I’m going to keep pointing this out until it becomes a part of the narrative.
The strategy of prominent Republicans flipping to vote for Harris is specifically designed to help Republicans win Congress.
If Republican voters are demoralized by the prospect of Trump, a lot are going to just stay home and not vote at all. That would lead to a Democratic electoral sweep.
Cheney, George Will and other Republican ghouls’ best option to avoid this is to give permission to their voting base to toss their Presidential vote to Harris, but also get them into the polls so they can be reliable Republican voters down the ticket and try to keep the House and take the Senate.
FFS, quit giving the enemy oxygen.
It doesn’t have to be 18D chess, but it can also be a result that republicans will take advantage of.
Interesting angle. If it wasn’t so close (how tf is it this close) I might agree more. But gop voters staying home, this way they vote for Harris and GOP Congress is also an interesting point. But maga Congress right now is a disaster, shutdowns and defaults are insane. So I think they want maga gone.
I’m not sure it’s a ‘pigs flying’ moment. Despite being an ultra-committed conservative, he’s been a critic of Trump since the beginning (and other unserious Republicans like Sarah Palin) and voted Democrat in 2016 and 2020 accordingly.
Honestly, fair dues to him. He’s from an elder era of more serious politics, and — as incongruent as it may sound when referencing those with a libertarian slant — an injection of that sort of seriousness is exactly what the American right-wing sorely needs. Like with Dick Cheney, I agree with him about virtually nothing — apparently except for the continuation of American democracy that’s tragically on the ballot this November.
I wish there were far, far more Republicans willing to act similarly.
Honestly the right is never “serious” and where they are right now is exactly the place they need to be. Nothing they want is backed by any evidence which says that it’s good for the people and rhe whole fucking ideology was born out of keeping people down when monarchies fell.
Fuck the right, serious or not nothing they do will ever help anyone but themselves and they are where they are right now because they chase the stupid and hateful for votes. Those are the only people who will actually go in for their nonsense and after a while they’re the people who also end up running and winning. It is seriously funny, if not slightly horrifying.
Not quite, Will de-registered as a Republican years ago… (checks notes) 2016.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/george-will-leaves-gop-224801
So he’s not anti-Conservative or anti-Republican, he’s just anti-Trump.
For those too young to remember, there was an era of intellectually honest conservatism. It was led by people like George Will and the late, lamented William F. Buckley Jr.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley_Jr.
Buckley would have shot Trump in the middle of 5th Avenue and gotten away with it.
Intellectually honest in expressing their support for apartheid, ignoring the Constitution in favor of segregation, and promoting military coups against democratically elected leaders of foreign countries?
Intellectually honest in that they were open to having their minds changed through debate. Buckley saw his earlier positions were wrong, and regretted that he took them. This stands in contrast to the Republican party of today which is almost entirely dogmatic in its beliefs.
This stands in contrast to the Republican party of today which
is almost entirely dogmatic in its beliefs.
Doubles down even when anything it believes is shown to be patently false/immoral/illegal.
This really isn’t that surprising. The Republican party has become a cult of personality around Trump, putting it at odds with actual, ideological conservatives.
I don’t know what Trump’s ideology is, or if he even has one. He seems to only believe in his own ambition, for wealth, power, and control.
However, conservativism does lend itself to people like Trump rising to power, because it promotes a central authority and/or aristocracy that preserves tradition, culture, and the established social order. Conservatism doesn’t just tolerate social hierarchies, like class, it promotes them, and, in fact conservatism believes that such hierarchies are not only necessary, but natural and essential. It makes sense that malignant narcissists would take advantage of such a system to try and take their “rightful place” at the top of the hierarchies, because they believe that they are inherently superior to everyone else.
This really isn’t that surprising. The Republican party has become a cult of personality around Trump, putting it at odds with actual, ideological conservatives.
Luckily for them, they still have a party.
Do you mean the Democrats? If so, yeah, the Democrats do seem willing to accept anti-Trump conservatives into their party.
The Democrats really want to be a big tent party. They’ll take just about anyone within a certain ideological range, centered around the American political middle. This definitely includes many conservatives.
I question the effectiveness of this strategy, though, as when you include too many opposing ideologies in a single party, it can be difficult for the party to choose a clear path to take. It’s often the case that when you try to appeal to as many different people as possible, you end up not appealing to very many people at all.
Do you mean the Democrats? If so, yeah, the Democrats do seem willing to accept anti-Trump conservatives into their party.
Willing to accept? They’ve been desperate to please them for decades.
The Democrats really want to be a big tent party. They’ll take just about anyone within a certain ideological range, centered around the American political middle. This definitely includes many conservatives.
And excludes progressives.
I question the effectiveness of this strategy, though, as when you include too many opposing ideologies in a single party, it can be difficult for the party to choose a clear path to take.
It would be if the default weren’t “pander to the right and only the right.”
I am so confused.
George Will
Who? Has he played a significant role in past elections and I’ve never noticed?
and baseball fan
Why? Why is this part of this story? It makes me want to care even less. Is that the point?
don’t how old you are, but will is old school republican. hails from what what was known as the “intellectual” appendage of the gop’s corpse. dude is wrong, but not dumb.
if we set aside the accelerated rightward sprint of the democrats since the 1980’s, a public kamala endorsement from him really is kind of a pigs flying moment.
this move might signal to the remains of his caste that its ok to secretly pull that dem lever or just sit it out. effect will likely be minimal, but not inconsequential in a super tight race.
what is more intersting is that parts of the lobotomized right are still making gurgling noises.
Yes, he has played a significant role in past elections all the way back to Reagan, and you haven’t noticed.
He’s an intellectual pundit that was on Fox News until 2017. He writes political commentary for the Washington Post; his column currently appears in 415 newspapers.
He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
He continues to appear on MSNBC to this day.
He’s also considered to be a baseball expert who has written extensively on the subject including his own book. Their “baseball fan” comment was intended to be cute, I think.
haven’t a clue myself.
I was like… “george who? King George? Curious George? George Costanza?”
George Will is a conservative commentator whose name is familiar to us olds. He used to write in Newsweek when it was a prominent magazine back in the day and was on TV. I imagine he is a never-trumper so what is surprising here is not that he would refuse to vote but that he will vote for Harris. That can only mean that the old guard conservatives recognize trump as an existential threat to the country which he is.
most of the super-rich folks prefer stability over chaos.
Like a lot of people talk about how rich Musk and Bezos are. They’re likely not the richest people in the world- they’re the richest people in the world dumb enough to talk about how rich they are. The Rockefeller family, for example, has who-knows-how-much stashed away in blind llc’s etc, and all the Old Money types pay a fortune to maintain their privacy.
People like the Koch brothers (well except that fourth one that’s not talked about,)… they endorsed trump last time around because he promised to deregulate everything- and they’ve been on a tear ever since they got dinged for benzene leaks in Corpus Christi.
