Sasse marches to own tune as GOP implodes around him

Source: Politico | February 27, 2021 | Burgess Everett

If there’s a model for how to successfully build a conservative GOP out of Trump’s shadow, it might as well be the Nebraska Republican.

Ben Sasse is about to be censured by the Nebraska GOP for his antagonistic stance toward Donald Trump — again. But he doesn’t care.

As Sasse’s fellow Republican critics of Trump fret over blowback from a base that demands loyalty to the ex-president, the senator isn’t even trying to dissuade those seeking to punish him. Sasse conceded in an interview: “I assume I’m going to be censured on Saturday, but I haven’t spent any time to talk anybody out of it.”

“I care about a lot of the people, but I don’t really care about the censure,” he said ahead of the expected condemnation from his state’s Republican Party. “There are a lot of really good people involved in party activism. But I don’t think they’re at all representative of regular Nebraskans … Nebraska is a lot Trumpier than I am. But I got a lot more votes than he did.”

Sasse just won a race down-ballot from Trump and is as relaxed as one can be about his political situation. He’s facing no internal pressure in the Senate for his vote to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection. A previous censure in 2016 did not rattle his views. If there’s a model for how to successfully build a conservative GOP out of Trump’s shadow, it might as well be him.

But Sasse can’t quite be replicated. He’s a bit of a loner in the Senate, both in style and substance, someone who can’t comprehend how cable news hits, partisan congressional speeches and the culture wars have come to dominate politics.

That’s not to say Sasse isn’t bothered by Nebraskans spending their Saturday targeting Sasse’s vote to convict Trump. In fact, he’s perplexed that Republicans in his state even worked on Super Bowl Sunday to censure him.

“You want to go to some hotel, strip mall conference room and scream about a politician who tried to tell you: ‘I would oppose somebody in my own party who violated their oath?’” he marveled. “That’s not healthy.”

……..

Tagged: , ,

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.