AOC is right: there are NO moderate Republicans!

After narrowly averting a painful, unnecessary government shutdown—at least for the next 45 days—many Americans and many professional journalists will succumb to the evergreen urge to praise moderate Republicans for their last second surrender.

I hope they resist.

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez preemptively sets the record straight for both viewers and a mainstream media which is historically inclined to grade the Republican Party on a curve:

“This is not a moderate party, period. There are not moderates in the Republican Party. There are just different degrees of fealty to Donald Trump. But it starts with a lot of fealty and then it goes to extreme fealty.”

She is, of course, completely correct. At the time of writing, two Congressional Republicans who each have demonstrated an indefensibly high fealty to Trump—Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy—are currently in a head-on political collision as the former tries to oust the latter from his role as Speaker of the House.

And then there are those like Nancy Mace, Congresswoman from South Carolina.

Mace pitches herself (with a disturbing rate of success) as a moderate, rational Republican. She’s repeatedly called her party out for their extreme, alienating stance on reproductive rights; she’s publicly criticized Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, and other Republicans; she’s participated in public speaking engagements with disarming charm; she’s been praised by liberal Bill Maher for her alleged reasonableness; she’s repeatedly visited networks and platforms seen by Republicans as hostile to their party—CNN, CBS, NBC, and even the View!

And yet, when push comes to shove?

Mace votes in favor of extreme abortion laws despite her protests. She’s repeatedly tried to justify the impeachment effort against President Biden, has claimed without evidence that the President received bribes from foreign businesses, and has even declared he committed treason against the United States. She (and 91 others) voted against bipartisan funding to avoid a government shutdown.

And in that recent appearance on the View? When asked whether she’d support Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024 even if he’s a convicted felon, she confirmed she would in the most alarmingly explicit terms for a self-professed moderate: “if you’re a convicted felon, you can still run for president”... “I will support my party’s nominee no matter what happens next year.”

Folks, if those are the words of a moderate Republican, just what the hell does a partisan Republican sound like?