Politics Why don't Republicans care?

Just your opinion. My opinion is, abuse of power is about equal in both parties at this time.

 

That is more of a regurgitation of what some other misinformed Trump loyalists have been saying than anything else...but it's not entirely true. Trump supporters like to incessantly point to what they deem as "fake news" while at the same time creating their own version of the truth.

The Dems are just as dysfunctional but your claim is a very broad and generalize statement...sure, there were a very few rookies who always disliked Trump but if you do some research, you'll be hard pressed to find that many Dems in Congress who were actually purveyors of "impeachment" talk "from the get go".

 

And so, to Stevenson’s main question, I would say that the responses we see here demonstrate that politics is largely tribal in nature and people believe what they want to believe.

 

Pretty much always been that way for the most part.

 

I'm not a Republican, but politics really isn't about what you care about beyond the broad principles/policies you're fighting for as a party. Whether Trump is corrupt isn't one of those broad principles/policies--I'm sure a number of Republican politicians care and think he is absolutely corrupt. Maybe even all of them. But what happens if they go after Trump? Trump commands the approval of 80-90% of Republican voters. How do you survive as a Republican politician by angering 80-90% of your voters? Any Republican senator that votes to convict Trump, or actively talks about him as corrupt, is looking at getting drummed out of their position via a primary challenge. They'd much rather remain in their position than stand on principle. And they can justify it to themselves as staying in power to advance their important principles like lower taxation and...well, I'm not sure there's much else they stand for at the moment that they'd actually fight for and spend political capital on.

Once you've decided you can't oppose Trump, the only playbook you can run is shrugging off his actions as fake news and exaggeration.

 

Hello, long time listener, first time caller.

 

Rich boy on a car phone!

 

Thank you.

 

But @Minstrel lets just add that it’s amazing, no weird, no repugnant that no one defends his actions. Not even the righties here.

That really was my question.

I get why the senators are defending him, you make a really good point. But that no one other than them won’t go agains him is just so strange.

 

Well, when I die, and go to hell. I hope the devil is in charge, and not Pelosi.

 

It sets a very dangerous precedent to actively obstruct an investigation. When you withhold evidence, ignore subpoenas and threaten witnesses, you not only encourage further corruption but you also jeopardize the whole checks and balances system our government was founded on.

 

The issue is a lot of people in this country don;'t care about right or wrong. There is a big portion of this country, a lot of them back our current president, who are pushing and hoping for a civil war. It is like they get off on the idea of being able to break any law and taking up arms against their fellow citizen. Look at what is going on in Virginia. All the "Militias" are assembling. A lot of them going with ever intent of breaking the law and trying to start a war.

 

That, as e-blazer said, is down to tribalism. And, if I'm honest, Democrats aren't immune to it either. I've seen plenty of hypocrisies from Democrats when defending their own. I think Republicans are more likely to close ranks than Democrats (for example, Democrats did largely take Al Franken to task for his alleged sexual harassment, pressuring him to step down--we've seen that Republicans try to weather the storm under similar circumstances) but Democrats, especially private citizens as opposed to politicians, are plenty willing to engage in ad hoc defense of their party.

It's not simple dishonesty (for either side)--it's that your perceptions tend to change when you're appraising "your people." The best illustration I can think of, of such thinking, is football fans--a football fan is far more likely to see all sorts of holding by the other team, but almost none from their own team even though nearly every play has blocks that at least skirt the edge of holding. Most football fans think they're being objective, but through the prism of their bias, they chalk up the "on the edge" plays by the opposition to missed calls and see "on the edge" plays by their own team as just the usual trench warfare. Nobody sees themselves as being cool with holding but only for their own team. How they see the thing is inextricably tied up in who they're rooting for.

The same is true, to an even greater extent, in politics.