must be able to embrace any story, no matter how fantastical or absurd. Even if it is contradicted by facts in plain view, even if it contradicts what was said yesterday.
Kennedy’s bizarre insistence on plainly discredited conspiracies aren’t embarrassing to the Trumpists; Instead, they are proof of his loyalty and faith in the cause.
Its like we’re living in one of Hannah Arendt’s description of Europe in the 30s:
“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. […] under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”Report
“News Ouroboros” is a truly excellent phrase.Report
Here is my standard answer which I still believe is true despite or because it receives a lot of pushback, Trump is an unvarnished racist, reactionary, chauvinist, nationalist, and fascist in ways that have not been seen brazenly in this country for decades. Except at the margins perhaps. Now you have this uncouth blowhard in the bar as President of the United States and a good chunk of the country likes it. Somewhere between 30-40 percent of the nation depending.
This is the elephant in the room (pun intended) that cranky partisan lefties like me will bring up but very few other people. There is a lot of motivated reasoning not to. During Rosh Hashanah, my rabbi gave a sermon about how there is a moral mandate to reach out and get along with people you disagree with strongly and see their humanity. Why is this? Is it out of hope that you can change their hearts and minds? Or is there a more cynical answer that people you strenuously disagree with will always exist in the United States and the World and there is noting you can do about it? I am more inclined to the cynical view.
The Atlantic published a very long article the other day about Trump’s persistent base of support despite his raging mental health issues and unstableness. The author performed a huge number of mental gymnastics to avoid talking about Trump’s reactionary white supremacy, racism, and xenophobia. He said somethings that might be truish but still fail Occam’s Razor. The people who standby Trump do so because of his vulgarity, not despite it. They do so because of his rants and resentments. It is the same as their rants and resentments.
The reason I think this gets ignored is multiple One a lot of pundits and people who can get published in the Atlantic have convinced themselves that their job is too champion the “common sense” of the American people and going out like Savonarella at the Bonfire of the Vanities is a threat to their cushy jobs and paychecks. There is also a psychological coping mechanism in wanting to see Trump as an aberration, not an opened genie bottle. The last and most extreme reason it might just be futile to admit that 30% to 40% of the United States are stone-cold racists and fascist because what is the solution to this problem of plurality? Do you have to cut ties with Trumpian friends and relatives? Co-workers? How do you contain the fascist instincts of 30-40 percent of the population?
The GOP has played around for racist dogwhistles for decades to win elections and then ignored those voters that took them to victory on margins. Those voters got fed up and now Trump is here to give them their stuff in a raw format. More moderate GOPers have been primaried out and you have the lickspittles like Matt Gaetz around.Report
Yep. This. 100%Report
Definitely. If anything, I think this understates things a bit, in that I think that Trump has made things worse among the GOP at every level by making racism, xenophobia, misogyny, anti-semitism, blatant corruption, and authoritarian fishheadery all more acceptable.Report
There have been memes about the twenties starting again soon. Naturally, these focus on the things like jazz and the clothing. They don’t mention things like the xenophobia, second KKK, and the other bad stuff like corrupt Republican presidents.Report
“Alas, how terrible is wisdom
when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise!
This I knew well, but had forgotten it,
else I would not have come here.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus RexReport
The interesting and disturbing thing about Jacob Wohl is that it is impossible to determine where is true belief ends and where is grift begins. Under Chip’s observation, he might be a 100 percent true believer and a 100 percent grifter at the same time. He and his colleague seem to live well, someone is paying them money but whom? Why? There are even lots of die-hard Trump partisans who consider Wohl to be an embarrassment and a joke.Report
Wohl’s hipster coffee shop stories were implausible, while the stories about behind-the-scenes discontent are entirely plausible, even if they’re no more verifiable. But just because that discontent almost certainly exists doesn’t mean that we should expect any changes to happen because of it, at least until the underlying reasons for the facade change.
Talk about courage all you want, but what would a GOP congressperson achieve by defecting, apart from destroying his/her own political career? Trump is popular on the Right, and defectors are easily replaced. Change can only come from the voters themselves.Report
It should be noted, in terms of plausibility, that a lot of recently retired or otherwise out of office Republicans are more openly and on the record unhappy with Trump.
Of course that’s possibly sample bias — those who lost office would represent less deep red districts, up to R+5 or so, and anyone considering hanging up their hat and who dislikes Trump might find Trump the reason to pull the trigger.Report
The big issue is that a lot of these guys are choosing to retire instead of trying to save their party. So they are tankies but smart enough to realize they will lose reelection because of Trump. Or they are cowards who realize, they need to look sufficiently pro-Trump to get a sweet lobbying gig.Report
So they are tankies
I know Trump has praised the economic prowess of North Korea on several occasions, but this still seems like a bit of a stretch.Report
They would achieve standing up for what is right and what they believe. They could theoretically be the start of changing a very nasty direction the country or the R party is going in thus becoming a leader. They would be placing the interests of the country over their party and their career. If they really believe what some of them may be saying behind the scenes then they should be leading. That may bring voters to them instead of waiting for someone else to say what many are thinking.Report
Honestly that just sounds like wishful thinking and happy talk to me. Do you have any examples you can point me to where that actually happened? I.e. where bold party-bucking action by some politicians actually pushed the party away from an opinion held by a solid majority? Have you ever changed your mind just because some Dem candidates defected from the crowd?Report
My instant thought was the “have you no shame” moment during the McCarthy hearings that is reputed to been a bit of a game changer. I assume, without doing extensive research, there was a first repub to say Nixon was a guilty SOB.
Do i think R’s publicly saying what they are reputed to be saying in private will massively change things; no. But trump is, despite the endless bluster, sensitive to feedback. I dont’ think the kool aid drinkers will suddenly drop their juice boxes. But it could matter on the margins and with wavering independents. Also current R’s who are aghast will be judged by what they did now. They like their job now, but will they want a job in politics in 5 or 10 years. Welp, what did you do now?Report
They would achieve standing up for what is right and what they believe.
See also: Kristin Gillibrand.
Hey, whatever happened to her?Report
Ummm wow…zing… i guess. Huh. I believe she is a sitting US senator. She also helped to push Franken out, so high fives to her. Is your point that because she won’t be elected president that…something something???Report
You’re assuming there’s a point. Don’t do that.Report
The point, if there is one, is that “standing up for what is right and what they believe” is worth… well, see, for example, your response to Kristin Gillibrand.
It wasn’t “you know what? She was treated poorly by, yes, Democrats.”
It was “she is a sitting US senator”.
High fives to her, I guess.
Let’s get back to talking about the importance of standing up for what is right and/or what they believe.Report
As best I can tell, judging by Trump’s rather rock steady initial primary support, roughly a third of the GOP loves what Trump is selling. The racism, the sexism, the xenophobia, the rather unabashed white supremacy — he’s saying what they believe.
They backed Trump from day one and not a thing swayed them. The other 70% sort of scattered themselves around multiple other candidates, preferring them to Trump — but as people dropped out, Trump slowly consolidated them as he it became clear there was no longer enough time for anyone to beat him.
And it’s clear that most of that 70% might prefer another candidate, might dislike Trump, but not enough to stay home or vote for a Democrat. They’d prefer someone more Christian, or less openly racist, or more concerned about the deficit, or whatever their deal is — but they’ll take Trump as long as he’s got that “R”.
So how do you buck that, as a party politician? Go against Trump, and you’re looking at a primary where a full third of your base is going to be furious with you and out to replace you — and the other 2/3rds are going to be torn between “I dislike Trump” and “I dislike Republicans that don’t support our Republican President” — all to gain what, perhaps 10% of your base that might firmly approve of you distancing yourself from Trump?
Assuming you manage to get through the primary, now you’re in the general election — with a third of your base still furious with you and exactly who are you winning over? You might not support Trump, but your party does — and he’s the face of it. Not really a lot of crossover votes there — with a full third of your most reliable voters angry at you, the odds of that being a net win for you are really low.
It could be 90% of the GOP politicians hate Trump and wish he’d have a heart attack. But they don’t dare say it or hint it — it’s political suicide, and after 2018, they can’t afford to lose a single vote. They’re looking at playing defense in R+8 districts — they’re looking at having to spend money to hold Texas, of all things. Wwhich they will, but having to do media buys and spend time campaigning in Texas for it’s electoral votes is not a great starting position for the GOP.
They can’t anger their base, because Trump galvanizes Democratic turnout like nobodies business. They’re looking at an uphill battle as is — they can’t afford to lose even a tiny fraction of their own voters.
Standing up for what they believe — if what they believe is anything but full-throated Trump support — will do nothing but cost them more elected offices. There’s a thousand ways to convince yourself that staying quiet is the correct thing to do — to keep being able to nominate judges, to try to steer Trump, to trying to stay in place to handle the post-Trump era, or just “If my voters love Trump, I should support him even if I don’t”.Report
If a person believes something is deeply wrong and a danger to the country then the reason to stand up is because they see a danger. You don’t stand for something only when you can game out getting elected. If you think something is minor then whatever. You can negotiate on petty things. But for serious things you stand because you have to stand up to things that are wrong. That is how you lead. Maybe leading sucks. Maybe it doesn’t benefit your job prospects. That is the cost of standing up for beliefs.Report
No point in trying to lead if the people you’re leading won’t listen to you.
Look at what they’re faced with — the evangelicals support Trump. Heavily. Absolutely bedrock support for a serial adulterer, liar, and fairly obviously not even remotely religious.
They back him to the hilt. They call him God’s chosen. A less Christian man than Donald Trump is hard to imagine, and yet Christian leaders — who are not politicians up for regular votes and beholden to a party — bend over backwards praising him.
What chance has a mere politician, if such moral paragons sing his praises?Report
Yeah older socons are who they have always been. Younger socons, from what i’ve read, are more likely to be cheesed off about trump and pool boy settlements and such.
Ultimately the reason to take a stand on a serious issue is just because it is right. You can hope to get praise and jobs and medals for that, but you better not expect or need that.Report
Speak the truth even as your voice shakes.
I dunno. If you don’t have integrity, what else is there?Report
Money and power, apparently.Report
That’s pretty easy for us to say. We are, by and large, not Republicans.
It is not our party we are standing up, not our voters we are decrying, and not our careers we are losing.
And mostly, it is not something we are doing that gains nothing in the end. Even if the entire GOP leadership stood as one and damned Trump — 30% of their base loves him, and that’s enough to mean every thing those leaders want is tossed aside.
What’s the point of standing up if all it does is silence you and changes nothing?
I’d like to think I’d stand for the right thing in their shoes, but I’m not in their shoes.
Standing up or sitting down, they can’t change a damn thing. They’re not riding the tiger, they’re just struggling not to fall off.Report
Kamala Harris drops out as Democratic nominee. There was a time when I thought she could plausibly bridge that gap between the liberal and moderate factions but she ended up blowing it by either going too far to the woke left or coming out with plans that were too moderate like her college debt forgiveness plan. I think the Kamala is a Kop meme was mainly from libertarian dudes, Russianbots, and the overly woke and unfair but it probably did not help either.Report
You wouldn’t be much of a politician if you haven’t laid the groundwork for saying “I was his biggest supporter” and for saying “I was against him the whole time,” and then being able to trot out the right line at the right time.Report
The number of problems with all these rumors is legion. Just as a start, when you’re a reporter or other cocktail circuit denizen, and you pop in to some restaurant to chat with this person and that person, they will amazingly, though quietly, agree with you on any topic that reflects the norms that result in more glowing interviews and party invitations. You could discuss Elvis, Kanye, Beyonce, the Kardashians, Trump, or the dust up on “America’s Got Talent” and the person across the table nibbling on French fries will drop into hushed tones and tell you that most people agree with what you just said.
It means absolutely nothing except that people in social settings will try to smoothly get along instead of arguing and ruining their evening. You can say the most extreme things, even talk about how the Catholic Church and the mental health authorities have a bunch of psychologists stalking you from black vans, and the person you’re engaged with will nod sagely and empathetically before they figure out how to slip away. “See! Everyone agrees that I’m being stalked by psychologists!”
I guess in the absence of real journalism, practiced in days of yore, these encounters are now offered up as newsworthy data points.Report
and for the second time this year, I agree with you. If you won’t put your name behind it, or it can’t otherwise be cited and sourced, you didn’t say it.Report
There has always been, I think, a reticence to admit the dark parts of the American experiment, where the people themselves freely made awful choices.
So things like slavery or the ethnic cleansing of the Natives, Jim Crow are treated as aberrations, things that were done by a small handful of bad actors.
Bu the sobering truth is that there is a plurality, sometimes even an outright majority of people in America for whom white male hierarchy is acceptable and nonthreatening.
This is why I push back so much on the theories postulating that if only the Democrats were to do This One Weird Trick, like maybe nominating a white male Midwestern guy in a Carhartt jacket, well by golly, things would turnaround right quick. Or maybe stop talking so much about icky women’s stuff like abortion, or stop saying things that make middle aged professional men who squeeze their secretary’s butt uncomfortable.
Donald Trump is honoring all his campaign promises which is why his base supports him. It was only the pundits and Beltway courtiers who refused to believe his words and insisted on creating some mythical Trump out of whole cloth.
The same way they are trying to create some mythical Responsible Republican who will act as a comforting balance to the Democrats.Report
Great use of One Weird Trick.Report
I’ll give a damn when the same people bitching about Trump acknowledge the crappy behavior Obama and Clinton committed. (you know–syria, lybiia, ukraine on obama’s watch….Until then it’s partisanship.Report