Trump’s team has policy positions. Trump cares about immigration, the wall, and trade. Not much else. And even on those issues, he doesn’t have even a basic understanding of the issues, nor does he care to learn. He wants to be able to say he did those things. He likes praise and credit, hates being criticized, and he…

You have it backwards. He isn’t speaking out because he’s retiring. He’s retiring because he spoke out. He kept criticizing Trump, and Trump had a stronger hold on the base, so Flake’s popularity in his state cratered. He went down fighting.

No, it wasn’t the same thing as in 2016. In 2016, they tried to stay out of it. They would criticize Trump if something was bad enough, but also try to minimize it. Yesterday, Jeff Flake did the opposite. He tried to tell his party they can’t do that anymore. He told them they can’t ignore it. That’s a good thing.

I’m not trying to call myself a victim. I don’t care much. This site is new, and I can walk away and not care that much. I’m trying to tell you guys that you are becoming the liberal version of the Tea Party. My bigger concern, the thing that does make me feel really bad, is that I don’t want there to be a liberal Tea…

That doesn’t follow. Trump doesn’t even give a shit about most policies. He wants them to put anything on his desk that he can sign and call a victory. On most issues, he doesn’t care what it is. One can be a member of any party and still not like Trump because Trump is not defined by policy positions.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. People are mad at this guy for still being a Republican. He’s super conservative. He’s never becoming a Democrat. Even if he left the party, he wouldn’t caucus with the Dems. The thing people here are saying is that you can never praise a Republican. You have to still hate them,…

That’s a fair point, but even if he left the party, he would still caucus with them. Plus, he would give the Republican pundiocracy more ammunition to say they should resign instead of just not running again.

He’s speaking out against Trump. Why doesn’t it work that way? Isn’t that something good? It seems to me that this site is just full of hate. I’m liberal as hell, but I don’t hate Republicans. And I don’t want my party to be taken over by hatred like the GOP has. It seems like this is a little pocket of the liberal…

That’s something, but he’s super conservative, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him. He’s not politically close to the Democrats. And that’s my point. People here are basically mad at him for not being a Democrat. They think he is full of shit if he speaks out but doesn’t try to stop the Republican agenda. He…

Now I’m wondering if you read my comment. My point is that they are Republicans. He is a Republican, kind of. They are close on policy. They vote for things they believe in, which is close to what he wants. No one should expect anything else.

I read it. What I’m seeing is that the author of the article thinks that if he was serious about resisting Trump, he would resist the whole GOP and make it hard for them to get anything done. Guess what, he’s still a Republican. Voting for the crazy shit he believes in doesn’t mean he’s a hypocrite, though.

Most of the stuff you cited was just things they believe in. I remember when people called the Republicans lackeys for voting for DeVos, who is clearly unqualified. But they voted for her because they like her. The same with the other nominees they accepted. They were people the Republicans wanted in those positions.

What’s an example of something he could have done to resist other than speaking out? They don’t have really any legislation. If he proposed anti-Trump legislation, McConnell wouldn’t put it to a vote.

I don’t think it was nobility. I think it was politics. I think the message was better if everyone else attacked Trump for the statement and McCain said he was worried about substantive issues. It’s just the smart move. If he attacks back, it’s a fight between two people. If he doesn’t, it’s one guy being an asshole…

Yeah, I’m guessing you only get a number this high when you are very clear that you are including sketchy news sources. I would bet it’s more like a quarter of Americans (mostly Republican) if you asked if the main stream media makes stuff up.

The reason he didn’t hit back was not because he was spineless. It was because responding gives him legitimacy, and because you can look petty if you fight back. If you refuse to comment while everyone else comes to your defense, you don’t risk making it look like it’s just a feud.

I completely disagree. First of all, the controversy didn’t putter out. They talked about that for months. It came up again and again. Second, I don’t know why he would have made it bigger. The only way he could have done so if he upped the drama by hitting back hard, and he was never going to do that. The response he…

Several prominent Republicans did, including every person he was running against, including Lindsey Graham who is also “an extremely well-established and largely liked GOP senator.” McCain did eventually speak out about it, as well. It didn’t stop Trump. The idea that adding his voice to the chorus at that moment…

Yeah, he made a really stupid joke about an enemy that was developing nuclear weapons, at the time. I’m not sure that makes him deranged.

Do you really think if John McCain had denounced Trump then in harsher terms, it would have ended Trump’s rise? That seems a little crazy to me. Most of the party denounced him, and it didn’t do anything.