-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
Americans always say they want politicians with backbone — men and women of principle who will stand up for what they believe in, even when it’s unpopular.
And every so often, the American people prove their commitment to this noble aspiration by firing anybody who actually tries it.
Take Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who just lost a reelection bid by double digits after President Trump’s affiliated committees dumped enough money into Kentucky to purchase, well, Kentucky.
Massie committed the cardinal sin of modern Republican politics: He behaved as though Congress were a coequal branch of government instead of the warm-up act before a Trump rally.
He bucked Trump on spending, Iran and — in what apparently qualified as political suicide — whether or not to release the Epstein files. For this display of independent thought, Massie was summarily retired by what can only be described as the Trump cult (formerly known as the Republican primary electorate).
Before anybody accuses me of hyperbole, consider the remarkably revealing example presented recently on the New York Times podcast, “The Daily.”
At a town hall in Burlington, Ky., one voter explained to Massie that Trump is basically omniscient.
“As I see it,” the voter said, “the one person in the whole United States, maybe the world, that understands everything and has input to everything is Donald Trump.”
Not content with mere earthly wisdom, Trump also possesses universal awareness, superior intelligence and perhaps even low-level clairvoyance. The voter continued that Trump “gets more information, more meetings, more everything” than anybody else in government.
When Massie noted that Trump opposed releasing the Epstein files, the man calmly explained that if Trump changed positions, “there was a reason” — one too profound for ordinary mortals to comprehend.
Massie’s reply deserves to be bronzed and mounted over the entrance to the U.S. Capitol: “I don’t give anybody but God that kind of trust.”
Unfortunately, for a large portion of the Republican electorate (about 55%, based on the Kentucky primary results), those words constitute sacrilege against their earthly savior.
As South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham cheerfully boasted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “This is the party of Donald Trump.” Which is true in much the same way North Korea is the party of Kim Jong Un.
The one ironic twist in all of this is that Americans finally managed to punish somebody over the Epstein files — only it turned out to be the guy who wanted them released.
There’s American justice for you.
Massie isn’t the only Republican currently being fitted for concrete shoes. Trump also helped finish off Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, whose unforgivable crime was voting to convict Trump during the impeachment trial following Jan. 6. And Trump has endorsed controversial Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, which in today’s GOP primary environment is roughly the equivalent of finding a horse head in your bed.
Now, to be fair, Cassidy and Cornyn are no Massie, who openly opposed Trump and paid the price standing upright. Cassidy and Cornyn demonstrated brief moments of independence, only to spend years vainly performing political interpretive dance routines in hopes of regaining Trump’s favor.
Still, there may be a silver lining here for students of political irony.
Trump’s endorsement of Paxton will force Republicans to spend enormous sums defending a deep red state that would ordinarily require little more than a campaign sign and a pickup truck.
Meanwhile, Trump is creating resentful lame-duck Republicans in Congress who now possess the most dangerous attribute in politics: nothing left to lose.
But the broader message is unmistakable. Trump wants Republicans to understand that disagreement will not be tolerated. No criticism. No distancing. No independent branding.
The party line is whatever Trump said five minutes ago, amended by whatever he says five minutes from now. By now, everyone knows this to be true.
Which would be excellent news for Trump, if not for one small complication: The rest of the country appears to be tiring of his act. Recent polling shows Trump’s approval slipping to 37%, while Democrats gain major ground, surging to a +11 on the generic congressional ballot.
Trump, it seems, has created a situation in which Republicans can either oppose him and be destroyed in a primary, or they can embrace him and risk losing the House and the Senate in November’s general election. It’s the old “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” conundrum.
The point is this: With the midterms approaching, Trump is making sure Republicans are ensnared in the gravitational pull of his unpopularity.
That may satisfy the president’s desire for complete loyalty. It may also hand Democrats control of both chambers of Congress.
Trump is settling all family business this week, by purging those pesky disloyal Republicans. Only time will tell whether he’s also purging America’s non-Republican “swing” voters, as well.
Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”
Insights
L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles.
Viewpoint
Perspectives
The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
Ideas expressed in the piece
The column argues that today’s Republican Party is dominated by Trump-imposed loyalty tests that punish even modest displays of independence, citing Rep. Thomas Massie’s primary defeat after opposing Trump on spending, Iran and release of the Epstein files as a central example of how GOP voters now function as “the Trump cult.”[1][3]
It further contends that a significant portion of the Republican base treats Trump as a near-omniscient figure whose decisions should not be questioned, pointing to a Kentucky town hall exchange in which a voter described Trump as the one person who “understands everything,” contrasted with Massie’s response that only God merits that level of trust.[3][5]
Moreover, the piece argues that this culture of enforced loyalty extends beyond House backbenchers to higher-profile Republicans: Sen. Bill Cassidy is described as having been “finished off” for voting to convict Trump after Jan. 6, while Trump’s endorsement of Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn is framed as a warning shot to any GOP incumbent who breaks ranks.[3]
The article maintains that Trump’s influence has replaced traditional conservative principles and institutional respect with personal fealty, echoing broader analyses that describe Trump-era politics as eroding congressional checks on presidential power and weakening the separation of powers.[1][5]
In addition, it suggests that Republicans who oscillate between brief acts of defiance and subsequent efforts to regain Trump’s favor—like Cassidy and Cornyn—end up pleasing no one, illustrating how loyalty tests create a climate of fear and opportunism rather than genuine representation or policy debate.[2][3]
The column also highlights the strategic costs of Trump’s purges, arguing that backing controversial figures such as Paxton will force Republicans to pour money into defending otherwise safe red states, while simultaneously turning targeted incumbents into resentful lame ducks who may be more willing to buck Trump because they “have nothing left to lose.”[2]
It draws a direct line between Trump’s loyalty demands and a broader pattern of efforts to concentrate power in the presidency and its allies, noting parallel concerns about Trump-aligned projects to weaken internal checks and fill the federal bureaucracy with loyalists rather than neutral professionals.[4][5]
Finally, the piece contends that these internal purges are politically self-defeating: with Trump’s national approval slipping into the 30s and Democrats leading on the generic congressional ballot, the GOP is portrayed as trapped in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” dynamic, where defying Trump is fatal in primaries but embracing him risks losing swing voters and control of Congress in November.[1][5]
Different views on the topic
Some Republican officials and strategists counter that what critics label “loyalty tests” are better understood as normal intra-party accountability, arguing that primary voters are entitled to replace lawmakers who diverge from the party’s standard-bearer on high-salience issues like impeachment, foreign policy or spending; in this view, figures such as Liz Cheney and Bill Cassidy were punished not for conscience but for being out of step with their constituents’ judgment about Trump’s leadership.[1][3]
At the same time, allies of Trump have often presented the GOP’s transformation as a corrective rather than a collapse, describing it as the “party of Donald Trump” in a positive sense and arguing that aligning closely with Trump keeps Republicans in sync with a base that feels neglected by traditional party elites and motivated by Trump’s populist agenda on immigration, trade and cultural issues.[1][3]
Furthermore, some conservatives dispute the notion that Trump-era discipline has destroyed institutional checks and balances, noting that courts, state officials and Congress have at key moments constrained Trump’s ambitions, and pointing out that there have been instances where congressional Republicans voted against Trump’s wishes—such as on certain war powers resolutions, veto overrides and healthcare-related measures—suggesting the party has not become a monolith devoid of internal dissent.[1][5]
In addition, proponents of Trump’s continued dominance argue that loyalty is justified because, from their perspective, Trump is uniquely willing to disrupt entrenched interests: his calls to curb Wall Street’s role in single-family housing and to limit defense contractors’ stock buybacks and executive pay are cited by supporters as examples of siding with ordinary voters over corporations, making tight alignment with Trump less about personality and more about advancing concrete populist policies.[1]
Some Republican operatives also challenge the claim that Trump is an electoral albatross, pointing to past cycles where Trump helped boost turnout among working-class and rural voters, and arguing that loyalty to Trump can be a net asset in many districts even if national approval ratings sag; in this reading, the greater risk is alienating the energized MAGA base rather than a largely hypothetical bloc of anti-Trump Republican swing voters.[1][2]
Finally, critics of the “party in collapse” narrative suggest that internal battles over figures like Massie, Cassidy and Cornyn reflect an inevitable realignment rather than institutional disintegration, contending that parties periodically redefine themselves around new coalitions and leaders; to those voices, the current upheaval is seen as the GOP consolidating around a Trump-inflected identity that, while polarizing, may prove durable and electorally viable, rather than as evidence that the party is imploding under loyalty tests.[2][3]
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
It started as a ploy to scare Texas out of redrawing its congressional map and ended with California voters approving a new map of their own, one that could hat could help alter the balance of power in Washington.
William Mulholland was the water boss who made L.A. possible. His reputation gave him unchecked authority as a dam builder. In 1928, that led to one of America’s deadliest disasters--and the question of whether it was a crime.
