Recently, an anonymous article by a senior Republican official was published in the New York Times. The article is titled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." Previously, I wrote about how the left-wing resistance against Trump is "low energy". The recently-published article reveals key insights into why Republican "resistance" against Trump has been even more non-existent than the left-wing resistance.
"The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic."
The bolded portion explains everything we need to know. At heart, they agree with all the "principles" and "values" Trump outwardly claims to hold (even if, on a personal level, Trump has no ideology beyond megalomania). Their disagreements with him stem from the fact that they believe he is TOO INCOMPETENT TO IMPLEMENT the desired policies, not that the policies themselves are woefully ignoble and anti-American.
Other right-wing commenters have expressed this same sentiment (e.g. the numerous comments immediately after the election of "Trump makes us look bad because he's not acting 'presidential'" [read: not because of his ignoble policies] and "It's been a year and Trump still hasn't built the wall or repealed 'Obamacare' because he's too busy Tweeting; we need someone who actually gets things done"), but none have been so strongly infected with cognitive dissonance to act as if HELPING THE REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION MORE EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT ITS DESIRED POLICIES was some form of "heroic resistance".
"That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office."
The paragraph above reveals the strategic problem with much of the left-wing resistance and all of the right-wing "resistance". Mere verbal (or even unspoken) "vows". No real ACTIONS which thwart his goals or policies. By preventing Trump from acting on his most deranged impulses, they are not thwarting the presidency, but calculatedly steering it away from actions which would cause enough public and legal outrage to actually remove Trump from office and end this nightmare.
Moreover, the author has already revealed that he and other Republicans don't actually wish to thwart Trump at all. They "want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous." To drive this point into the ground, let's look at another paragraph:
"Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility."
Here, the author outlines a concrete plan which could have actually stopped Trump--but they were too cowardly to do anything more than "whisper" about it. (The same goes for all Republican Congressmen who have only "whispered" suggestions of impeachment and then drifted back into silence--while simultaneously supporting any legislation the administration puts forth). Individuals in positions of power (whether that be in Congress, the executive branch, media, etc.) who have not only passively allowed, but often actively encouraged, the Republican Party to become taken over by "Trumpism" are the ones who have allowed our nation to sink this low. The other half of the country has been trying to actually resist Trump.
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To summarize, 99% of so-called Republican "resistance" against Trump (including that of the author) can be summed up by the following:
• Overall, they agree with Trump's outwardly-professed right-wing policies, "principles", and "values" that he campaigned on and was elected for.
• They think it is somehow a form of "resistance" to desire and ensure the competent implementation of right-wing policies both they and Trump agree with.
• They pat themselves on the back for whispering empty vows while refusing to take actual action which they know could stop him (e.g. invoking the 25th Amendment, pursuing impeachment).
Because, again, they don't actually want to thwart him or his policies at all--in the author's own words, "We want the administration to succeed." What they really want is to prevent Trump's incompetence and instability from derailing the momentum Republicans currently have due to controlling all three branches of the federal government and most state governments.
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Far from being some sort of decisive blow against Trump, if anything, this article actually gives credence to Trump's accusations that the so-called "deep state" or "shadow government" works against the President in order to prevent the President from straying too far beyond the interests of established elites. (Of course, the billionaire Trump is himself part of that elite, and his tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of 'big business' (both of which are praised by the author), and constant attacks on "non-white" immigrants and refugees demonstrate he hardly cares about non-elite Americans. Moreover, the author is likely someone Trump himself personally approved to be part of his administration).
Remember all the times it was suggested that Russian interference in the election made Trump's election tantamount to "regime change," or that the Trump administration's collusion with Russia was treason? What does it say about the character of individuals who are throwing a "soft coup" to ensure that such a Republican administration is able to continue pursuing its goals rather than unravel from its own incompetence or be properly ended via Constitutional means (e.g. impeachment, removal under the 25th Amendment)?
What is happening is even worse than Americans could have ever feared--the "coup" is not implementing a "two-track presidency" to resist and thwart the mentally-deranged and utterly ignoble Trump, but to implement Republican policies more competently than he could do on his own.
As I have said before, it is not just Trump who is anti-American, but all in his administration and the Republican party who are rendering aid and comfort to him and adhere to his worldview.
The Republican who is doing the most to thwart Trump is Trump himself. The "resistors" are doing damage control for his "instability" and "worst inclinations" only because they "want the administration to succeed" with its objectives despite his incompetence. And that says everything Americans need to know about the sentiment behind this so-called "resistance".
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