Republican senator Ben Sasse, a critic not only of President Donald Trump but of his own political party, said on Saturday that he has considered leaving the GOP on more than one occasion.
The Nebraska lawmaker responded to a Twitter user who asked if he would think about following her example of ditching the Democratic party to become an unaffiliated voter.
“[Y]ep, regularly consider it,” he wrote, “(except for the ‘from Dem’ part).”
yep — regularly consider it
(except the “from Dem” part) https://t.co/ZZCQKOPhL9— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 8, 2018
The timing of Sasse’s comment dovetails with his criticism of Congress during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh last week, when he assailed the legislative branch for allowing the judiciary to become politicized. The reason for such politicization, he said, partly stemmed from legislators forfeiting their responsibility as lawmakers, whether to agencies in the executive branch or to federal courts.
“Our political commentary talks about the Supreme Court like they’re people wearing red and blue jerseys,” Sasse said on Tuesday.
But Sasse has narrowed in on his own party in the past, as well. During an interview with economist Tyler Cowen last year, for example, he called both the Republican and Democratic parties “intellectually exhausted.”
“I don’t think either party can articulate a vision for America that’s five or ten years future-looking right now,” he said. “So when you ask the American people, ‘Do you identify more with the Republican party or the Democratic party,’ and if you don’t give them the option to say ‘none of the above,’ 46 percent of people still interrupt to say ‘none of the above.’”
Sasse sounded open to joining them with his tweet on Saturday.
He was given the opportunity the next day to elaborate. Sasse was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper to name the last time he thought about departing the Republicans to become an independent.
“I probably think about it every morning when I wake up and I figure out why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to D.C. this week—are we gonna get real stuff done?” Sasse said Sunday morning on State of the Union. “So, I’m committed to the party of Lincoln and Reagan as long as there’s a chance to reform it. But this party used to be for some pretty definable stuff, and frankly neither of these parties are for very much more than being ‘anti’—and ‘anti,’ or ‘anti-anti,’ or ‘anti-anti-anti.’”
He laid off a question about whether President Trump has contributed to what Tapper called Sasse’s “ambivalence” about party affiliation, noting that Trump has “done some good things” with his approach to the Supreme Court and regulatory reform.
“But I think it’s pretty obvious when you’re engaging the White House, as I do many, many times a week, that there’s just a lot of chaos and a lot of reality-TV circus, and that’s a little bit different than [having] a long-term view.”
