Why Would Republicans Behave this Way?

It is not uncommon to hear people express dismay and puzzlement about the unwillingness, one might say refusal, of the Republican Party to confront or even criticize Trump for the myriad ways in which he demeaned the office of the President and the standing of the United States in the eyes of the world. So why is that?

Some of it must be to do with the same self-serving anxiety about their own jobs that compelled them to quail before Trump in the 2106 primaries for fear of losing the votes of his supporters. The result of that pathetic handwringing was that Trump got the nomination. The GOP strategy now must be to simply survive the post-Trump era without losing the votes of his supporters. If they can.

But is that it?

Former Russian Senator Aleksandr Torshin, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and confessed Russian agent Mariia Butina in 2015

The NRA has heavily funded GOP campaigns for many years, in addition to its practice of rating candidates for political office according to perceived support for its own brand of gun policy.

Increasingly, questions are raised about connections between Russia, the NRA and the Republican Party. The NRA spent roughly $30 million to help elect Donald Trump, who seems quite cozy with Russia. This is about three times what it spent in support of Mitt Romney in his bid for the presidency.

How much of that money came from Russia is a matter for speculation, but the NRA has acknowledged it has received money from Russians. Since it is illegal for foreign contributions to be used in elections, it may be that GOP benefactors of NRA largesse are nervous about the ramifications of having benefitted from Russian money laundered through the NRA.

Five minutes with a search engine is all that’s needed to start the curious down this rabbit hole.