Never Trumpers In Disarray!

So, wow, this happened, and h/t to Alert Listener/Reader Dave for tagging me on it, and to all the rest of you Alert Citizens who followed suit.

Nicolle Wallace:  But I have to say, as somebody who worked in Republican politics my whole life, the Left was right about everything. They were right that Donald Trump got so much attention the media helped propel him -- and I'm part of it, so I'm not blaming anybody.  I mean the the Left, which has been covered and tried... people tried to brand them as the "radical Left", they've been right about everything and any attempt to say there were two sides here is dead wrong.

This happened, and in our little corner of the interwebs this was pretty seismic.  Don't know what to compare it to.  Maybe, in an entirely different context,  Kirk kissing Uhura, as the lore of that moment has been passed through the years.  First, holy shit and then the "Did you see that?!" phone calls to fellow nerds, because, holy shit, an interracial kiss on the teevee!  And it didn't matter that the characters were acting under compulsion, or that it was shot in a way that they didn't...quite...kiss.  What mattered was that it was such a direct punch in the mouth to the prevailing culture from such a completely unexpected direction.  

However, if you play the video past the Ms. Wallace's truthblurt, you'll see where trouble is about to come from.  Because  "the Left was right about everything" does not comport at all with the Never Trump party line, which is why Charlie Sykes moved immediately to steer the conversation back into safe waters.  Hell, Sykes barely acknowledges that "the Left" exists at all except as a sullen Twitter mob that refuses to acknowledges that Charlie Sykes and his very recently woke Bulwark Republican crew are America's greatest and wisest heroes, or that his Republican Party was anything other than a Force for Good In Our Times up until five years years ago when Donald Trump showed up and magically transformed it overnight into a mob of vandals and lunatics. 

Charlie Sykes was there for two reasons.  

To make damn sure any criticism of the Republican Party was limited to the past four years:

Sykes:  Well the larger picture here though is that look, um, if you're really upset about bigotry and conspiracy theories then how do you explain the fact that the Republican Party -- including Senator Kramer -- supported Donald Trump for the last four years.  He was the conspiracy theorist...

And, acting his capacity as the CEO of Republican Absolution Incorporated, Sykes let the world know that, no matter how shitty or complicit you have been for decades, if you're a Republican you can still wash yourself in the Blood of the Lamb and rejoin Sykes and the ranks of the sanctified for the low, low price of just tossing off a token apology about Donald Trump:

Sykes:  Well and you and I spent the last four years basically saying, "When are you going to do this?  When are you going to speak up?"  And you're you're right about that.  I mean Ben Sasse broke our hearts many times.  We went into hiding before he got reelected. He voted with the president time and time again  But you know here's the thing, Nicolle.  Right now, uh, in order to save this country we are going to need people who see the light. We are going to have to welcome people who, in fact, are late to the table, um, because, I mean look, next week we want to... we want to have senators who look at the evidence and will go,  "You know what?  I... I... made a mistake by going along with this guy.  I have changed my mind.  I am willing to put country over party."  And you know what we ought to do is  saying welcome! Welcome to the team of putting country over party, as opposed to saying, "Hey now it's too late. Who cares what you think."  Because that's their calculation.  Their calculation is, I could do the right thing and I will just get beaten up and nobody will say anything nice about me.

Just do that, Republican, and by the power vested in Charlie Sykes, thou shalt be immediately and completely absolved and can go right back to the business of getting elected by playing the greatest hits from the Golden Age of Conservatism like "Liberals are America-hating, terrorist loving scum" or "Liberals are gun-grabbing, baby-killing Commies" or "Hillary Clinton's Lesbian Mafia murdered Vince Foster" or "Why do Liberals hate Jesus?" or any other mad-lib from the titles of every Regnery Press Conservative book printed in the past 30 years.  

And this was not just a one-off.  Goodness no.  Mr. Sykes regularly preaches a whole sermonette on his podcast on the twin subjects of the villainous Woke Twitter Left (Hey, that's me!) who refuse to ind their manners, shaddap and sit down, and the importance of being extremely generous when granting blanket absolution to Republicans who make even the most minimal gesture in the direction of regret.

Here is Mr. Sykes on his own podcast in conversation with Tim Miller on the same day he had the above exchange with Nicolle Wallace on her show:

Sykes:  Can I just make a little note?  There's... there's still a group of, uh, progressives out there that have decided that... that, y'know, all Conservatives need to be excommunicated.  [Sykes imitating a petulant child] "You built this, Tim Miller.  You laid the... We... y'know, maybe you should just sit down or maybe you should spend your time..." somehow, I don't know, as a shepherd.  You know, doing... doing something else.

Yeah, because in Charlie Sykes' universe the worst thing in the world would be for Conservative  blowhards who have been wrong about big, important stuff for decades to be deprived of their inalienable right to large public platforms.  He believes this so deeply that he feels perfectly justified in lecture us radical woke Lefties on what's best for us.

Sykes: Really, it is going to be these voices -- many of whom you disagreed with in the past, maybe even people who really  disappointed you -- they're going to be crucial.  You're going to need them.

Got that Libtard!   Charlies Sykes is setting the terms now and according to Charlie, Republicans who worked for decades to turn their party into a monster machine have no need to apologize to those of us who warned them over and over again not to do it, or change their behavior in any substantive way.  

In fact they don't need us at all.  Instead, for some reason that makes sense to Mr. Sykes' disordered imagination, we need them.  And since we need them, you and I  we need to be on our Sunday best behavior and shut our whiny Liberal gobs, because this is Charlie's universe, not ours.

And in Charlie's universe you know what happens to people who don't mind their manners and do as they're told.

And to explain just exactly why you and I need to sit down and shut up, Charlie has cooked up what bids fair to be the stupidest theory of politics I have ever heard:

Sykes:  Um, so, this... this... this.. thing that you often get on the Very Online Left which is, y'know, like well screw Mitt Romney or screw all these people.   Well if in fact you create an incentive structure where, if Republicans next week, for example, during the impeachment trial, a Republican stands up and says, "You know what, I want to put country over party.  I want to put principles over this kind of tribalism." And if the very online Left says well screw you... you... know you... you... built this, you're part of this, well don't be surprised then when Republicans huddle in the tribe, right?  I mean it's like at some point you have to understand that this fever is going to be broken by people that might not have been regular guests on MSNBC or NPR.  

First, I don't know if I should laugh or cry at Charlie's patently ludicrous assertion that some wingnut yahoo's decision whether, for once in their miserable career, they can be shamed into doing the minimally decent thing...

...or whether they'll scamper even deeper into the depths of the Republican Treason Caucus...

...is balanced on the knife's edge of my good opinion of them.

Hey Charlie, the conmen and Klansmen that make up your Republican Party were running campaigns slandering people like me as gun-grabbing, baby-killing Commies long before Trump ever showed up, and they're going to go right on doing it long after he's gone.   Hating people like me is their political operating system.  It's their mother tongue.  So it really doesn't matter one good god damn what I think about them or say about them.

Second, Republicanism is not a fever to be broken.  Obama made that mistake and we've all paid dearly for it since.  Republicanism is a plague: something to be overcome, contained, starved, driven back into the racist sewer from whence it came and inoculated against so that it can never return.  

And third,  if Nicolle Wallace was speaking the truth and "the Left was right about everything"...well, where the fuck are we?   I mean, since we were right about everything shouldn't the voices of the "radical Left" be on the air at least some of the time?  Because I pay pretty close attention to such things and I can't remember the last time I actually saw one of us scurvy Very Online Left hell-raisers running off the leash on MSNBC.  

On the other hand, at any hour of the day or night, you can't swing a dead cat in that place without hitting at least a couple of Never Trumpers passing each other in the hall on their way to their next appearance.  

Never Trumpers like Nicolle Wallace.  

And Joe Scarborough and most of his crew.  

And Michael Steele.  

And Mike Murphy.  

And Tom Nichols.   

And Tim Miller.  

And David Jolly. 

And Bill Kristol.   

And Steve Schmidt.  

And Stuart Stevens. 

And Rick Wilson.  

And you, Charlie.  

So until there is at least a rough parity between your people's representation in the media and mine, maybe you should cut down on the sniveling about how the Very Online Left hurts your fee-fees and if we don't shut our mouths, your Party of Bigots and Imbeciles might not decide to momentarily stop doing treason.

And speaking of Rick Wilson et al, I will be fascinated to hear how you're going to steer your policy of  welcoming Republicans who are very, very, very late to the table with open arms and no questions asked,  around the stated policy of your very good friends at the Lincoln Project of Fuck Those Guys!  Excerpted from "Boom Times Are Coming to the Indulgence Factory":

Rick Wilson's judgement is pitiless:

“Nobody is fooled by these last-second, come-to-Jesus conversions."

Steve Schmidt believes such people should be rendered unemployable:

Book Deals, speaking opportunities, companies, firms, lobby shops, media companies should think carefully https://t.co/6ZkpdmtKOw

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 9, 2021

As does Fred Wellman:

We aren't doing "unity and healing" at @ProjectLincoln. We are doing "justice and unemployment" for you. You don't get to pretend you didn't encourage an insurrection that left 5 dead in our Capitol and just move on. We aren't moving on.

— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) January 9, 2021

And Stuart Stevens promises that the Lincoln Lads will be maintaining an Enemies List to keep track who is naughty and who is nice:

At @ProjectLincoln we are constructing a database of Trump officials & staff that will detail their roles in the Trump administration & track where they are now. No personal info, only professional. But they will be held accountable & not allowed to pretend they were not involved https://t.co/DkpxpaWaWB

— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) January 9, 2021

Thank you. They need to all be held accountable. No laundering reputations.

— Shawn Connery (@ShawnConnery2) January 9, 2021

Yikes!

And speaking of the Lincoln Lads, at the rate they're shedding -- 

21 Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Online Harassment

John Weaver, a longtime G.O.P. operative who advised John McCain and John Kasich, made sexual overtures to young men, sometimes offering to help them get work in politics.

-- co-founders --

Former NHGOP Chair Jennifer Horn parts ways with anti-Trump Lincoln Project super PAC Horn cites accusations against fellow group co-founder Weaver

Former state Republican Party Chair Jennifer Horn confirmed Friday night she has parted ways with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, citing “grotesque” accusations against another co-founder, John Weaver, by nearly two dozen men of soliciting sexual favors in return for jobs.

The New York Times first reported Horn’s resignation, and she provided her full statement to WMUR.

"Upon careful consideration, I have terminated my relationship with the Lincoln Project, effective immediately,” Horn wrote. “John Weaver’s grotesque and inappropriate behavior, coupled with his longstanding deceptions concerning that behavior, are sickening.”

She added, “It is clear at this point that my views about how the Lincoln Project’s efforts are managed, and the best way to move the Lincoln Project forward into the future in the wake of these awful events, have diverged.”

--and getting into ugly public fights --

When you putting out public statements like this, you ain’t winning. pic.twitter.com/lvLHJocZvx

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 6, 2021

-- over how they handle their business -- 

@TaraSetmayer deleted her defamatory tweet about me. I guess the @ProjectLincoln lawyers finally weighed in after first dealing with the rest of the LP scandals. Don't mess with me again, guys -- I promise you it won't turn out well for you. F around and find out, right, Rick? https://t.co/VgqFY4PwaF

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) February 8, 2021

--- I figure there's a fair chance that I might wind up on their board.  After all, they have no idea what my civilian name is, and as a bald, middle-aged white guy with a goatee and a thesaural vocabulary who calls Donald Trump a poppy poo head, what more qualifications do I need?

So, to sum up, the radical Left has been right about everything, except...

...the Left also needs to immediately shaddap and sit down and let Never Trumpers like Charlie Sykes run the show because there's nothing more important than not bruising the tender feelings of Republican bigots, imbeciles and con men who might, someday, be forced to do one minimally decent thing, except...

...Never Trumpers like the Lincoln Lads say fuck those "these last-second, come-to-Jesus" converts, they're going on the Enemy's List, except...

...at the rate they're losing corporate offices and shitting the bed in public who knows who'll be running that place and speaking on their behalf a month from now?  Hell, given their sketchy HR procedures, who knows? It might even be your favorite member of the radical Left :-)

And that sure looks like disarray to me.

No Half Measures