Never Trust a Never Trumper

There’s a lot of posting on BlueSky about the Times profile of Marjorie Taylor Greene that I wrote about yesterday. Specifically, there are some people who I respect there pointing out that it took some courage for MTG to do this (maybe, but what was her option?), and also that it’s good that she’s fighting Trump from the inside (yep). Most of the response has been similar to my post yesterday, which is essentially, give me a fucking break, we’ve seen this play before, and fuck the Times for participating in what’s a pretty obvious effort of hers to position herself in the coming fight for the Republican Party. (Previous example: Glenn Beck.)

One of the key points made by posters was that MTG’s anti-trans bill was being voted on in the House around the same time that the Times was glazing her, which is on-brand for the trans-hating Times.

You’d think that’s a pretty good argument, but here’s one of the never-Trumpers at the Bulwark to tell you that you’re wrong:

Yep, his point is that MTG deserves praise because she’s bringing her bill to a vote. She’s following the process, and the Trumpers don’t do that, so MTG is good, QED. Never mind that she hasn’t repented from being an election denier and harassing AOC, David Hogg and other Parkland survivors.

This is really how low the bar is for any Republican who wants to join the never-Trumper fold. They use Democrats’ hate of Trump, plus many liberals’ absolute addiction to anyone on the right who appears to repent, to keep making a “bigger tent” of people who hold some pretty abhorrent views. They’re good at media, a trade they learned while elevating Reagan, Bush and Romney. Unlike the Republicans the never-Trumpers helped elect, Trump doesn’t use the establishment that they’re part of to do his dirty work quietly. Trump and MAGA came into “their” town, pushed the never-Trumpers into the locker, gave them knobbies and swirlies, and took over.

Instead of acting like what they are — losers of an intra-party fight — they’ve decided that their next move is to tell Democrats that we need to revere process, throw trans people in the ditch, and basically listen to them as they drag the party to the right.

It’s fine for them to be allies, but they’re not in charge, and it’s more than fine to draw a line on principle. No never-Trumper is ever going to convince me that hating Trump gives them a license to ignore the kind of hatred that MTG has peddled, consistently, in her political career, even if she’s supposedly sorry now.