By Nicole Montesano • Staff Writer • 

Noble confirms plan to run for Congress in new district

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Comments

Rotwang

After he threw his colleague under the bus this year, I wouldn't trust him to mind my cats.

Sponge

Rotwang, if you’re referencing Noble’s vote against the stupidity of Mike Nearman’s actions to enable law-breaking rioters into the state capital building, his integrity gets my vote. Let your cats fend for themselves; they’re cats.

Lulu

Nearman should be picking up litter along the highway after completing a lengthy jail term.

BC

As an independent, I'd back Ron Nobel in a heartbeat. His integrity is leaps and bounds ahead of every politician, L or R, that lives off taxpayer's hard earned dollars. If we had more politicians, like him, who first consider what is good for the people, ahead of considering what is good for the "party", we'd have have better lives.

I consider his decision the definition of integrity.

TTT

He should support the law enforcement community from which he came.

Russ

There is zero evidence that Noble would be any more independent than other Republicans in Congress, who vote 99 percent in lockstep with what GOP leadership wants. We don't need any more insurrection supporting Republicans.

Sponge

And you, Russ, have “zero evidence” that Noble is an “insurrection supporting” Republican. We’d all be better off if you kept your inflammatory nonsense to yourself.

Russ

Sponge: Unfortunately the evidence is that "good Republicans" seem to lose their principles when they get to Washington. The failure of Republicans in both the House and Senate to support a Jan. 6 investigation, the inaccurate blaming of BLM and Antifa for Jan. 6, and so much else are tantamount to supporting the insurrection. Only Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have shown any independence from Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. All others, both by their rhetoric and their failure to speak out against Jan. 6, Trump, etc., are supporting the Big Lie that the election was fradulent when there is no evidence it was. All this is a direct assault on our democracy. I doubt Noble, as "good" a Republican as he may be, will be able to stand up to the pressure of the Washington power brokers.

Sponge

I doubt that a thinking person could legitimately deem a “failure to speak out” as “a direct assault on our democracy.” But anybody as myopic as your guilt-by-association diatribe suggests, could talk themselves into believing it is so. These shallow knee-jerk prejudices against party affiliations have to stop, if any real dialogue toward community betterment is possible.

Russ

Well, Sponge, you have me there. As a one-time registered Republican, I am prejudiced. I am prejudiced against the Grand Old Party in its present state. Of course it is, as you say, "guilt by association." The party is an association; membership denotes agreement. I stand with many former and some present Republicans who no longer recognize their party, the founders of the Lincoln Project being but one example. We recognize the dangerous path the party is on. And I hope Noble has the guts to denounce Trump and Trumpism. The Never Trumpers were right in 2016 and proven right in 2021. Silence is complicity.

Sponge

I disagree with, “Silence is complicity.” Unless you are directly in a position to change something by speaking out. However, we do have something in common, in that I, too, am “a one-time registered Republican.” As I watched the Jan. 6 riot unfold, I became so angry that the president did nothing to stop it, that I jumped in my car, drove down to the clerk’s office and changed my party affiliation while the riot was in full swing. I was never so ashamed of my party. I didn’t vote for Trump, either time, because I considered him unfit for office. I was optimistic enough to hope an adult would keep him under control. Never happened.

Russ

Of course silence in complicity. Surely you are familiar with the German Lutheran minister's post-World War II poem:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Russ

Of course silence in complicity. Surely you are familiar with the German Lutheran minister's post-World War II poem:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Sponge

Niemoller’s confession is a powerful reminder of the potential consequences of our failure to address injustice in a timely manner, but to equate silence with complicity is a bridge too far.

tagup

If I may crash your conversation with my two cents, it seems that for elected members of congress who are in a position of leadership & have the power to influence change, silence in the face of injustice (or in this case insurrection) can only be the result of one of two options. Complicity or cowardice.....neither of which reflect well on the republican members of Congress....

Sponge

Well said, tagup.

tagup

Maybe a question for Mr Noble might be how he would have voted on the bill that formed the Jan 6th commission?

Russ

Thus my complaint about Noble and the Republican party. One party is for democracy and the other against it. One party seeks to govern and the other does not even want to discuss governing. This is not polarization. These are the present facts. Listen to "former conservative" columnist Jennifer Rubin (so reliably conservative her column was named Right Turn) of the Washington Post:
"The Republican Party’s tolerance of violence is not matched by Democrats. Nor is the Republican Party’s refusal to recognize the sanctity of elections. Democrats did not call the elections they lost in 2020 and 2021 “rigged,” nor are they seeking to replace nonpartisan election officials with partisan lawmakers.
...
"The “polarization” decriers cop out when describing the country in terms that suggest both sides are to blame. Honesty compels us to recognize that while progressives might have more ambitious goals for government, they work within the democratic structure and acknowledge reality. The same cannot be said of Republicans. Let’s face it: We would not have a democracy crisis and an epistemological crisis if not for the Republican Party."

Sponge

If your only tool is a hammer, Russ, every Republican looks like a nail. No “polarization” there.

Russ

As Jen Rubin's column mentioned previously noted, polarization is the wrong lens to examine the current situation through. Among a list of particulars she says, "The GOP’s willingness to force a default on the debt is likewise indicative of a party that has fallen into nihilism." And later on: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) had it almost right when she wrote in May, 'The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.' The GOP has *already* decided. The answer is no." (Emphasis in original.)

If I had a hammer I would use it to pound out authoritarianism, which is the present manifestation of the Republican Party. But don't take my word, please read political science professor Brian Klass of the University College London, an expert on authoritarianism, who wrote a pithy guest column in the Washington Post a few days ago headlined "Republican authoritarianism is here to stay." It scares the bejesus out of me. It is a dire warning. His evidence is strong. The country needs reasonable political parties. An attempted coup d'etat and a failure to want to even investigate it is all I need to have seen to indicate how serious this is, so, yes, I want to use a hammer to stamp out authoritarian Republicans. And this conversation we have been having is my small contribution to doing that. Until otherwise good people stop making excuses for Trump, Trumpism the hijacked Republican Party and condemn them the country is at risk.

I appreciate your and Tag's participation.

tagup

Russ & sponge- I must say that I find it encouraging that both of you, as (former?) republicans are concerned with the direction that the party is currently taking. It gives me some hope that reasonable people can prevail in government without burning the democracy down.
Congressional process takes comprise and respect for the opposition....qualities that followers of trump are generally lacking. I would like to see, in Mr Noble, the strength & independence to do what’s right for all Americans regardless of party affiliation.

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