A Problem With Democrats

Democrats don't have enough faith, or enough devotion.  They're Democrats -- they'll tell you that -- but they often lack tenacious commitment, especially to other Democrats.

In recent years, take, for example, the matter of Al Franken, who was a Senator from Minnesota for a time.  But a photograph surfaced showing Franken, who had been a comedian before he went into politics, pretending to reach for the breasts of a woman sleeping on a military airplane.  Franken had been a surprisingly (considering that his former career was as a comedian) wonderful Senator.  He was uniquely smart, and perhaps thanks to his former career in entertainment, he was very good at expressing himself, sometimes particularly in light-hearted ways that almost masked the seriousness of the matter at hand.

But when that photograph surfaced, Democrats urged him to resign, which he did.  He hadn't touched the sleeping woman, or done anything to her, but he was comedically non-serious in a way that his colleagues felt was unbecoming his office.  They didn't argue in favor of his value to the Senate, or to point out that he hadn't done anything to the woman in the photograph.  And they certainly didn't pretend he didn't do what the photograph showed him pretending to do.  They jettisoned, or abandoned, him.  Because he betrayed their idea of proper enough decorum.

Or take the matter of Bob Menendez, a Senator from NJ.  He was found with unexplained money and specie, which he shouldn't have had, and which it appeared he had gotten from Egyptian oligarchs.  His colleagues have leaned, and continue to lean, heavily on him to resign.  The "optics" are very bad, and there's every indication he accepted bribes.  His Democratic colleagues would have nothing to do with apparent behavior like that, and he, too, has been fighting off being pushed out by his own party.

Or think of Tulsi Gabbard, or Kyrsten Sinema, or Joe Manchin.  They were all reliable Democratic votes, but they were felt not to have upheld the Democratic agenda.  Gabbard and Sinema are out -- Sinema having changed parties (again) -- and Manchin is not running for re-election.

Much more recently, consider Joe Biden.  One bad debate, and Democrats quickly got all over him to abandon his re-election bid.

You don't generally find problems like that with Republicans.  They are mostly unwaveringly committed to their party, and if any one flinches, he or she gets extruded.  Republicans don't seem to care what their agenda or platform is, or who represents it, or how.  They are stalwart in standing alongside even the most absurd, ridiculous, or self-contradictory members of their party.  They will support even convicted felons in their party.  If anyone declares him- or herself Republican, a large number of other Republicans will have his or her back, no matter what.

It must be a great comfort for Republicans to know they can do whatever they want, and they'll get support.  Democrats don't have that advantage.  They have to behave themselves, honor the Constitution, and put country before party.  Their colleagues are rigorous in demanding all that, and they brook no lapses.