Another Salvo in the ‘Burn It Down’ Wars

Late last week, I experienced something new at The Dispatch. Virtually every single commenter disagreed with my newsletter. At the time of writing, there are now 601 comments in response to “Dump Trump, but Don’t Burn Down the GOP,” and I think approximately 600 are negative, including a number of quite eloquent posts reminding me of how much I write in favor of greater courage and integrity in public officials. Aren’t I being inconsistent?

In addition, my friend Charlie Sykes penned his own thoughtful response to me over at The Bulwark, and he brought some pretty compelling receipts—reminding me that when I made a similar argument in favor of voting for “good Republicans” in 2018, I highlighted my own local Senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn. What did she do after she won her race—after I called her a “a scandal-free, faithful conservative representative”? Well, she smeared a combat-wounded American soldier because he testified truthfully against Trump.  Here’s a sample:

And that’s but a small part of what Politico called her “multimonth, multimedia crusade against Vindman.” It was inexcusable. It betrayed a corruption of character that makes her unworthy of future support.

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