See, here's where Republicans stump me. If you called me a coward, I'd prove you wrong.

[Miles Archer]

It's not that I have a fragile ego or are easily triggered. It's that I'm honest enough with myself, and i can also look back over a lifetime and see situations where I could have taken the coward's way out, OR fought back, and I fight back.

In case you're wondering why I'm posting this, it's in regard to this piece:

Here is why Trump is cleaning his opponents' clocks

...and excerpts from it like this:

As Linkins wrote, Republicans continue to sit on their hands while a twice-impeached former president surges ahead despite 34 felony indictments and the "dark cloud" of his inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6 hovers over him.

Looking back, he wrote, "In 2016, the Republicans in the field allowed Trump to seize a surfeit of unearned alpha mystique by largely failing to retaliate — not with equal force, anyway — when he landed his crude and sometimes shocking blows. They treated him on the debate stage like an interloper with poor manners, and begged whatever referee happened to be standing by to please enforce the Marquess of Queensbury rules tout de suite, like a gang of gilded fops from some forgotten Molière comedy."

See, I DO NOT THINK REPUBLICANS ARE "HELPLESS" against Trump.

Why do I say that? When Alvin Bragg announced his indictment, there was REASONABLE CONCERN that New York might face another January 6th. Maybe NOT so reasonable in that I do not believe for a second that the NYPD would have allowed it. So the concern WAS reasonable, but...a handful of MAGAts showed up, along with a healthy helping of Anti-Trump protesters, most likely because the MAGAts had seen their compatriots thrown down the dungeon hole as a reward for loving their bloated orange messiah.

So Republicans are cowering in fear over what "COULD" happen if they crossed Trump, rather than storming that fucking hill and planting that flag and being FREE OF THIS ASSHOLE ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Hey...I'm Italian. Sometimes we sit around the table for hours and think things through. Other times, we charge. Republicans apparently lack the spine for option 2.

[MiHale]

1. Spine lacking for #2...critical thinking skills lacking for #1...

[BeerBarrelPolka]

2. I'm Italian

You shouldn't lump us all together by painting with a broad brush. Make your point, leave the Italians out of it.

My personal take is that trump is doing the dirty work for Republicans. They may not actually like him, but they like the messages he is conveying. He's getting support from a percentage of the voters and the Repubs will ride that wave as long as they can.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Didn't McCain bite back?

And even Cruz, something about those "NY values"? They were ignored.

[70sEraVet]

4. His Republican rivals can't openly oppose him, because they NEED his voters.

They are hoping that the Democrats take him down, so that they can shed crocodile tears about how unfair it all was.

[Martin Eden]

5. Republicans in Congress are the biggest COWARDS

McCarthy, among others, were truly aghast at what Trump perpetrated on Jan 6, and blamed him for it.

Then they realized the Republican voting base still loved their criminal cult leader. Instead of standing firm for our Constitution and the rule of law, McCarthy went crawling to Mar-a-Lardass to lick his boots.

Hard right conservative Liz Cheney was a rare exception, and they saw what happened to her -- censured by her colleagues and defeated in her next election.

The Republican Party is going straight to hell, deservedly so.

It's our job and that of all Democrats to ensure the whole country doesn't get dragged down with it.

[dawg]

6. The MAJORITY of white voters in this country have gone off the deep end ...

and either want Trump or someone just like him. They believe ridiculous things and are not living in reality.

Republicans who stand up for the truth end up like Liz Cheney or Mark Sanford.

[stopdiggin]

7. I don't think 'courage' and 'cowardice'

or charging up hills to plant a flag really has much to do with it. (you're entitled to your opinion, but .. ) What I see is basically political calculation based on current condition and context (McConnell, Graham), rather than fear or subordination. Always and ever 'opportunists', but not necessarily sycophants. With a large second helping of - Trump leading (or figureheading) a significant portion of the right (Taylor-Greene, Boebert, DeSantis - along with huge swaths of the public) to a place that they in most part already inhabited. In other words - not cringing in fear - but active boosters and supporters.

I've always thought the 'fear' of Trump was greatly overstated (and perhaps genuinely misunderstood) in the media. There's probably been a good deal of head scratching in political circles on the subject of how to 'deal' with the chaotic dumpster diver - and like a zombie corpse there is the unnerving tendency to keep shambling along, long past the time he should be dead - but I think those things are different from the 'advertised' fear and subjugation.