The New York Times visits Waukesha county in Wisconsin to take the temperature of Republicans only to find — surprise — that they have decided that Trump may be a little bit icky but they like what he’s done with the place:
Matthew Sama, 27, a mortgage loan officer who grew up in the Milwaukee suburbs, said he disliked Mr. Trump so much that he voted for a third-party candidate in 2016.
“The more he started to talk, the more I became repulsed by what he was turning the Republican Party into,” Mr. Sama said. Since then, he has shifted. He likes the deregulation, the tax cut and the fact that Mr. Trump has not started a war. He is still apprehensive about Mr. Trump, but he has decided to vote for him for these policies — and as a way to stop the Democratic Party.
“I was like, ‘Come on, this is ridiculous, he’s not smart enough to be able to collude with another country!’” he said. “The Democrats have gone so far from reality, and they are coming across as so unreasonable, that it makes it look like they are out to get him.”
“He’s not smart enough to collude with another country!” That’s quite an endorsement He definitely deserves four more years.
Jeremy Carpenter, 31, who works for a Republican state lawmaker, said he was so turned off by Mr. Trump at first that he voted for Evan McMullin, an independent, in 2016.
He said he was still “not a fan” of Mr. Trump’s style, but he has gradually decided that many of his policies — his nomination of conservative judges, his support of the anti-abortion movement, his stance on trade and foreign policy — outweigh the negatives.
“Those things were wrong — they do not match up to what I believe about my Christian faith,” Mr. Carpenter said of Mr. Trump’s divorces and language about women. “But on the other hand, he has done some very good things as president. If you can balance those, then you can accept who Donald Trump is without selling your soul down the river.”
Uhm. No. You’ve sold your soul down the river. The man is a monster.
Basically, these alleged moderate Republicans are following the advice of Grover Norquist:
Trump actually brings added value. He treats everyone they hate with such utter contempt that he’s made the party neo-fascist which they’ve discovered they don’t mind at all.
I’m sorry, you can’t split this big orange baby. If you vote for him you are buying the whole program.