Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse continues his campaign to be considered a Trump resister despite not actually resisting very much. Appearing on the Sunday morning show State of the Union, Sasse groused to Jake Tapper that he thinks about leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent "every morning."
"I probably think about it every morning when I wake up and I figure out, why -- why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to D.C. this week? Are we going to get real stuff done?"
Sasse said he is "committed to the party of (Abraham) Lincoln and (Ronald) Reagan as long as there's a chance to reform it. But this party used to be for some pretty definable stuff. And, frankly, neither of these parties are for very much more than being anti."
It seems the last Democratic president was "for" quite a bit—you know, all those things Sasse's party has been attempting to repeal, for example—but aside from that? Sure, whatever. Add Sasse to the pile of Republicans who are thinking very, very strongly about maybe standing up for their own principles at some point, in the future, just you wait. Probably after the elections or something.
But no matter what Trump does or how much corruption his administration gets caught in, Sasse is devoted to the idea that the other party is, assuredly, just as bad.
The Nebraska senator went on to call the 2016 election a "dumpster fire" and decried party divisions he believes both major presidential candidates sowed.
Under criminal investigation for allegedly conspiring with a Russian government espionage effort against the United States, losing numerous cabinet officials to corruption, having multiple campaign aides indicted, getting caught paying hush money in an illegal campaign-year arrangement to cover up multiple affairs of the seediest sort, and rank incompetence requiring administrative staff to step in time and time again to avert national catastrophe—all of that is bad, to be sure.
But the other party is probably just as bad, for some reason. Probably the part about asking people to be less racist or wanting people to have health care. It's not clear. Don't make Ben explain it.
Fine, so you keep "thinking" about objecting to the "reality TV circus" and "chaos" of the White House by quitting the party or doing something else bold and principled, but without ever actually doing it. So what is it you want, senator? A cookie?
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