Thread by @chrisgeidner

A problem — not “the problem,” bc there are many — is that the Republican leadership’s approach to Trump now is basically what it’s been all along: “That’s ugly, authoritarian, and almost certainly won’t work. We’ll just stand aside, and if it doesn’t, fine. It is does, cool.”

Of course, there are some who go along, affirmatively, but the party leadership generally has tried to take the “we’ll try to get the benefits of his attempts to undermine the country’s foundation without taking ownership of it” approach.

It’s always been a bad and irresponsible approach, but we’re seeing how actually dangerous it is, day by day, right now. At some almost imperceptible point along the path, the Republican position stopped looking like idly standing by — and became a part of Trump’s efforts.

Caveat as to the introductory tweet in this thread: Their approach to Trump *as to the authoritarian moves.* Part of the sell of Trump to the GOP from the start was, effectively, “he doesn’t really care, so we’ll get all of the things we’ve always really wanted.”

All of these things are bad: pretending to ignore it, passively going along with it, gradually becoming a part of it, or championing it. And, of c, some of his positions — particularly anti-democratic views on voting — have, in only slightly more subtle ways, been GOP policy.

So now, nearly a month and a half past an election in which the Democratic ticket clearly won — and we are still getting stories about Trump’s attempts to overturn the election and violent pro-Trump mobs roaming downtown DC streets. And most of the GOP is silent or supportive.