A Republican In Full

Good reminder from Pierce that Trump’s sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has the near-total support of the Republican conference:

The important thing to remember here, if you’re commenting on the obvious fact that this action borders somewhat on the sociopathic, is that it has the unanimous support of the Republican Party, inside the Congress and out. Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver, is all-in, and so is his caucus, including the Freedom Caucus maenads who very likely are dancing naked and tossing peeled grapes into each other’s mouths.

This is a philosophical revulsion against the very idea of a social safety net. The president* may be acting out of id-based contempt and bone-deep ignorance. But the support he’s getting for his actions from all the people who otherwise are laughing at him behind his back and hoping that he doesn’t start World War III in such a way that it can be hung on them in the next election is deliberate and calculated. It is a premeditated catastrophe visited on people whom Paul Ryan believes in the darkness of his soul and in the shadows of his mind do not deserve the help of the government of which they are a part. They just found a useful hatchetman to serve an agenda of ruthless sadism.

I still think it’s very wrong to think that just because the Republicans are a vote or two short of destroying the American health care system in the Senate that their coalition is on the verge of collapse. Trump and the Congress are on the same page, the executive branch is producing a lot of policy wins, and it’s almost impossible for their coalition to be noncompetitive in the House or Senate.

In related news, I enjoyed this Eric Levitz piece about what ungrateful brats Republican donors are.