I think the real objection to my criticism of Gaetz is really, "C'mon dude, he offered a single-word sneer on Twitter at McCarthy, it's no big deal and you're acting like a spazz."

And I agree with the first part of that -- it is no big deal. The one thing is no big deal, and I understand why people would object to making a big deal about it.

But like I said in the thread, as I began to collect my thoughts better, I'm just tired of the whole idea that trolling is good politics. I think that Romney and other Establishment csers have dishonestly painted themselves as dignified, sober, and responsible, and have claimed that they should control the party due to their claimed dignity, sobriety, and responsibility.

And what has wound up happening is that these csers' false conflation of themselves with dignity, sobriety, and responsibility has made those virtues seem maybe a bit like false virtues that liars wear like costumes to many. And it's sullied those virtues, and has made their opposites seem, if not virtuous, at least more honest.

But the Romney wing's false pieties do not make piety wrong. The Romney wing's false nobility doesn't make nobility ignoble.

It just makes them ridiculous puffed up moralizing narcissist and liars.

I'm just pining for a return to a more traditional sense of what is considered good political behavior, without the bad example of Romney and Ryan poisoning the idea that dignified behavior is a good thing, and not necessarily what it has been in the recent past, which is a way to trick the rubes into voting against their own political aspirations and political interests.

These people have constantly made the pitch, "Vote for us, we're the people who act properly."

And many of us said to them in 2015-2016 -- explicitly; I know I said this myself, and some commenters HOWLED it -- "Okay, so you're the 'reputable' people, and that's good, we like voting for the 'reputable' people, but we're going to have to insist that the 'reputable' people actually agree to run on our agenda for once and implement it, otherwise you bet your sweet 'reputable' asses we're voting for the disreputable Trump who will execute our agenda."

And for years and years, the NeverTrumpers have continued to pretend that their agenda is only about "norms" and "standards of behavior."

And when we say to them, if it is only about "norms" and "standards of behavior" -- will you then act with good "norms" and "standards of behavior," but build a wall and begin ejecting illegal aliens, starting with the criminals but then moving through the rest of them?

They answer, "Good Heavens, no! That's racist, you bigot! Illegal aliens are the best of all Americans!"

Which then leads to a renewed understanding that no, this isn't just about "norms" and "standards of behavior" -- this is and always will be an ideological struggle against globalists and nationalists, but the globalists know they have the unpopular side of the issue, so they continue to lie (now there's some good norms right there) and claim it's just about civility and saying please and thank you.

So people have a general suspicion now of people who pretend at public virtue while playing at treason. And I think a lot of the embrace of troll culture is a repudiation of that deceitful mask-wearing by Bill Kristol and the rest of the pious Democrat Wing of the Republican Party.

And for a long time, I was actually all on board with that. I thought that was a necessary repudiation.

But I'm just tired of it now. Shouting "F*** you!" into the faces of the fake moralists was fun and also necessary.

But we need to do more than that. Oh, I know we're doing more than that already. But I mean, we have to move further away from the position of pure rebellion. We've won control of the party* -- to the extent you can control the party -- and yet we're mostly frozen in the posture of burn-it-down rebellion.

We need to start moving from rebellion to making a legacy.

And I sure wouldn't mind a return to public virtue, without the Romney wing attempting to manipulate people with a show of that virtue to con them into accepting the globalist WEF agenda.

I suppose that's why I'm very partial to Ron DeSantis, because he actually is a gentlemen, veteran, scholar, and incredibly effective executive who also is on the right side of the nationalist/globalist and populist/Establishment divides.

Anyway, yes, it was a very minor, stupid thing to give Gaetz grief about. All he said was "McLeavin'."

That is a minor thing I shouldn't have made a big deal about.

It's about this other, bigger thing. I would, yes, like to see a return to a more normal and more dignified level of political behavior, and without the taint of the David Frenches who use that notion as a way to Con the Rubes into voting for Open Borders Forever.

* I realize now that this will be a key point of disagreement. And yes, we don't really control the party. Though I would say we at least have the sort of loose control that causes most in the party to pretend to agree. Which is something.

Betcha no elected Republican calls us "Hobbits" again.

To get to further control, real control, we have to actually do stuff. We have to put forward an actual agenda. The constant teenage rebellion stuff is fun and energizing but it will not actually win over the people we need to win over to form a governing majority in the party.

So that's what my disagreement with Gaetz is about, I guess: Whether the tactics of juvenile rebellion and trolling are still effective, or are stuff you do at the beginning of a rebellion, but not in the middle of consolidation phase.