Anybody who watched the debate on Tuesday night and believes Donald Trump is good for our country lacks the judgment to be anywhere near the levers of power. Trump’s display was embarrassing for us as a nation and disturbing, knowing that he’s in control of our nuclear arsenal. We need to restore dignity to the office of the presidency and have a leader with some degree of decency, empathy, and self-control.
In addition, people like Thom Tillis and Richard Hudson who know better need to be held accountable. They have enabled Trump’s worst instincts by sitting silent or defending him. Their unwillingness to criticize any of the president’s pathetic failings exposes them as cowards lacking any moral compass. They are more concerned with their own political futures than the wellbeing of the United States.
Tillis and Hudson are different than the likes of Dan Bishop or Madison Cawthorn. Bishop is little more than an opportunistic bigot who long ago sold any soul that he might have had. He supported the racist web site Gab and introduced the divisive and damaging Bathroom Bill. Cawthorn is just a twenty-something showboat with white nationalist tendencies who is caught up in his 15 minutes of fame. They will go along with whatever their party or base wants, promoting divisive, racist, or homophobic tropes. They lack the empathy to be in office. They are Trumpian in character and demeanor.
Tillis and Hudson, though, know better. Their younger selves would never have imagined standing with a man like Donald Trump. Tillis and Hudson both began their careers believing in public service and civic responsibility. They have lost their way and gone Washington, victims of their own political ambitions.
Tillis, Hudson, and Bishop all need to go. Cawthorn should never get near halls of power. Bishop lacks any moral authority and Tillis and Hudson have surrendered theirs. We need leaders who can put their own ambition aside and put the country first. Clearly, none of these candidates or incumbents has done either. Character matters and the GOP delegation lacks it.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Don’t forget Murphy!! Totally sold his soul once he got to Washington!
Neither party has character. Cawthorn’s opponent has routinely lied about numerous things and misrepresented his military record. Cunningham was brought in by DSCC when Erica Smith was leading by 7 points and is now bought and paid for, if he get away with multiple cheating scandals.
If Thom Tillis ever had any sense of civic responsibility it would be news to most of us – and probably him as well. For as long as his name has been associated with NC politics, he’s been an opportunistic power whore, all too eager to suckle at the teat of ALEC and Art Pope, and later on the Koch Apparatus that Carried him to a senate seat in 2014. After winning ALEC’s Legislator of the Year for NC at least once, and memory is suggesting at least twice, whatever soul he may have had remaining was picked up off the clearance rack.
Perhaps the most telling point came during the battle over Amendment One in 2012, when in a rare moment of candor then House Speaker Tillis admitted that the amendment would probably be repealed in 10 year’s time, but in the political climate of the day, he wa s going to back it anyway. Which led to passage of an amendment to the state constitution that a full third of the people who voted for it DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT DID.
The entire GOP has become nothing more than a crime syndicate, kept in power only by chicanery and dishonesty nationally, and whatever the state party may have had in the way of integrity died with Walter Jones. They won’t be able to lay claim to any moral authority again. Not as long as this current crop remains in power. And since there seems little chance of them relinquishing that hold, i see them as irredeemable.
Trump is done – stick a fork in it… The rest of his ragged coat-tails will hit the rubbish bin too in about 30 days. This might be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for centrist Democrats to remake a constructive national policy that moves our nation, our society, and our economy forward together. Maybe evidenced-based approaches such as cost-benefit analysis, epidemiology, etc. can move forward again with greater attention to distributive justice and socially-conscious outcomes with this electoral outcome? Progressives need to give up on “equal outcomes” and horizontal equity, identity politics, and socialism as foundations of a ‘just’ society and rediscover our nation’s great aspirational foundations if they want to cement recent political gains.