thank you thank you, thank you. I’m so tired of the” blackmail” trope myself, Repubs are not Conservatives, they’re country club blue bloods and like you said, despise the base. the only, and I mean only time they get tough, is with conservatives in the party, because theres not enough of us in the party to fight back, they roll us every single time. They run away from Dems like scared little girls every time, too scared of confrontation, and will compromise with them always, never with the conservative members of their own party. I was a republican voter my whole life, changed my affiliation in Jan’20, can’t stand the fookers.
I saw someone on Twitter/X refer to today's Republicans as being "embarrassed Democrats," and I thought that captured the point rather pithily.
Problem is, too many of the fossilized Boomer types around here are simply incapable of seeing the light, as you did, and in doing what you did. They are wedded to their decades-long way of thinking, and, like a tethered pony at a carnival, can only ever walk around and around the same dusty track. Going in circles, never stopping but also never getting anywhere.
Many such cases.