Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) openly admitted that she and her Republican colleagues were “all afraid” of “retaliation” from President Donald Trump as she criticized what she called “unlawful” executive overreach and sweeping federal cuts.
“but what if I get primaried?” They ask as people are being sent to life in prison without being charged with a crime.
Jesus Christ, how do you make it this far in politics with this little spine or conviction? Is it really that easy?
Chris Van Hollen travelled to a dictatorship to free a man wrongfully imprisoned without due process by two authoritarians, while these simpering cowards whine about the monster they created.
I have emailed my congressman this article and asked if he was just a coward. I’m unhopeful for a response.
Politicians: Take the job and the paycheck to represent the people, bow out when it’s time to do that.
I might get called extremist for this, but senators and representatives should be willing to kill their career and reputation in politics to fight for their constituents. Otherwise, are we just paying them to have a good time??!
There definitely needs to be a restructuring of incentives
“We are all afraid”, says one of the literally only people on the planet with the power to actually do something about it.
Seriously. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, YOU FUCKING CHODE.
This whole ordeal can be stopped by about half a dozen Republicans any time they want.
Threaten to leave the party, go independent, and caucus with Democrats to appoint a new House and Senate speaker. It would take, what, 3? Maybe 4 Republicans in each chamber to flip control of Congress. You don’t even have to hold your nose and vote with Democrats on actual funding bills or anything. Just vote with Dems on curtailing Trump’s actions and impeaching the fucking bastard. Even if you can’t get him removed from office because the rest of your party are spineless cowards, you could at least pass bills to do things like reverse these stupid tariffs and actually reclaim power that was granted to you by the Constitution in the first fucking place.
This woman, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins have all spoken up. All they need to do is find one more Republican willing to say “We are willing to caucus with Democrats to elect a new Senate majority leader unless our demands to curtail these damaging Trump tariffs, reclaim Congressional powers, and reverse these destructive policies are met.” That’s it. Same in the house. 3 Republicans in the house willing to stand up and caucus with Democrats to get shit back under control.
But if all you’re going to do is complain about being “afraid” when you’re simultaneously rubber-stamping his entire agenda, then have a coke and a smile and shut the fuck up, because you voted for this. And if the rest of us are going to have to suffer because of your cowardice, then we’re going to at least get some entertainment out of it along the way once the leopard starts eating your face.
I have absolutely zero pity for some of the most overpaid, well-protected, resourceful people on the planet when they’re the ones complaining about being afraid. Fuck you. What about the rest of us? You seem to have been perfectly OK with it when it was just the brown people and poors being effected.
“We are all afraid!”, …but we don’t want to lose our privilidge by opposing him.
Fuck you cowardly cunt.
As noted, a small group could end this.
Naw, she is no coward. She is a pro-abortion Republican that voted against Trump. Rather than be her ally you act like a little bitch.
How come this is the first time we’re hearing from her, then?
Bernie Sanders has been out on the trail since January, circling the country telling everyone that Trump is a dangerous criminal. Where was Murkowski at? Not there, that’s for sure. Not running her own version of the same. She backed and approved every single Trump cabinet appointee except for Hegseth.
Forgive me if I’m not impressed.
I am not here to make excuses. She happens to be my representative in Alaska. I am very happy we have her because she is a decent human being in a state that is full of Republican assholes.
It’s interesting you mention why Republicans are so unwilling to consolidate votes, yet the only time in history where they did consolidate votes was to prevent Hunter S Thompson from becoming sheriff of Aspen.
The Christian nationalists would absolutely crucify them, it’s career suicide and they know it.
So what? It’s better for the country.
I’m thinking they are more fearful of their friends and family being murdered.
Lol, the Republicans never cared about what’s best for the country
In a just world, they should feel that capitulating to Trump’s agenda would be actual suicide.
Sadly, it might actually be heading in the exact opposite direction. If they don’t capitulate to him, it may soon be more dangerous than just losing their career.
I hate this timeline
The American citizenry is going to live a lot longer than Fuhrer Trump will and we aren’t about to forget what happened here.
Are they so unskilled they couldn’t just go get another job? (I’m not asking you to defend them - just pointing out the absurdity)
Probably not one as cushy, and where they are favored if they just fall in line
But they’re fine with letting the country burn so they can keep their jobs.
She’s 67 years old. She’s been in the Senate for over 20 years. She can decide to retire after her current term and they can’t use the threat of a primary against her. It’s her choice to cower in fear and empower the destruction of our democracy. Because she is watching that happen. In the end she’s just another pathetic boomer willing to bow to trump to cling to power.
67 year old politicians aspire to cling to power for 20 more years
they can’t use the threat of a primary against her
She lost the 2010 primary during the height of the Tea Party movement, ran a campaign to have people vote for her as a write in candidate, and won as a write in.
In the end, the problem is that her vote doesn’t actually matter this cycle, at least not by itself. In order to flex any muscle she’d need to actually persuade some colleagues to stand up to Trump. At this point she’s more of a Republican Fetterman than a Republican Sinema/Manchin.
Yeah, I’m aware she’s an outlier in that she beat back the crazies once before, but 2010 is not 2024. In 2010 Trump wasn’t a factor. The cult was forming, but there was no messiah yet. If tomorrow trump singled her out for hate like he did Liz Cheney she’d get wrecked instantly, and she knows it.
Alaska is just weird, and I wouldn’t attribute too much in national electoral trends to that specific state. It now has an instant runoff general election after a top-4 jungle primary, which makes the craziest candidates less viable. Sarah Palin is very much a Trumpist, but couldn’t win a statewide election in 2022 (enough Republicans in the state hate her that they voted for Begich first, then flipped to the Democrat or didn’t vote once Begich dropped out in the instant runoff).
It’d be hard to properly analyze a hypothetical about Murkowski running for reelection amidst a Trump attack campaign and an endorsement of a more Trumpist opponent, but I wouldn’t discount her chances even in that environment. Especially if she does succeed in forming a mini caucus with other Republican Senators that fight to preserve legislative power to check the Presidency.
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
You took an oath. Being afraid isn’t an excuse.
We expect 19 year old soldiers to run into fire and destruction to honor their oaths. We expect no less from our elected representatives.
I’ve said this before, but being an elected politician should be treated as a position of service, not of status and excess. If you want the office for the right reasons then having some downsides to taking the power should be no big deal.
Democracies are only as functional as their courts. I think the US court system has been failing its people in a lot of ways, for some time now.
Yea it’s almost like a particular party has a think tank which invaded prestigious law schools, and strated grooming lawyers right out of highschool to become judges for republicans. Just like everything else in this country today, they removed the merit, installed nepostism, and control the narrative.
Yeah and if they haven’t noticed - creeping fascism only gets worse the longer you let it linger. Time to bite the bullet and do something, it’s not going to go away on its own and we’re all going to be in more danger (including GOP senators) the longer it goes on.
I took that oath at 18.
Reading these headlines me think and feel that military service should be a prereq for US Congressional/presidential office.
Substitute “military service” with “minimum wage customer service,” and you’re onto something.
Why not both?
The only thing i want less than MTG, is MTG with military training.
Every republican in this situation should resign, let someone brave take their place.
Or, keep their seat, and vote in lock-step with the opposition.
Wouldn’t that just allow Trump to install one of his puppets?
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Are they afraid of ending up in this CECOT mound?
Is that blood on the ground next to the mound of what I can only assume are dozens of bodies?
We don’t know. Can someone drop the coordinates here or Reddit thread? I used to work on this kind of imagery and would like to poke around (we sold to Google too!). I’m a bit suspect of it. The ‘bodies’ (not being sarcastic, I dk what it is but that’s not unusual for aerial imaging) do not look proportionate. Google offers imagery from 10m per sq pixel to 0.3m. The older stuff, and stuff not in the first world is much more likely to be on the bigger end. Those ?objects seem too big. Look at the length of the units against the structures. Not saying terrible things don’t happen there, but from the clip, they look like giants but I have to look at it to actually know what’s going on. Also, they’re awfully straight for a haphazard pile.
Edit: I’m pretty sure they are too big, unless they’re housing some 9ft+ humans. Look at the cars and road nearby for size comparisons. That stain is also persistent across years to some degree.
Edit edit: Also take the colour with a grain of salt, those images get bulk normalised.
For anyone wondering, she did vote to convict trump during his second impeachment.
Not sure what’s she’s done between now and then, but she’s no McConnell or Green,
America is becoming a technocracy and the political class are so paralyzed, they think a technocratic government would have space for them because they are rich and powerful now.
Technocracy would be fine. However it seems more like crazy racist incompetence. Even if they are trembling in fear, why do they not stand up?
Technocracy is more paternalistic than democracy, racism in the past was also backed by science and the firsts iq tests unfortunately, since the cost of doing science is often high it can be manipulated to political ends.
In my opinion they are scared, but feel protected by their social standing, the logical decision for them would try to stabilize their wealth and adapt to the changes or leave the country if they are politically ostracized.
Clearly they are not yet NEARLY afraid enough about the path they’re allowing the Trump admin to take.
Oh no, you might get primaried?
They’re terrified that if they get primaried, they will no longer be in a position where they can mostly avoid the impact of trump’s petulance.
You know, like the common people
We already know almost all of them are spineless.
