Why Republicans will keep debasing themselves to protect Trump

Defending Trump is demanding new levels of creativity and shamelessness from the GOP. Here's why they keep at it.

President Trump holds his first cabinet meeting.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Being a partisan advocate in a partisan time has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you don't have to think too much — if all you need to know is that your side is right and the other side is wrong, there's no need to spend hours in agonizing deliberation about where you should stand on every new issue that emerges. On the other hand, you'll often be called on to defend the barely defensible, making yourself look ridiculous in the process. And if what you have to defend is Donald Trump, it's even worse.

He's been making Republicans' life difficult from the beginning, of course, saying and doing one hideous thing after another, whether it was mocking a disabled reporter, encouraging his supporters to beat up protesters, getting into a spat with a Gold Star family, or bragging about his ability to commit sexual assault with impunity. In all those cases it was possible for them to say, "I don't agree with Trump on this, but since I yearn with every fiber of my being for a cut in the capital gains tax, he's still my candidate." But now, with the stakes getting higher, Republicans have to stand behind him in places where his atrocious behavior could threaten his presidency.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.