As the months pass and the president gleefully drags our nation deeper and deeper into the abyss of toxic nationalism and authoritarianism, his Republican backers have remained silent and complicit, preferring to cling to power than to lift a finger to stop the dissolution of the democracy and the tarnishing of the ideals they claim to defend in their performative and entirely insincere expressions of “patriotism.”
Oh, sure, every once in a while some Senator might offer a stern “Mr. President, have you no decency!” or a somber “this is not what our country is about!” but when followed up with no kind of action whatsoever, they might as well be admonishing a giant mountain of pudding for all the effect it has.
One of the most shameless culprits has been Sen. “Little” Marco Rubio of Florida, who has made an art of humiliating himself by issuing criticisms of the president and then immediately and very publicly walking them back as soon as he feels the slightest hint of pushback.
Rubio took to Twitter yesterday to complain about how Republicans won’t criticize Trump, while not criticizing Trump, because they don’t want to be seen as siding with the “unfair” media that has largely gone out of their way to normalize and excuse Trump’s behavior while simply pointing out the truth about the destructive effects of his impulsive and malicious policies.
Many Republicans won’t criticize Trump even when they don’t agree with him b/c it means siding with a media that nevers cuts him a break,turns even little things he does into an act of evil,are also unfair to them & in the end will still attack you anyway https://t.co/jv3A18ka4V
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 27, 2018
Of course, Rubio is guilty of doing just that time and time again – and NeverTrump Republican strategist Ana Navarro smacked him down for his shameful attempt to weasel his way out of culpability:
Let me fix this for u, Marco:
Many Republicans, including u, won’t criticize Trump even when they know he’s dividing the country, cheapening the Presidency, diminishing America’s standing, causing unspeakable pain to families, & is all around horrible, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO SPINE https://t.co/bicB15bsfH
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) June 27, 2018
Nobody in politics is more infamous for being a spineless coward than Marco Rubio, who is the definition of a political operator who will say and do whatever it takes to stay in power, no matter how heinous a hypocrisy or how shameless a flip-flop he has to make.
Whether it’s gay rights, gun rights, healthcare, or even support for the man who publicly humiliated him on multiple occasions, Rubio can always be found on the wrong side of the issue after having publicly declared support for the opposing position.
A miserable and pathetic creature who usually prefers to cower in the corner and fire off passive-aggressive Bible verses when he doesn’t like what the President is doing, Rubio is the ubiquitous exemplar of Republican complicity in the dismantling of our democracy and the whitewashing of the president’s ethnonationalist populism – and we must make sure he and the rest of his cronies pays the price for it.
