Pity Republican Politicians

If you’re a Republican politician, you can’t just cater to one or two of the worst causes and groups in our society to win elections, particularly primary elections; you have to cater to all of them. You have to have the support of groups of people who believe that Americans should be run by white fundamentalist Christians; groups of people who oppose sensible gun regulations; groups of people who don’t think efforts to reduce pollution and slow climate change should get in the way of maximizing profits; groups of people who are racist, homophobic, or xenophobic; groups of people who are still in thrall to Trump, are drawn to right-wing spawned conspiracy theories, and have authoritarian ambitions; and groups of people who believe that having the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is the way America ought to be. Republicans running for office don’t mean to be despicable, they only are because they have to be to get enough votes to win.