One of the toughest questions to answer nowadays — at least for me, from a sane, somewhat knowledgable crux — is how can any person of any sense vote Republican? We’re in a way-dangerous moment in US history as one of ‘only’ two political parties is an immoral, horrible criminal enterprise.

Within a lengthy press conference on Wednesday, Joe Biden summed up being a Republican:

“One thing I haven’t been able to do so far is get my Republican friends to get in the game of making things better in this country … I did not anticipate that there’d be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done … Think about this: What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for.”

Only one answer: Power, and the ability to hold on to it. And that’s the whole ball of wax for the GOP — useless in any governing capacity. Not to mention cruel, unsympathetic, and above it all, incompetent, which screams the question of why does anyone of any sense have absolutely anything to do with them?

People should be able to discern the difference between the two (h/t tweet Daily Kos):

words used to describe Republicans:
Very loud, They don’t represent everybody, Have to regroup, Wrong direction, Weak, Ruthless, Inconsistent, Uncivil, Dishonest and cowardly, More business-oriented, Arrogant, Capitalistic, Unnecessarily divisive, Chaotic (2/3)

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) January 20, 2022

Heart of the New York Times op/ed:

The focus group was made up of people who had voted at least once for President Barack Obama and at least once for President Donald Trump. They were less furious about the state of the country than pessimistic about the future and dismissive about whether Mr. Biden and either party could improve things. “They are resigned rejecters,” Frank Luntz, a longtime strategist for Republican candidates, who led the discussion, said afterward. Senator Joe Manchin came in for some praise, Anthony Fauci came in for some criticism, and most were lukewarm on both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump running again.

In other words, people not paying any real attention to what’s actually taking place. If you could continue being a Republican after what MoscwMitch said yesterday, then you’re an asshole who belongs to/deserves the Republican party. The problem maybe is in noise — Democrats seem to make very little, while Republicans scream about every little thing at the top of their voices, and on and on ad nauseam.
Of course, rank-and-file Americans aren’t paying at much attention, and are cued on the loud noise machine yelping on some shiny object that’s the current bogeyman for the bottom-feeders of the Republican brand. Least and not last, GOPers have zero qualms about lying and committing fraud — which indicates a frightening chunk of Americans are too.

Steve Benen at the MaddowBlog, also from Wednesday, took New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s concerns about how the official Republican stance on governing is to bo nothing:

“They were all, for the most part, content with the speed at which they weren’t doing anything,” the governor added. “It was very clear that we just have to hold the line for two years. OK, so I’m just going to be a roadblock for two years. That’s not what I do.”

The Examiner’s report added that Sununu spoke with most members of the Senate Republican Conference and found that virtually all of them intended to do nothing but obstruct until the next Republican presidency.
“It bothered me that they were OK with that,” Sununu said.

The governor went on to ask GOP senators why they didn’t get things done when they held Congress and the White House in 2017 and 2018.
“Crickets. Yeah, crickets,” Sununu said. “They had no answer.”
…
Part of what makes revelations like these notable are the implications of the message. There are still a few congressional Democrats who claim to genuinely believe that Republicans are ready and eager to work in good faith toward compromise solutions.
If only Democrats would give GOP lawmakers a chance, the argument goes, and participate in sincere bipartisan talks, a world of policy breakthroughs await.

I can only hope these Democrats consider what Sununu freely acknowledged: Behind the scenes, Republican senators not only admitted that they’re not doing any real work, they boasted that they intend to keep rejecting real work until their party controls the White House again.

And it’s long-term. Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post near-about a whole year ago:

For years, the Republican Party has not been about policy or governance. It is certainly not about encouraging voting or expanding its party to reach new demographics.
Instead, it has become a select club of malcontents. It has created a self-perpetuating grievance machine designed to further inflame their base.

Why do Republicans even want to hold power? Aside from appointing judges, the Senate has accomplished virtually nothing of significance since the 2017 tax cut.
While running for reelection, the former president was continually stumped when asked what he would do in his second term.

The party’s antagonism toward the federal government has now morphed into hostility toward truth and governing at all.
Its agenda is a list of buzzwords and lies to justify why it should do nothing (Climate hoax! Socialism!), culminating in the mother of all incendiary messages: the Big Lie that the election was stolen.
The GOP seems to exist solely to promote resentment and to engage in performance art for intellectually dishonest and vapid right-wing media.

Maybe Republicans should give up running for office altogether because they have no interest in policy or governing.
They can cut out the time-consuming task of showing up for their day jobs and devote all their time to what really drives them — raising money, stoking anger, tweeting and appearing on right-wing media. They at least demonstrate some interest and talent for those activities.

Assholes, Jennifer, that’s what they really be.
In the soul:

And yet here we are, once again…

(Illustration out front found here).