Seasoned retiring GOP Congressman Charlie Dent says loyalty to US President Donald Trump, instead of political doctrine, has become the new "litmus test" of the Republican Party.
“You know, before Donald Trump became president the litmus test for Republicans was, it was really about the ideological purity and conformity. Now the litmus test has changed. The issue is loyalty to the man, to the president. And for some you know loyalty is not enough you have to be angry and aggrieved," Dent said on ABC's This Week.
Dent went further to say, even loyalty is not enough for some staunch Trump supporters.
“I've often said to some folks around here that if I set myself on fire for them they would complain that... the temperature of the flame isn't hot enough.”
'Paralyzing at point of paralysis'
Dent (pictured above) said Washington is now more divided and partisan than it ever was during his time in Congress.
“I guess the biggest difference is that not only Washington and Congress but the country, generally, is much more polarized than when I first arrived,” he noted. “You can make a case it was becoming more and more polarized over several decades. The polarization has reached the point of paralysis. There doesn't seem to be the bipartisan collaboration up front that we need on a lot of big issues.”
A self-styled moderate, Dent was the leader of the House's Tuesday group, a cadre of Republicans that is relatively liberal compared to the House Freedom Caucus or Republican Study Committee.
Dent, who was first elected in 2004 in a swing district in Northeastern Pennsylvania, said one of his reasons for retiring is that Washington is paralyzed by gridlock.
"The simple basic tasks of government have become Herculean tasks," Dent said Sunday. "There are too many people here who've taken saying no to an art form, a lot of people here just can't get to yes."
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