Last night Donald Trump visited Texas in an attempt to save a red Senate seat by campaigning for his one-time punching bag, Ted Cruz. The surreal scene underscored the plummeting testosterone levels plaguing the Republican Party, America’s shriveling symbol of white male manhood.
The Trump-Cruz tolerance-by-necessity fest was well-captured in a tweet from Princeton historian Kevin Kruse:
Not quite a demonstration of the old “one riot-one ranger” Lone Star ethos.
Once a self-conscious projection of manly virtues such as courage and fidelity – Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Robert Dole, and John McCain – the GOP is now cowering behind its bully in chief, Donald Trump.
Consider the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing concerning allegations of sexual misconduct by Supreme Court nominee (now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was testifying the Eleven Angry Men of the GOP majority were the Eleven Tranquil Men, quivering and quavering behind the apron of their Lady Prosecutor. Once Dr. Ford was gone the Twelve Angry Men (adding Judge Kavanaugh) were bellowing belligerence and bellicosity.
Closer to home we have the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance which wails in terror to reveal its secret donors because that cabal of wealthy white males trembles to be associated with their own positions! MassFiscal tries to hide behind a Supreme Court decision protecting the identities of Black civil rights activists in 1950s Alabama as if the line from Rosa Parks to Rick Green is self-evident.
Justice Antonin Scalia seemed to have the virtue of manly courage in mind when he said this in a campaign finance case:
Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed. For my part, I do not look forward to a society which . . . campaigns anonymously . . . hidden from public scrutiny and protected from the accountability of criticism. This does not resemble the Home of the Brave.
From manly Senators shrinking behind their Lady Prosecutor, to Mass Fiscal, to Lyin’ Ted, the Home of the Brave caucus of the GOP is withering to flaccidity.