Why Do Some Liberals Go Gaga Over So-Called Non-MAGA Republicans?
Some of these Republicans, such as Barrett, Collins, and Murkowski, have not personally leaned into casting themselves as non-MAGA Republicans. The media has elevated them. But others have consciously portrayed themselves as unaligned and even hostile to Trump. Remember when Roberts sanctimoniously declared, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges” after the president criticized court rulings against him? Barrett memorably declared that the high court was “not a bunch of partisan hacks” (while sharing a stage with Mitch McConnell!). Romney did numerous interviews when he was in the Senate praising himself for not backing Trump as often as his colleagues. Cox knows that The New York Times and Harvard are very influential institutions on the left and seems eager to be portrayed by Democrats as smart and reasonable.
I call bullshit. When histories are written of Trump’s two terms in office, they will show that, an occasional vote or statement aside, the non-MAGA Republicans weren’t that different from the proudly MAGA Republicans they served with. Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, and Romney provided key votes for federal judges who have rewritten the law to defend whatever radical actions Trump takes and for Cabinet officers like Kristi Noem who are manifestly unqualified for their jobs and have performed them terribly. Roberts, Barrett, and Kavanaugh have joined Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who are perceived to be more pro-Trump, in numerous rulings that have defended Trump’s wild abuses of executive power. Roberts authored perhaps the worst opinion of the Trump era, the 2024 Trump v. United States decision that essentially declared that presidents can do anything while in office and not later be prosecuted for it.
The Times published a story this week showing that the chief justice has started requesting that court employees sign nondisclosure agreements. Why? Because behind-the-scenes reporting on the high court is demonstrating that, Roberts’s pleas of innocence aside, it is full of Republican-aligned justices maneuvering to defend Republicans and Trump whenever possible. Sadly, Roberts is trying to limit reporting on his and his colleagues’ partisanship, instead of limiting the real problem—their excessive partisanship.
