People like Kinzinger provide an offramp for Republican voters who are waking up to the reality of the post-Trump GOP to vote their conscience. For better or for worse, we are mired in identity politics, which for many means being a Republican. Folks like Kinzinger are saying you can still identify that way if you want, but it doesn’t mean you have to vote for Trump-- you can put country over party and that’s okay.

He’s doing the job of the Judas Goat which, frankly, we need him for.

the last hope for the GOP died with mccain

So…I’m going to try to give the GOP a bit of a benefit of the doubt here. There is a legitimate position in the GOP – the notion that government isn’t the solution for all our problems, and that the best spent dollar is the dollar spent willingly, by the citizen, on the things the citizen wants to spend it on. We shouldn’t dismiss their political position because it appeals to so many people, and we’re making them choose between fiscal ‘responsibility’ in their eyes and America’s standing on Democratic principles.

We have to reach out to these voters and convince them to stay home, vote third party, or ‘join the dark side’ temporarily and give us their votes, and we’re certainly not going to do that by attacking their political position. I’d prefer “I get that you’d rather keep your tax dollars, and while I disagree with you on that, and you disagree that your tax dollars are your dues to society, right now we have bigger fish to fry, such as the autocratic takeover of your party by fringe elements. Can we work together today so you can have a party to go back to tomorrow?”

Flies, honey, vinegar, all that.

Not really.

In August 2016 he said he couldn’t support Trump, https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/politics/election-2016-adam-kinzinger-american-before-a-republican/index.html

And I don’t see him reversing that position anywhere.