Republicans In Disarray!
Not so much.
Axios’ Alex Isenstadt reports on “The small cracks of dissent emerging in Trump’s GOP.”
His premise:
Republicans have been in near-lockstep with Trump in his second term. So the small pockets of resistance — on the National Guard deployments, free speech, the federal shutdown and more — signal concerns within the GOP as the 2026 midterms come into sight.
His evidence:
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia: Once one of Trump’s most loyal and outspoken supporters on Capitol Hill, Greene (along with Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie) has been vocal in calling on the White House to release the Epstein files. And Greene has seemed to echo Democrats in chiding GOP congressional leaders over the shutdown.
- “I’m carving my own lane,” Greene posted on X last week, adding that she was “absolutely disgusted” that health insurance costs for millions of Americans would soar if the GOP-led Congress doesn’t extend the tax credits Democrats are demanding to end the shutdown.
2. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt: He told The New York Times that he disagreed with Trump’s decision to send Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as part of the president’s crackdown on crime. Stitt, like scores of Democrats, called it a violation of “states’ rights.”
- “Oklahomans would lose their mind” if Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) “sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration,” Stitt said.
3. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox: He took to X over the weekend to express his unhappiness about the Trump administration canceling North America’s largest solar power project, saying, “This is how we lose the AI/energy arms race to China.”
4. Vivek Ramaswamy: The former GOP presidential candidate, now running for Ohio governor, made clear he disagreed with the administration’s pressuring of ABC that led to the brief suspension of late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, a frequent Trump critic.
5. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas: He compared FCC chair Brendan Carr’s implied threats to broadcasters such as ABC to mafia tactics, calling them “dangerous as hell.”
- Cruz said he plans to introduce a bill to make it easier for people to sue the government for censorship.
6. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine: The senator, who’s up for reelection next year, criticized White House budget director Russ Vought last week over his decision to permanently lay off thousands of federal workers during the shutdown.
- “Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important to serving the public,” Collins said.
Even granting that these are described as “small cracks” and not huge fissures, this is some mighty thin gruel. These are one-offs, mostly from Governors and would-be Governors, not people whose votes he needs in Congress. And none of them seem to be organizing to actually do anything about their complaints.
Unfortunately, only sustained economic hardship will shift support from the Trump agenda. I’m somewhat surprised the economy hasn’t crashed yet, and strangely I know its a pain I will need to accept if I want authoritarianism to fail. Everything I read shows that the near and far future belongs to China, and that scares the heck out of me so I’m willing to take short term economic pain if it wakes America up.
Speaking of Vivek Ramaswamy. He, along the Hindu community, is running into the bigotry of the far right Christian Nationalism.
Surprise! Vivek Ramaswamy’s Turning Point Event Derailed by Racism
Maybe the Democrats should invite him into their party, touting their pluralism.
That is quite an anemic list.
MTG is a known loose cannon. (Weirdly, she is the most important one on the list, given the thin margins the GOP has in the House.)
A couple of super-safe governors say a few critical things? Feh.
Cruz let Trump insult his wife and make up stories about his father. Let’s not expect a spine of steel there.
Vivek is finding out that maybe being one of the brown members of MAGA isn’t what it is cracked up to be.
And putting Senator Concerned on this list illustrates the absurdity of the thesis.
The sooner Vivek MAGAswamy sees the White Christian Nationalist handwriting on the wall, the better. The thought of that Trump humping, know-nothing, in-politics-because-he-is-bored asshat being governor of Ohio is nauseating. In the good ol’ days, Jim Jordan was the undisputed top embarrassment of the Buckeye State, but JD has elbowed Jordan aside, and now Vivek wants a bite at the apple. Vishnu willing, he will learn the same lesson that Eve did about biting into an apple.
Cracked
@Scott: The Interesting Times podcast has an interview with Doug Wilson, a leading Christian nationalist that ought to scare the sh#t out of everyone, Christian and others alike. I am reading a great book called Separation of Church and Hate that articulates how I would like to be able to respond to Christian nationalists.
@Gregory Lawrence Brown:..Internet in Disarray…
I can not see the image I posted on this thread in my comment at 10:31 on my iPhone. It is also unavailable on my MacBookAir when I use the DuckDuckGo browser. I get this message “Direct image access denied, please go to worthpoint.com to view images.”
I can see the image of Trump on the cover of Cracked magazine when I use the Safari browser. This time. No telling what will be displayed on Safari in the future.
@HelloWorld: Ross Douthat in NYT interviewed one Doug Wilson, an advocate of theocracy and apparently prominent in those circles. That’s a gift link, but I only recommend it if this is something you’re really interested in, it’s long, repetitive, and evasive. Upshot, he wants a theocracy but, trust him, they’ll only be nice about it. Douthat, as a conservative Catholic, is sympathetic, but it seemed to me even he was having trouble keeping a straight face.
I really think, if we’re gonna go around busting norms and reconsidering the civil rights of so many the usual suspects, we should consider raising the voting age of young men to 30.
Possibly 35. 40 is probably pushing it.
@Charley in Cleveland:
Why?
I’m really enjoying watching him humiliate himself and be humiliated. He’s never going to be on our side, and he’s not standing in the way of better Republicans rising.