Everyone is speculating why

[BittyJenkins]

the rethugs are going along with Trump and his fantasies.
The normal explanation is that they are afraid of being primaried in their next election.

One big thing I haven’t heard is:
Russia has compromised most of them. Their actions speak volumes. Example...Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz and so many more are paralyzed and unable to think objectively. They are compromised cowards.

[tblue37]

1. We have been positing Kompromat all along.

[Mike 03]

6. This is certainly a true observation.

Sometimes, over the top, IMO.

[dsharp88]

31. We should all hashtag our posts about Trumpublicans #RussiaIsVeryPleased

[Mike 03]

2. Yes, and I really hope some investigative reporters, if not congressional

committees, take a very close look at Senator Ron Johnson. He, even more than the other usual suspects, is someone who fascinates me.

Just to be clear, I am talking about money pure and simple, not Kompromat in the way some people like to use it.

[bullimiami]

3. Cowards.That's all.

[spooky3]

4. it's possible but I think this is the simpler explanation.

Republican voters are still behind Trump and his enablers 90+%.

So, Senators in red states, and House members in districts where these voters are in the majority, cannot risk alienating these voters AND they agree with many of the positions that he has taken!

If the polls were ever to show that these voters' approval of Trump dropped below, say, 70%--which could then require their reps to try to appeal to a broader base -- I think you would see a BIG shift in these reps' behavior.

[Freddie]

16. Then explain my Congress-idiot

Who is unfortunately popular in this purple district. Biden won here but there was a lot of ticket-splitting. He has said NOTHING about this and apparently refused to answer the WAPO question. You’d think a guy in this situation would realize that blind allegiance to Dolt 45 isn’t necessarily the best thing in this district.

[Bev54]

20. I think they actually would like to have the power

to overthrow an election. They want an authoritarian republican leader, they just happened to get an idiot who could not pull it off but they are ok if he did. This is the only way they can stay in any kind of power and still be able to grift without consequences. This is not the republican party of many years ago,they have been morphing into this for the past 25 years at least.

[unblock]

5. They sure don't act compromised.

"Compromised" implies that if it weren't for the kompromat, they'd be opposing Donnie. I find no reason to believe that.

People who are compromised tend to be quiet and focused on other things and claim to be too busy to pay attention to the thing they'd normally oppose but are letting happen.

That's not the republicans who we hear about, anyway. Maybe some that don't make headline are like this.


Now. That's not to say they don't *have* kompromat on them, I'm just saying it's not really necessary when they're not inclined to oppose what Donnie is doing anyway.

[BigmanPigman]

7. From a recent DU post...

"Look at the GOP Senators' actions including Mitch McConnell's through the same lens. Not that they are protecting Trump, but that they are covering for the RNC. Now, their actions over the last 4 years make a lot more sense.

This isn't about Trump. This is about the Republican National Committee. Michael Cohen testified that the RNC was taking foreign donations and he had the receipts to prove it. After the election, the GOP encouraged members to file false voter fraud complaints. The order came from Ronna McDaniel.

This isn't about Trump. He's a clown show that distracts from the RNC being looked at too closely. Once the layers of Trump's crimes are excavated, we're going to be staring at a massive RICO case with the RNC. The Republican party has deliberately and directly attacked our democracy and done everything they could to dismantle our national infrastructure and undermine our institutions in an effort to cover up their ongoing crimes of racketeering and money laundering - among others we may not even know about yet."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214666083

[erronis]

25. Makes sense. Also applies to bought orgs like the NRA. And historically Gingrich, Delay, Ryan.

[crickets]

34. +1

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. They have families.

Mobsters don’t mind threatening families. There’s probably as many reasons as there are players in the game.

[flibbitygiblets]

30. Yes, but threatened people don't typically act so PASSIONATELY on the part of their abusers

These people, Graham, Rubio, Johnson and many others...they've swallowed some *serious* kool-aid.

My theory is that Trump has hypnotic powers over many people. From the book "Hypnotic Leaders" by Micha Popper: "Charismatic leadership in its extreme manifestations resembles a hypnotic situation in which the followers lose their autonomic judgment."

[Faux pas]

9. They're

all putin's peeps, he owns them.

[Budi]

10. I think they all took illegal laundered RU campaign money

With the promise of eternal life..too. no doubt
Fools.

[BittyJenkins]

21. I do too...

Remember way back to 2016 when they were overheard talking about the money.
You know Russia has tons on them to make them fall into line. I know we have brought it up but not the main stream media.

[stillcool]

11. I think the Republicans long game...

is a permanent Republican majority, in an Anglo-Saxon country. It's in their DNA. I think they view themselves as the rightful owners of this country, or they know their place being employed by a chosen one.

[FakeNoose]

12. Does Putin even care any more? I don't think so

He already got his money's worth out of Chump. It was obvious 2 years ago that Chump wouldn't win re-election. I think if Russians did any messin' with this election, it was just to keep their hand in. They already knew the game was over.

The Kompromat happened 4 or 5 years ago when the RNC accepted tainted Russian money by way of the NRA. There have been other illegal contacts but that was the main one. Yeah Repukes have been scared shitless for a long time (especially in the Senate), but there have been no charges filed yet. They probably think once Chump is gone, they've beaten it. They're just waiting him out.

[dawg day]

13. Ron Johnson spent 4th of July 2018 in Moscow

Along with-

Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Hoeven (N.D.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.) and Johnson, plus Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.).

[global1]

14. I Think Trump Told Them If They're Not Loyal To Him That He'll Take Down The Party.....

When Trump won the nomination as the Repug Presidential candidate - I'm sure the Repug Party took him in their confidence and basically told him all the ways the Party cheats and manipulates. They told him all their dirty trick secrets not thinking that Trump would ever use them against them.

But Trump being the consummate con artist and mobster he is - took in all those secrets and in the 4 years that he's been in office he has held that over their heads.

Case in point - the impeachment. I can hear him saying to the Repugs back then - that if you let me get impeached and you/they take me down - I'll take down the Repug Party right with me. I'll divulge all your dirty tricks and how you cheat the system.

And what if Trump doesn't hold that over their heads because he doesn't have the dirt on the Party.

Here's what I think he'd do - he'd make up stuff and lie to take them down. His cult followers would believe him and they would go along with Trump to sink the Repug Party.

Trump: If I go down - you go down.

That's the reason that the Repug Party puts up with all the crap Trump pulls and that's why they circle the wagons around this guy to protect him.

That's my working theory on this.

[Skittles]

15. 74 million fucking idiots is why

seriously

although I have long suspected Kompromat on many repukes

[handmade34]

17. simply...

they are all cowards with no moral compass

[DeminPennswoods]

18. They believe they cannot afford to alienate Trump's base

of cultists. IMO, if this subset of voters stays home, the down ballot Rs wouldn't be able to win many elections.

[Kid Berwyn]

19. Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

“I wish her well.” — Donald J Trump

[brooklynite]

22. Don't see the evidence...

You can compel obedience with blackmail; you can't compel enthusiasm...

[mellow]

29. North Koreans might disagree

[PirateRo]

23. Everybody keeps using the wring c-word. Not compromised...

Complicit.

[malaise]

24. Maybe, but closer to home is the National Enquirer

with enough links to Killa Con to have every skeleton from their closets

[SMC22307]

26. No. Graham and Cruz have always been assholes. NC Republicans seized power in 2010...

and have been RUTHLESS ever since. Their behavior pre-dates Trump and any talk of kompromat. Just accept that Republicans are greedy, power-hungry assholes who view Democrats as the enemy. Chalking their behavior up to being compromised by Russia almost makes them seem like victims, which they're most definitely not.

[ancianita]

27. Russian money (and maybe kompromat) has been revealed in mainstream media about these Repubs...

taking money from Russian oligarch Leonard Blavatnik through Lev Parnas and a Republican PAC:

Mitch McConnell $2.5 M
Marco Rubio $1.5 M
Scott Walker $1.1 M
Lindsey Graham $800,000
John Kasich $250,000
Donald Trump ???



Ten actually knew the contents of The Senate Intel Comte. Report when they voted to exonerate Trump:

Richard Burr, North Carolina, Chairman
(until May 15, 2020)
Marco Rubio, Florida, Acting Chairman
(from May 18, 2020)
Jim Risch, Idaho
Susan Collins, Maine
Roy Blunt, Missouri
Tom Cotton, Arkansas
John Cornyn, Texas
Ben Sasse, Nebraska

Ex officio
Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma
Mitch McConnell, Kentucky


Might as well throw in these senators who visited Moscow on U.S. 4th of July, 2018, to warn Putin off of meddling in the midterms. Cuz kompromat.

Richard Shelby, Alabama
Ron Johnson, Wisconsin
Steve Daines Montana
John Hoeven, North Dakota
John Kennedy, Louisiana
Jerry Moran, Kansas
John Thune, South Dakota
Kay Granger, Texas

Maybe some are no longer in the Senate or House, I haven't kept up.
I'm also not aware of the Ted Cruz connection.

[KPN]

28. Yes. I've had a nagging sense that it goes well beyond fear of tRump and his

base. The things Republicans are doing are just too frigging ridiculously crazy and off the wall — like the Texas AGs lawsuit today. They are openly trying to pull off a coup. There’s a reason for that and I think it goes to justifiable self-preservation, not the phony bullshit like “Democrats are socialists/communists who want to destroy America” and I can’t believe they are all so personally greedy and power hungry that they would support a coup knowing full well that act will most assuredly destroy the country. No. They are doing it because they already sold their souls and it’s the only means to cover that fact up. They are dead men walking.

[BobTheSubgenius]

32. It IS a head-scratcher.

So many possibilities, and lots of reasons why none of them fully add up. I really hope we know all of these stories eventually.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. This entire shitshow is intended to undermine our citizens confidence in the electoral system....

which will tend to allow Rethug administrations across the nation to further diminish voter's rights and simple, free access to voting.

The drone of cricket sounds is the silence of thousands of Rethug politicians not saying one damn thing about it....

In my years of watching Republicans, their true motives are always hidden behind a curtain of secrecy and all we see or hear is their populist bullshit.