Tillis as Chameleon

 

With murky core values, compromise became his guiding principle.

--Thomas Mills, commenting on Sen. Thom Tillis

Everybody is dumping on speculating about Sen. Thom Tillis's continued survival as a chameleon politician, whom Mills outs as a flagrant empty suit in a very recent essay on his Substack feed. In Mills's discerning view, Tillis long ago compromised away any values he's willing to actually stand up for. Mills contrasts the Tillis of today to the Tillis who first won his Senate seat in 2006, betting that after his brief feint for principle in the case of Matt Gaetz, Tillis will end up voting for every corrupt and unqualified cabinet secretary that Trump sends up the hill:

If you had told 2006 Thom Tillis, the guy who had just won a state house primary from suburban district, that he would be supporting a convicted sex offender who is selling commemorative coins and bibles for President of the United States, he would have laughed at you. If you told 2006 Tillis that he was about to vote to confirm a woman who has credibly been accused of being a Russian asset as Director of National Intelligence, he would have vehemently denied it. Or if you told him that he would be voting to confirm a vaccine denier to head Health and Human Services, he would say you were crazy. And if you asked him whether a Defense Secretary nominee with no managerial experience and allegations of sexual assault should be confirmed, he would tell you, “Of course not.” And yet 2024 Thom Tillis will probably vote for all three.