For the last eight years, Republicans have been holding their government to the highest standard and we’ve pounced on every misstep and mistake. In 2010, John Boehner and Eric Cantor rode a TEA Party wave to power in the House of Representatives. We yelled and screamed that they didn’t accomplish everything that we wanted, despite the fact that they didn’t hold the Senate or the White House, and we continued to question President Obama’s dubious leadership. In 2014, Mitch McConnell rode a TEA Party wave into power in the Senate; and for the next two years we demanded a repeal of the ACA and questioned President Obama’s dubious leadership. Finally, the House and Senate passed a repeal, and it was vetoed.
In 2016, Donald Trump rode a populist wave, which tore at the very foundations of the Republican Establishment and the TEA Party, into power with millions of past-Democrats, out of work, and with little hope in the American Rust Belt. Now, the Republican Party controls the Congress and the White House.
All of a sudden, we are no longer allowed to question authority. We are no longer allowed to be critical. We are no longer allowed to demand the very things we fought for in 2010 and 2014. The TEA Party no longer seems to have any sway over the agenda. Donald Trump banished Full Repeal for a Repeal and Replace plan (which we’ll probably see eventually). While the House has passed a number of good bills, many of these bills (like HR 7) are just sitting idle in the United States Senate.
HR 7 would make the Hyde Amendment (No federal funding for abortions) federal law. Why isn’t the Senate acting? President Trump has said he would like to sign it. Why is it still sitting in the Senate?
The ACA is still the law of the land. The Administration is mired in a maze of quasi-fabricated scandals which the President seems intent on exasperating. President Trump is giving us undisciplined tweets and an Obama-esque golf-schedule. I thought we were going to see the great deal-maker and chief. I thought we were going to see a tough stance against ISIS. I thought we were going to see a wildly popular economic agenda.
President Trump, Speaker Ryan, and Majority Leader McConnell owe us an aggressive economic agenda aimed at unleashing this economy’s potential! But we’re not allowed to say this or else we’re “hurting the party”.
In Virginia:
In Virginia, we have White Nationalists burning torches in Charlottesville, but we can’t point this out or else we’re accused of feeding the Democrat narrative. Candidate for Governor, Corey Stewart, denounces everyone in the Commonwealth, except for the White Nationalists in Charlottesville and we can’t point this out without people claiming that we’re trying to hurt the party or the candidate.
What does the Republican Party stand for? We have the House, the Senate, and the White House. Now is the time for tackling abortion, for reforming our tax code, reducing regulations, and strengthening our foreign policy. Instead, what do we see? A White House that can’t work with the Senate. A Senate that ignores legislation sent to them by the House. A House unable to formulate an agenda the entire Republican caucus can get behind.
We deserve better. We ought to demand better.
We can’t blame this all on Trump. Trump doesn’t write the legislation that we need to see brought to his desk. Who cares what Trump does in the White House?
Write legislation. Pass legislation. Send it to the White House.
No matter how many scandals Trump finds himself in, good legislation becoming law is what America needs right now and there is nothing stopping our Republican Party from doing just that. President Clinton was mired in the aftermath of his love affair with cigars and Monica Lewinsky and he still managed to pass a reduction in capital gains. If Clinton and Gingrich can do it, then Trump and Ryan have no excuse.
