It turns out that Rusty Bowers lives up to President Truman’s 1948 definition of a “good” Republican: “The only ‘good Republicans’ are pushing up daisies.” This week, Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers testified about how President Donald Trump wanted him to take illegal, immoral, unprecedented and unconstitutional steps to overturn the 2020 election results in his state, while never providing a shred of evidence for his false claims of voter fraud.
Robert Hubbell published an even more thorough indictment of Bowers:
At Tuesday’s hearing of the January 6th Committee, Rusty Bowers earned the admiration of a grateful nation for his principled refusal to surrender to Trump’s demands to overturn the 2020 election. On Wednesday, Bowers revealed that his principles and “faith” will not prevent him from voting for Trump in 2024. According to Bowers, he will vote for Trump because
"what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the country. In my view it was great."
Of course, Bowers skips over the part where Trump incited a violent insurrection to overturn two centuries of constitutional rule in America. That pesky fact is apparently less important to Bowers than what Trump did in his first term as president before losing the November election.
Bowers is apparently referring to Trump’s signature legislative achievement—reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
That tax cut resulted in a loss of revenue that propelled the budget deficit to near-record levels ($1 trillion) before the Covid stimulus packages. Setting aside the efforts of Bush and Obama to save the economy from collapse in the Great Recession of 2008, Trump owns the largest deficit of any US president.
Other Trump achievements include:
* Legislation ending an Obama-era regulation that prevented coal-mining companies from dumping debris and waste into nearby streams;
* Legislation ending financial disclosure requirements for energy firms;
* Legislation repealing an Obama-era regulation requiring internet service providers to seek customers’ consent before sharing private data;
* Legislation prohibiting the Department of Education from adopting the Common Core curriculum (which was created by agreement among the states, not the federal government);
* Imposing protectionist tariffs on China that were paid for by US consumers; and
* Pardoning Jared Kushner’s father (Charles Kushner), Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
And let’s not forget the ban on travel from Muslim countries, separating children from parents at the border, and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a “wall to nowhere.”
Ah, yes, Rusty Bowers! Those were the “good old days” when government favored business over the people’s interest in privacy, the environment, education, and financial transparency, and when the president’s “cronies” received a “Get Out of Jail Free” card!
As discussed in The Atlantic’s article, The Comment That Reveals the Depths of the Republican Party’s Moral Collapse, Bowers is not the only allegedly “principled” Republican who has opposed Trump in the past but who is now happy to vote for Trump in 2024. Susan Collins? Yup! Brad Raffensperger? Of course! Mitch McConnell? Need you ask? Bill Barr? Faster than you can say, “Vladimir Putin”!
The fact that “principled” Republicans can overlook the stray coup and occasional insurrection so long as businesses receive tax cuts is worrisome, to say the least. It highlights the fact that there is no substitute for putting Trump behind bars for the rest of his life. If we don’t, faux patriots like Rusty Bowers will campaign for Trump in 2024 without regard to the threat he poses to our democracy.
Bowers: 1/2 a step forward, and a giant leap back. Demagoguery and propaganda have a devastating effect on people at every level of society. Education, wisdom, years of service, are no insulation to the loss of reason, erosion of both personal and professional ethics, and growing levels mass cognitive dissonance. We observe it in the Supreme Court. We observe it in former AG Barr, and at every level and layer around TFG. Demagoguery makes people stupid. It celebrates the corrupt with a mystic like hero status. This is a growing cancer that weakens democratic institutions, and hastens their decay.
Just reading your essay shortly after posting. Jan 6th committee about to begin. A few things.
Rusty Bowels…. Thanks but no thanks. Go f* ck yourself and your very blind patriotism to a despot.
Clarence Worthless Thomas who in 9 lines today kissed the ass of all gun owners basically telling them not to worry about new gun safety legislation…first in decades….y’all can keep your automatic shit weapons of human destruction in open carry form you outstanding citizens. Stand back but stand by….seems a good quote to use now he must be musing….Go f*ck yourself.
And everyone that constantly wastes breath doubting our Justice Dept… easy to do seeing what they had to replace…well, Atty Gen Garland sent the FBI to raid Jeffrey Wimp “Oh I’ll do it Pres Trumpy” Clark’s house today right before hearing. Oh the delicious timing of it all.
Upon which…. Thank you TC for continuing clarification of Republican tendencies aligning with Truman’s previous definition… I poured a very early glass of wine and will watch the screws being inserted during the hearing.
wow, Tom. I've been saying EXACTLY the same thing every time one of these....I honestly don't know what to call them, since a single word doesn't do justice to what I think of them. for all of their "moving," occasionally even tearful testimony to TFF's creepy, stupid, violent, etc. behavior, they say they'd vote for him again, there is something fundamentally sick about every one of them. "sick" doesn't quite do it..."demented?"..."hypocritical?".... I give up. I'll just say what I've been saying here and elsewhere: 1) you don't get extraordinary praise for just doing your job, which is what these newly-sainted folks did...no more, no less. good for them. if they were on some kind of job probation and I was the boss, they'd stay hired; 2) if they'd say (as all of them have said...not Judge Luttig, but the rest of them) that, knowing the wanton criminality and lack of anything resembling humanity The Fat Fuck (it just felt good spelling it out) demonstrates EVERY FUCKING DAY they'd still vote for him, they're completely beyond redemption. as you indicate above, I wish that the Committee was empowered to ask a follow-up question, which would be to ask what got done between 2016 and 2020 that served the rest of us in any sort of positive way. it was a term notable for the "qualities" of the President and the blessed fact that so very little of ANY got accomplished on a policy level except for some long-term stuff that well might have already destroyed this republic. and I wish people would stop talking about this vague notion (as they use it, and I mean EVERYONE who has a voice in broadcasting) of "ending Democracy." the ending of this republic might be very fucking bad, but it would NOT equal "the end of Democracy." jeez, I hope this wasn't as incoherent as it felt.
Moron is too generous a term. Bowers, Barr, etc. are enemies of our democracy. They would vote for a criminal over an opponent. The minimum statement from them could have been I cant vote for either.
This is battle between anti abortion freaks allied with oligarchs and the majority of Americans.
Boggles the mind. I had to laugh though about this: "At this point, I am reminded of my father’s old explanation of how to understand Mormons - at least the ones like Bowers: “Remove the second ‘m’.”
Poor deluded foolish people. Rusty Bowers is the old white supremacist glad that he is saved. I was moved by his testimony but absolutely appalled by offering he'd vote for the Liar in chief if he runs again. The Liar in chief should be in the slammer along with a whole bunch of others, some of whom we heard from in today's hearings! My Lord! There is NO morality or ethics in this crowd. Barr and McConnell and the rest are partisan hacks . There are dems who are partisan hacks also. That's why We the people need to stop being pulled here and there by parties. We must vote as Americans and not as some cog in a political party's plan. I still say it is really too bad we did not move toward a parliamentary democracy long ago. Both parties are riven by factions that are for the most part unhelpful. Better if in such a large diverse nation there were ways to build coalitions and get ideas out on the table. But the real and present danger today is this: the gop has been captured by the lure of Fascism.
Amen and Amen. To you, TC, and the fine commenters here. The intellectual and moral rot at the heart of Republicans generally is more obvious every day.
So, Bowers is giving Republicans a path out of remaining loyal to Trump, the Lord's present-day messenger, by following the Party's Will. Wrong guy now, right message and strong means to throttle thine enemy, the Progressive. Will work in rural Wisconsin. Am waiting for DeSantis signage coming out at the local Repub Campaign Headquarters (though head might not be anatomically correct).
Robert Hubbell published an even more thorough indictment of Bowers:
At Tuesday’s hearing of the January 6th Committee, Rusty Bowers earned the admiration of a grateful nation for his principled refusal to surrender to Trump’s demands to overturn the 2020 election. On Wednesday, Bowers revealed that his principles and “faith” will not prevent him from voting for Trump in 2024. According to Bowers, he will vote for Trump because
"what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the country. In my view it was great."
Of course, Bowers skips over the part where Trump incited a violent insurrection to overturn two centuries of constitutional rule in America. That pesky fact is apparently less important to Bowers than what Trump did in his first term as president before losing the November election.
Bowers is apparently referring to Trump’s signature legislative achievement—reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1
That tax cut resulted in a loss of revenue that propelled the budget deficit to near-record levels ($1 trillion) before the Covid stimulus packages. Setting aside the efforts of Bush and Obama to save the economy from collapse in the Great Recession of 2008, Trump owns the largest deficit of any US president.
Other Trump achievements include:
* Legislation ending an Obama-era regulation that prevented coal-mining companies from dumping debris and waste into nearby streams;
* Legislation ending financial disclosure requirements for energy firms;
* Legislation repealing an Obama-era regulation requiring internet service providers to seek customers’ consent before sharing private data;
* Legislation prohibiting the Department of Education from adopting the Common Core curriculum (which was created by agreement among the states, not the federal government);
* Imposing protectionist tariffs on China that were paid for by US consumers; and
* Pardoning Jared Kushner’s father (Charles Kushner), Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
https://www.startribune.com/bills-passed-by-congress-and-signed-by-the-president-so-far-this-year/432015273/
And let’s not forget the ban on travel from Muslim countries, separating children from parents at the border, and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a “wall to nowhere.”
Ah, yes, Rusty Bowers! Those were the “good old days” when government favored business over the people’s interest in privacy, the environment, education, and financial transparency, and when the president’s “cronies” received a “Get Out of Jail Free” card!
As discussed in The Atlantic’s article, The Comment That Reveals the Depths of the Republican Party’s Moral Collapse, Bowers is not the only allegedly “principled” Republican who has opposed Trump in the past but who is now happy to vote for Trump in 2024. Susan Collins? Yup! Brad Raffensperger? Of course! Mitch McConnell? Need you ask? Bill Barr? Faster than you can say, “Vladimir Putin”!
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/rusty-bowers-and-republican-trump-2024-conundrum/661352/
The fact that “principled” Republicans can overlook the stray coup and occasional insurrection so long as businesses receive tax cuts is worrisome, to say the least. It highlights the fact that there is no substitute for putting Trump behind bars for the rest of his life. If we don’t, faux patriots like Rusty Bowers will campaign for Trump in 2024 without regard to the threat he poses to our democracy.
Bowers: 1/2 a step forward, and a giant leap back. Demagoguery and propaganda have a devastating effect on people at every level of society. Education, wisdom, years of service, are no insulation to the loss of reason, erosion of both personal and professional ethics, and growing levels mass cognitive dissonance. We observe it in the Supreme Court. We observe it in former AG Barr, and at every level and layer around TFG. Demagoguery makes people stupid. It celebrates the corrupt with a mystic like hero status. This is a growing cancer that weakens democratic institutions, and hastens their decay.
Just reading your essay shortly after posting. Jan 6th committee about to begin. A few things.
Rusty Bowels…. Thanks but no thanks. Go f* ck yourself and your very blind patriotism to a despot.
Clarence Worthless Thomas who in 9 lines today kissed the ass of all gun owners basically telling them not to worry about new gun safety legislation…first in decades….y’all can keep your automatic shit weapons of human destruction in open carry form you outstanding citizens. Stand back but stand by….seems a good quote to use now he must be musing….Go f*ck yourself.
And everyone that constantly wastes breath doubting our Justice Dept… easy to do seeing what they had to replace…well, Atty Gen Garland sent the FBI to raid Jeffrey Wimp “Oh I’ll do it Pres Trumpy” Clark’s house today right before hearing. Oh the delicious timing of it all.
Upon which…. Thank you TC for continuing clarification of Republican tendencies aligning with Truman’s previous definition… I poured a very early glass of wine and will watch the screws being inserted during the hearing.
Salud!
Brad Raffensperger said the same thing last year. 🙄
wow, Tom. I've been saying EXACTLY the same thing every time one of these....I honestly don't know what to call them, since a single word doesn't do justice to what I think of them. for all of their "moving," occasionally even tearful testimony to TFF's creepy, stupid, violent, etc. behavior, they say they'd vote for him again, there is something fundamentally sick about every one of them. "sick" doesn't quite do it..."demented?"..."hypocritical?".... I give up. I'll just say what I've been saying here and elsewhere: 1) you don't get extraordinary praise for just doing your job, which is what these newly-sainted folks did...no more, no less. good for them. if they were on some kind of job probation and I was the boss, they'd stay hired; 2) if they'd say (as all of them have said...not Judge Luttig, but the rest of them) that, knowing the wanton criminality and lack of anything resembling humanity The Fat Fuck (it just felt good spelling it out) demonstrates EVERY FUCKING DAY they'd still vote for him, they're completely beyond redemption. as you indicate above, I wish that the Committee was empowered to ask a follow-up question, which would be to ask what got done between 2016 and 2020 that served the rest of us in any sort of positive way. it was a term notable for the "qualities" of the President and the blessed fact that so very little of ANY got accomplished on a policy level except for some long-term stuff that well might have already destroyed this republic. and I wish people would stop talking about this vague notion (as they use it, and I mean EVERYONE who has a voice in broadcasting) of "ending Democracy." the ending of this republic might be very fucking bad, but it would NOT equal "the end of Democracy." jeez, I hope this wasn't as incoherent as it felt.
Moron is too generous a term. Bowers, Barr, etc. are enemies of our democracy. They would vote for a criminal over an opponent. The minimum statement from them could have been I cant vote for either.
This is battle between anti abortion freaks allied with oligarchs and the majority of Americans.
Boggles the mind. I had to laugh though about this: "At this point, I am reminded of my father’s old explanation of how to understand Mormons - at least the ones like Bowers: “Remove the second ‘m’.”
Poor deluded foolish people. Rusty Bowers is the old white supremacist glad that he is saved. I was moved by his testimony but absolutely appalled by offering he'd vote for the Liar in chief if he runs again. The Liar in chief should be in the slammer along with a whole bunch of others, some of whom we heard from in today's hearings! My Lord! There is NO morality or ethics in this crowd. Barr and McConnell and the rest are partisan hacks . There are dems who are partisan hacks also. That's why We the people need to stop being pulled here and there by parties. We must vote as Americans and not as some cog in a political party's plan. I still say it is really too bad we did not move toward a parliamentary democracy long ago. Both parties are riven by factions that are for the most part unhelpful. Better if in such a large diverse nation there were ways to build coalitions and get ideas out on the table. But the real and present danger today is this: the gop has been captured by the lure of Fascism.
Is "Bowel Movement Conservative" too long for a bumper sticker?
Amen and Amen. To you, TC, and the fine commenters here. The intellectual and moral rot at the heart of Republicans generally is more obvious every day.
So, Bowers is giving Republicans a path out of remaining loyal to Trump, the Lord's present-day messenger, by following the Party's Will. Wrong guy now, right message and strong means to throttle thine enemy, the Progressive. Will work in rural Wisconsin. Am waiting for DeSantis signage coming out at the local Repub Campaign Headquarters (though head might not be anatomically correct).