Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) claimed in a speech on Thursday that “the right wants a strongman daddy figure” in describing his political party while asserting that Democrats want “a powerful, nameless but supposedly benevolent bureaucracy.”
“In the 2016 presidential campaign, you had two candidates with wildly different solution sets, but their fundamental diagnosis was really the same. The system’s rigged, you’re getting screwed, you’re a victim, the country is going down the tubes, you’re victims,” Sasse said while giving remarks at “A Time for Choosing Speaker Series” event by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
“The left wants a powerful, nameless but supposedly benevolent bureaucracy. The right wants a strongman daddy figure, but the loudest of them all agree on one thing: America, the one the founders gave us, the one kept for us by our parents and grandparents, it doesn’t work anymore,” he continued. “They can’t work anymore. These are not the good faith positions of two big healthy political parties that are just competing about different visions of leadership.”
The Nebraska Republican also claimed it was “full of crap” for both political parties to villainize the other in what have become an increasingly partisan climate, especially in light of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, in which a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.
Sasse was also not shy about taking some swipes at both Democrats and members of his own party.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene and AOC, it’s choose your own dictatorial adventure,” he said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by her initials. “Matt Gaetz and Madison Cawthorn, they might as well be from the far left because, like all prophets of doom, they love ranting to the American people that we’re just victims.”
Sasse was one of seven Senate Republicans to vote to impeach former President Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot, drawing Trump’s ire. The attack has created fissures within the Republican Party among those who have since become outspoken critics of Trump and those who have remained loyal to the former president.