I have issues with politicians in general. They always have ulterior motives. Trump was uniquely special in that regard. He’s seen all the bull shit and legitimately was in a position and wanted to restore our country to greatness

I never liked any of the above, tbh, and am extremely distrustful of politicians. The system is set up not to allow anyone in who doesn't protect power in one way or another. If they don't go along to get along, and trade away some of their integrity along the way, they find that there will be no one willing to support their legislation, and will be blocked from getting anything done until they're eventually removed from -I would say "power," but that's the point; they're never allowed to have any.

You can see it most clearly in the Dem party because they do everything out in the open: for example, AOC, after openly going against Nancy Pelosi, proposing the Green New Deal and getting zero support, and the party going out of its way to make sure their contacts in the press turned the humiliation up to 11.

And it wasn't so much because the legislation was terrible, which it was. It was because she was still criticizing the party leadership. They let, even encouraged, her to bring out this ridiculous legislation and have it shoved in her face how unready for the big leagues she was. She bent the knee right after that, and has now been fulfilling her role as their crazy attack dog. Loyal to the party and only targeting Trump and his supporters, in ways that the party sets up but can feel one step removed from. Plausible deniability and all that.

It will be interesting to see how Hawley, as a freshman senator who kicked against the current, is treated by the R party establishment from here on out.

My read on Matt is that he is very, very ambitious and far more intelligent than almost all the other politicians he works with, and he knows it. He also knows that the base is done with useless neocons, and MAGA is the future. Some of the policy positions I think he genuinely really cares about (I think that's the case with anti-intervention, for example,) but some is just political posturing. He's kicked out one of the major corrupting influences by not accepting corporate/pac money.

He's a real fighter, which we need, but he's definitely fighting sometimes more for his own advancement and position than for deeply held values. And honestly, that's the very best we can expect from politicians. That his self interest and the nation's self interest are intertwined. And that he's not a weak man, and Matt certainly is not that. That alone is rare beyond diamonds in DC.

He's got my support, absolutely. But not uncritically.

Stupid comment. Gaetz does the right thing because he knows Cheney is a corrupt warmonger that almost succeeded in pushing Trump to strike inside Iran in July 2019 after an empty drone was shot down, which would have resulted in his impeachment and probably removal (a president cannot start a war without congress approval and she knew it). She wanted Trump to fail and was against his America first policies all that time. Gaetz is defending both Trump the person and his agenda right now.