Vermont and New Hampshire both have GOP governors. Unfortunately the one who pops up on political TV shows is the less interesting one.
George Stephanopoulos’s recent interview with New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu offered yet another example of the shattered and shameless mentality plaguing the GOP. Stephanopoulos asked Sununu — who had been a cheerleader for Nikki Haley but has now endorsed the twice-impeached, criminally-indicted, fascistic frontrunner — if he would continue to support him even if he’s convicted in Manhattan. Sununu answered that Trump’s being a defendant in multiple criminal cases hasn’t lost him any support among the public. Stephanopoulos pressed Sununu to state his own opinion. He replied: “Look nobody should be shocked that the Republican governor is supporting the Republican president...no one should be surprised by my support.” (I’m editing for brevity: you can watch the video link above if you want to hear all of Sununu’s verbiage.) Stephanopoulos was nonplussed. He reminded Sununu that on January 11, 2021, Sununu had said that Trump had “contributed to an insurrection.” Does he still believe that? “Absolutely.” Stephanopoulos also reminded Sununu that he had said Trump should drop out if he were to be convicted in the classified documents case. Does he still believe that? “No, no, no…of course not.” Sununu kept defending his current support of Trump by citing horserace polling (“Look at the polls!”, “51% of America!”) and by spouting talking points about inflation, “the border,” “wokeness,” and how Americans want a “culture change” in Washington.
Well, we all remember when Trump infamously boasted, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Sununu has demonstrated he’s just fine with that. The governor’s not a leader — he’s a lemming.
And you can see from the enormous number of and the character of the comments at the interview link above just how badly Sununu’s interview was received. Still, I think it’s too bad Stephanopoulos didn’t point out the stark contrast between Sununu and his neighbor state’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, who (to say the least) is not endorsing Trump.
Long before he trashed the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, Trump had already proven himself unfit in countless ways — that is, he had proven it to anyone not blinkered by partisanship, ideology, or venality. He had demonstrated (and I’m only scratching the surface here) that he is an ignoramus, a narcissist, a bully, a racist, a sexual predator, a heartless freak who calls our fallen soldiers “suckers,” and someone who would dangerously abuse the powers of the presidency — the latter behavior landing him his first impeachment. That impeachment was the first time in history that a senator from the president’s own party — a former presidential nominee, no less — voted to convict; the next time would be, of course, in Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, when seven Republican senators voted to convict. But by that time Vermont’s Republican governor had already made it clear that he believed the country should be done with Trump. After the first impeachment, Scott said he agreed with Mitt Romney that Trump should be removed from office. In the 2020 race, Scott actually voted for Joe Biden:
Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott said he cast his ballot Tuesday for Vice President Joe Biden, the first time in his life he voted for a Democrat.
Scott had said for some time that he wouldn’t be voting for his fellow Republican, President Donald Trump, but he hadn’t made up his mind about who he would be voting for. He had promised to reveal his choice after voting.
Indeed, Trump had lost Scott’s vote even before his first ignominious term in office: in 2016, Scott essentially abstained, casting a write-in vote for his friend Jim Douglas, a former GOP governor of Vermont, rather than voting for his party’s rotten-to-the-core nominee. There were of course at that time no lack of reasons to be disgusted by Trump, and some prominent Republicans were among the disgusted: The two living GOP ex-presidents, the two previous GOP presidential nominees, and the GOP governor of the state hosting the Republican Convention, all declined to attend the Convention that year. Given Scott’s love and respect for his father, who lost both legs as a soldier in World War II, I can only imagine how Scott in 2016 must have felt about the way Trump denigrated John McCain and Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan.
When Trump incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Scott immediately called for Trump to resign or be removed from office:
Make no mistake, the President of the United States is responsible for this event.
President Trump has orchestrated a campaign to cause an insurrection that overturns the results of a free, fair and legal election.
The fact is the results of this election have been validated by Republican governors, conservative judges and non-partisan election officials across the country. There is no doubt that the President’s delusion, fabrication, self-interest, and ego have led us – step by step – to this very low, and very dangerous, moment in American history.
The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the President.
Enough is enough.
President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress.
On the map, Vermont and New Hampshire look like twins. But it’s sure easy to tell their GOP governors apart. One puts country over party, the other doesn’t.
Since our country has only two major parties, obviously a large fraction of the American electorate has a long tradition of identifying as and voting Republican, and I expect they will continue to do so. I don’t see the Republican Party as dying but rather as living with severe pathologies: too many of its members are cultishly devoted to a sociopath, and too many, like Sununu, lack a spine. For our democracy to function, Republicans must recover from their delirium and their fecklessness, and for that to happen, the party needs a lot more Phil Scotts.
So when the news media interviews Republican politicians, I think they would be doing the country a service by spotlighting rare birds like Scott rather than just common lemmings like Sununu.
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Postscript: While I think Phil Scott is an example of a decent Republican politician, I certainly don’t ever intend to vote for him, given that I’ll always be able to vote for a Democratic candidate whose progressive policy views I’m much more in tune with. There’s nothing wrong with voting for one party up and down the ticket if you’re voting for normal candidates. When partisanship goes awry is when it’s taken to extremes: when you’re supporting a candidate who is manifestly, dangerously unfit for office, just because they win your party’s nomination. The Democratic National Committee, by the way, has rules to help prevent the nomination of such a person for the presidential ticket, which is why when a fascistic, egomaniacal conman with a cultish following tried to get a toehold in the Democratic presidential nomination process, the DNC just said no.