After week of ranting at women and being heard boasting of groping them, millionaire Presidential candidate Donald Trump teeters on the precipice. For many Republicans, it's the end, and BuzzFeed's Jim Dalrymple II compiled a list of pols publicly withdrawing their endorsements.
After a year of naked racism, sexism, bigotry and nativism, here are some Republicans who've finally found a principle worth standing for:
Gov. Dennis Daugaard
Gov. Gary Herbert
Gov. Brian Sandoval
Sen. Kelly Ayotte
Sen. Mike Crapo
Sen. Deb Fischer,
Sen. Cory Gardner
Sen. Mark Kirk
Sen. John McCain,
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Sen. Dan Sullivan
Sen. John Thune
Sen. Rob Portman
Rep. Bradley Byrne
Rep. Jason Chaffetz
Rep. Mike Coffman
Rep. Joe Heck,
Rep. Mia Love
Rep. Martha Roby
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Former Gov Jon Huntsman, Jr.
Carly Fiorina
In contrast, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sens. Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch and Joni Ernst waffled about how horrible he was, but stuck by him. As have Marco Rubio, David Duke and Ted Cruz, at least so far. Party chairman Reince Priebus is avoiding cameras. Somewhere, Peter Thiel is masturbating to bara.
Mittens, Jeb and Kasich all condemned Trump, but they never endorsed him either. If Trump now loses, as expected, they'll be the only leadership left in the party not stinking of him. The Republican civil war the media is desperately hoping for will presumably be fought between these men and all the Trumpkins who'll want to stick with the new "base" he's exposed. (Thinkpiece pitch: who is America's Theresa May?)
Yes, you point out, all these guys all knew what Trump was about beforehand. And some of them, such as John McCain and Ted Cruz, were fucked by him in person, yet supplicated to him anyway. But you knew beforehand what kind of men they are, too, didn't you?
There's some anger over the fact that after months of naked racism, sexism and bigotry, the thing that finally did in Trump were remarks aimed, vaguely, at married white women (i.e. white mens' "property"). And counter-frustration, too, at folks wanting their Trump doom served a particular perfect way. Besides, remember Megyn Kelly?
Finally, there's Team Don't Count Your Chickens. Most of these are pundits who either counted Hillary's chickens after the conventions and were chastened by Trump's brief but startling comeback, eternal pessimists who warned all back then about not doing so, or people whose live revolves around subreddit participation. A major terrorist attack, a stroke, a bullet, a genuine October Surprise--and everything changes again! There's still a month left to go in this shitshow and whatever rules were left are about to be blown away.
