[doom2]

> It's just navel-gazing to pretend like what he's doing has high approval

Then how is it being reflected in Congress? Where are the Republicans speaking loudly on behalf of their dissatisfied constituents and voting on bills accordingly? We shouldn't have to wait every two years for a midterms or general election for the negative approval rating to make itself known, politicians can choose any time to act in a way that shows they're listening to their constituents.

[mcphage]

> Then how is it being reflected in Congress?

“What people support” and “what politicians do” isn’t as strongly correlated as one might hope.

[zzzeek]

they're basically fucked. they can't turn against Leader, because their base would abandon them immediately. But they desperately wish they could hold him back, because they are well aware they are going to get creamed in November.

as far as "bills", there's no bills because that's up to Mike Johnson who is a super loyalist. His district is very safe (Cook R+26).

[johnnyanmac]

> their base would abandon them immediately...they are going to get creamed in November.

These seem contradictory. So they risk losing their voters if they oppose Trump, but also know voters will vote them out?

>that's up to Mike Johnson who is a super loyalist. His district is very safe (Cook R+26).

That's part of why we've had so many forced votes around Johnson.

And I guess we'll see in Novemeber which branch is true. Either the R's are safe and the voter base is strong/popular enough to keep them in, or they are actually unpopular and at best scared of Trump (and at worst, super loyalist) and they will go down with the ship.

[ambicapter]

He just explained how it works for the presidency, why is it so hard to extend that logic to other elected officials?