Those of you who’ve been around a while will remember Stuart Rothenberg, the election analyst who, along with Charlie Cook, were the original stat guys who predicted outcomes. I always thought he was a Republican even though he was known as a non-partisan. It turns out I was right about that. In this feature on his open contempt for Donald Trump he admits that he always strove for objectivity but did vote Republican all those years. When Trump came along he could not stay quiet about what he was seeing. Lauren Egan at the Bulwark writes:
One explanation for the shift could be that Rothenberg is still matter-of-fact about the way politics works—that he didn’t change but politics did, in the Trump-dominated landscape—and so his more blunt language is just what candor requires nowadays. But that’s not how Rothenberg explains it. Instead, he says he has become more outspoken and less “neutral” because he believes that the times demand he take a stand.
“There was always a sense when people were listening to me or reading what I wrote, that I was an honest broker. My job was not to impose ideology on my readers, and that worked fine,” Rothenberg told me in a recent interview. “But then Trump entered the scene.”
“I just decided it was more important to try to save the country or deal with Trump as an adversary rather than as a neutral person,” he added. “How can you be neutral about Donald Trump?” […]
“He’s a giant asshole, arrogant, just the kind of person I hated growing up. And he was a bully. So for me, I just wanted to go out and speak the truth,” Rothenberg, who grew up in New York City, told me. “I was still trying to be analytical rather than ideological because, as I say, I’m not trying to tell anybody who to vote for. But Trump is such an extreme case.”
Thank you! To me, that perfectly expresses what I thought most Republicans would have done when that weirdo entered the race — what any sane person would do. That so many of them signed on to him is one of the most illuminating aspects of this whole political drama. I knew the right was full of shit before but I did think that at least a majority of Republicans were rooted in reality. It turns out that was wrong.
Maybe it’s true of Democrats as well but we haven’t seen that tested. None of the Dem presidents have been certifiable crazy men like Trump. But we now know that a large majority of Republicans will follow any ignorant bully right over the cliff because it thrills them to own the libs and wield their hate against all the people who aren’t like them.
Rothenberg and a small cadre of other Republicans showed that they are still tethered to a shared reality with the rest of the world. It’s good to see it. But the fact that are so few still chills me to the bone.