- How Republicans loyal to Trump want Congress to rubber-stamp his every proposal, never mind America’s system of government;
- Trump thinks Biden was executed in 2020 and was replaced by a robotic clone;
- Trump has great ambitions to carve up the world, but he’s too dumb (why don’t his fans realize this?);
- Republicans would ban student clubs, to enforce conformity to the tribe;
- More about Joni Ernst and “we all are going to die”.
Following up on yesterday’s item by Peter Wehner about how Republicans no longer believe in the rule of law. (These examples come along every day. This one, though posted a couple days ago, is on the front page of today’s paper.)
NY Times, Anne Karni, 29 May 2025: For These Trump Voters, a Rubber-Stamp Congress Is a Key Demand, subtitled “In a recent pair of focus groups, voters loyal to President Trump judged members of Congress almost entirely according to whether they backed him — and rejected lawmakers who dared to dissent.”
Congress is a coequal branch of government empowered to make laws, control government spending and declare war. But according to Trump voters, the role of the legislative branch is to rubber-stamp the president’s agenda — and they don’t appreciate Republicans who deviate from the party line.
In two recent focus groups that quizzed older Trump voters from across the country about their views of Congress and congressional leaders, participants consistently praised lawmakers who displayed “loyalty” to President Trump and disparaged those whom they viewed as failing to fall in line behind him.
And
Their perspectives offered a striking contrast to the reception that many Republican lawmakers have confronted at raucous town halls throughout the country in recent months. The lawmakers have been grilled and booed by constituents at these events for supporting Mr. Trump’s policies on tariffs, immigration and, most recently, the sprawling domestic policy bill that the G.O.P. pushed through the House last week.
And they help explain why most Republican lawmakers have put aside any reservations they may have on key issues and backed the president — because a critical portion of their party’s base is still demanding that they do so.
“For loyal Trump voters, they’re loving what they see as him ‘doing something’ and don’t want congressional Republicans getting in the way of his agenda,” said Sarah Longwell, the anti-Trump Republican strategist who conducted the focus groups. “And members of Congress have gotten that message loud and clear.”
The trouble is they don’t realize the ‘something’ that Trump is ‘doing’. They don’t understand that he’s tearing down American achievements and infrastructure and its place in the world; or perhaps they do, and approve of his actions against brown people and eggheads.
This is your base human nature, tribal allegiance, “loyalty.” A surrender of thinking to a leader they mindlessly follow. They don’t deserve to be living in a country based on principles they deny.
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This story has been going around today.
Salon, Alex Galbraith, 1 Jun 2025: “Soulless, mindless entities”: Trump shares QAnon conspiracy theory suggesting Biden is a clone, subtitled “The president shared a post late Saturday night suggesting Biden had been ‘executed’ and replaced”
“There is no #JoeBiden – executed in 2020,” the reshared post reads. “#Biden clones, doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. #Democrats don’t know the difference.”
And
NY Times, 1 Jun 2025: Trump amplified an outlandish Biden conspiracy theory.
President Trump shared an outlandish conspiracy theory on social media on Saturday night saying former President Joseph R. Biden had been “executed in 2020” and replaced by a robotic clone, the latest example of the president amplifying dark, false material to his millions of followers.
The people who would believe this are simply unhinged from reality. It’s not about politics; it’s about the apprehension of reality. There are no robots capable of replicating a person. Even a biological clone is, at best, a belated twin. Admittedly, a lot of bad science fiction, virtually all in movies and TV, promulgate incorrect, simplistic ideas like this, especially the idea that a “clone” reproduces an adult person complete with memories. It doesn’t work this way.
If for no other reason, among the thousands of reasons we’ve had over the past decade, this completely discredits Donald Trump. What could be worse? Claiming the Earth is flat?
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More evidence?
Salon, Andrew O’Hehir, 1 Jun 2025: Does Donald Trump want to carve up the world — or keep it all for himself?, subtitled “Trump longs to revive the imperialist ‘Great Game’ alongside Xi and Putin. There’s a problem: He’s too dumb”
Foreign policy experts have struggled to make sense of the second Trump administration’s incoherent and contradictory approach to world affairs — which in itself ought to serve as a clue. First of all, it suggests that the Trump team is operating without a recognizable or familiar playbook, driven partly by the Great Leader’s famous whims and fancies and partly by competing streams of ideology. Secondly, it illustrates that the generations of think-tankers churned out by the graduate programs of elite Anglo-American institutions are completely at sea in this bizarre historical moment, whether in foreign policy or any other supposed discipline of governance.
I don’t understand why Trump fans don’t listen to this guy and realize how *dumb* he is. Is it because they’re dumb too? Or because they don’t care and support Trump as long as he supports their animosity against brown people and egg-heads?
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More about how conservatives reflect base human nature: suppress differences in favor of conformity to the tribe.
JMG, 1 Jun 2025: Texas Governor Gets Bill Banning LGBTQ Student Clubs
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More about Joni Ernst and “We all are going to die”.
Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist, 1 Jun 2025: Sen. Joni Ernst defends “we all are going to die” comment with pitch to embrace Jesus, subtitled “Instead of addressing fears of preventable deaths caused by GOP policies, Senator Ernst offered nothing but religion and ridicule”
Hemant comments,
Yes, we’re all going to die. The difference is that (decent) Democrats want to make your life worth living and make sure you have access to free or affordable care, while Republicans like Ernst want to hasten the deaths of those they believe deserve it.
The tone of her voice, though, said even more than that. It suggested that she didn’t give a damn about her own constituents who might die sooner than they might otherwise because she personally helped kick them off Medicaid, leaving them without any kind of social safety net.
Sure, people will die, she said, with the subtext being but isn’t that worth it to make rich people even richer?
The post here doesn’t address this, but I’ve never quite figured out the religious policy about death. On the one hand, death, if you’ve been a good person, leads to paradise. On the other hand, even Christians believe in medicine to prolong life. Why not just let good people die and get to heaven as soon as possible? I’ve no doubt there are numerous casuistic explanations for this.
