With pending passage the of tax reform, the GOP is feeling emboldened. Now that they’ve given corporations and the wealthy huge tax breaks, they’re brazenly saying they’re going to tackle “entitlement reform” next. That’s code for cutting Social Security and Medicare. Even more disturbing, they’ve now moved from keeping a distance from Alabama Republican Senate nominee and alleged sexual predator Roy Moore to openly embracing him.
Donald Trump threw his support firmly behind Roy Moore and has ordered the Republican National Committee to restore funding for Moore’s campaign. Mitch McConnell backed off earlier criticisms and said he would let Alabama voters decide Moore’s fate. When asked about the president’s endorsement, Utah Republican Senator Orin Hatch said, “I don’t think he had any choice but to do that … that’s the only Republican we can get down there.” Hatch went on to dismiss the allegations because they happened decades ago.
You can certainly bet that the GOP won’t look into the credible allegations that the president sexually harassed and abused women, despite his admission on the Access Hollywood tape. Paul Ryan said as much in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. The House Speaker avoided comparisons with Moore and said, “What I see is a president who is fighting for the things that I’m fighting for.”
Not all Republicans agree with the GOP leadership. Former Bush speech writer Michael Gerson tweeted this morning, “There are few moments when a political party can be said to have lost its soul. GOP support for Moore is one of them. It is the complete abandonment of morality in the cause of power. Shockingly cynical, cruel to Moore’s (credible) accusers, an abdication of ethical leadership.”
Still, the elected leadership of the GOP is going to overlook sexual harassment and abuse in order to push its agenda through Congress. While Republicans will try to make a “both sides” argument, Democratic Congressman John Conyers is announcing his resignation. We now have a country where the parties have different standards for sexual harassment and abuse. Republicans are okay with it, Democrats are not.
None of this bodes well for the future of the country. As Mueller’s investigation finds more and more improper behavior, there’s little evidence the GOP is willing to hold to standards or norms that have protected the constitution and government. McConnell has already changed the Senate for the worse in order score political points. Now, he’s willing to protect sex abusers. Why should we expect him to do anything other than protect the president for political gain? It’s the epitome of putting party before country. It’s not even America First nationalism. It’s GOP First tribalism and it’s reached the highest levels of government.
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 >
Not sure why Rep’s should waste time investigating Trump’s sexual peccadillos given that he’s pretty much admitted them….before he was elected, by the way, and folks still elected him knowing all that. The politicians focus on this stuff and not on the bread-and-butter issues that people actually care about, which is likely why the Donald gets a pass even from evangelicals who weren’t looking to elect him Pope.
As for Moore, allegations, credible or not credible, are simply that…allegations not substantiated by any real evidence has the practical value of a nothing-burger given that these particular allegations suddenly and conveniently appeared in a narrow time window between the time Moore won the primary and the general election, and were brought into the public arena by a newspaper that had previously indicated it’s bias against Moore. He may be the evilest fellow in the land but the accusations against him are a little too obvious and too clever by half and will likely not deter him from being elected.
The implementation of new policies is why most Republicans and independents voted for Trump. Change always comes with a political cost, as Obama and the liberal Democrats found out in 2010 and 2014. The goal of today’s movement conservatives is to implement conservative policies that can be sustained long after the current cast of politicans has faded from the scene. And despite his crude bluster and irreverent comments, his Administration is making substantial progress toward that goal.
Push is about to come to shove. I can easily see another civil war. It is a pathetically sad state of affairs.
A craven, odious collection of sexual predators, child molesters, racists, America-hating liars found common ground in their disdain for 90% of America. They decided to borrow more than a $ trillion dollars to put in the hands of the richest people and corporations.
The rapist-in-chief remains at the helm, as long as Putin wants him in charge of the United States. Republican have no backbone, no principals, no morals and no concern for the damage they do to the United States day by day.
They should have a party at Mar a Lago and send the bill to the taxpayers. Black tie, Russian caviar, martinis with Russian vodka mixed with chilled tears of orphans and the homeless. For amusement, they could screen “Cries from Syria” so they can laugh at the slaughter of children in a war zone.
Why do we put monsters where they do the most damage?
If the moronic Republicans and Trump want to lose their base and elections over the next several years, let them tamper more directly with Social Security and Medicare. There would be a voter revolt and it would be bipartisan. These idiots are playing with political fire. The tax bill they are rushing to passage in conference already hits benefit programs hard. I can see the Republicans reverting to deficit hawk mode once the sky falls because of their insanity. They will scream that the so-called entitlement programs have to be cut. No! Just a minute buster! I have paid into both Social Security and Medicare for years. I be damned if some two-bit ideologues are going to strip me of either.
Seems to me that Republicans in Congress are telling us that women, minorities and the poor have no rights that rich white men are bound to respect. I beg–no, I DEMAND to differ.
Oh, right, you could be on to something. Didn’t I hear those same sentiments expressed by Senators Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, Shelly Moore Capito, Joni Ernst, Deb Fisher, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ted Cruz and Representatives Cathy Rodgers, Mia Love, Marsha Blackburn, Diane Black, Kristi Noem, Martha McSally, Virginia Foxx et al.?
Oh wait, maybe not. Could it have been Representatives Luis Gutierriz, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green, Keith Ellison and Senator Elizabeth Warren? That seems more likely. LOL.