Although former President Donald Trump has strengthened his grip over the Republican Party, political analyst A.B. Stoddard has argued that some Republicans are actually speaking out in defiance despite the fact that it could lead to MAGA primary challengers.
Writing in the Bulwark, Stoddard offers qualified praise to GOP lawmakers who she says are engaging in "career-ending straight talk" by refusing to buy into Trump-backed narratives about the bipartisan border reform compromise and sending military aid to help Ukraine fight off invading Russian forces.
She notes that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) firmly defended his vote in favor of helping Ukraine and he even went so far to suggest that ignorance among the MAGA base was a significant factor in Republican opposition to the package.
“Our base cannot possibly know what’s at stake at the level that any well-briefed U.S. senator should know about what’s at stake if Putin wins," he said. “Some people around here — if they really are being driven just by the perceptions of their base, they should grow a spine and explain if they think it’s a tough vote.”
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She similarly noted that Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), one of the most conservative members of the Senate, deserved credit for sticking to his guns and not backing off the bipartisan border deal he brokered in the face of angry MAGA opposition.
Stoddard also gave credit to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) for continuing to tell the truth about the border deal, and to Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who corrected Trump's claims about immigration by noting the millions of people who came into the United States under his watch.
However, she cautioned that such dissents within the GOP at the moment were the exception and not the rule.
"To speak one’s mind, to refuse to tolerate lies, is to be compromised by the deep state," she argued. "Because in the Trump cult, there would never otherwise be any motivation to do the right thing or tell the truth."
