I'd love to know how many elected Republicans...

[Silent3]

...are just as nutty as the Trump cultists who vote for them, and how many have been cravenly playing the part for political gain.

I'm not sure which group is more dangerous.

I suspect that the House has a much higher percentage of True Believers and the Senate a lot more craven calculators.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Cruz and Hawley certainly know they are lying.

The Q twins may full well believe all their BS.

[genxlib]

2. This is how I think of them too

I refer to the two groups as manipulators and true believers

For me, the scary thing is that the two have started to cross over. For most of the last 50 years, the manipulators held power and were the politicians and media demagogues. The rubes were just the followers.

Starting within the last decade, the rubes got full of themselves and started to run for office. Now you see a bunch of people with power who are completely disconnected from reality. I believe that this is one of the major factors with Trump himself. I think he was the first President that was actually a consumer of the R/W media bullshit rather than just a peddler.