The lessons they never learned

Bill Cassidy lost his primary for re-election and Thom Tillis never even made his.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy came in third in the Republican primary. He lost his seat for the sin of voting to impeach Donald Trump. He tried to redeem himself by compromising his values to curry favor with Trump, but it didn’t work. The Trump machine humiliated him anyway.

Our Senator, Thom Tillis, took a different approach. He voted against impeachment. At the time, he was still trying to convince MAGA, and Trump, that he was one of them. He would occasionally do what was right and then strike a MAGA pose, debasing himself to please Trump. He didn’t fool anybody and was left despised by both Republicans and Democrats, dropping his re-election bid more than a year before the election.

Since he ended his campaign, Tillis has enjoyed a revival as the one Republican who will stand up to the Trump administration, using his influence to block bad nominees and speaking truth about the incompetence of cabinet members. He’s on cable news, podcasts, and local news shows with interviews that highlight his independence. He sounds tough and demanding, using harsh language to chastise people like Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, and Kash Patel. Democrats and moderates cheer his candor.

I applaud Tillis for finally finding his voice. He’s using his power to curb the worst instincts of the Trump administration, but he’s hardly tough. I find it hard to trust a man who pretended to be something he wasn’t for so long. I suspect he would play whatever role best suits him and, right now, being the Republican contrarian gets him the most attention. I don’t know if he feels liberated or if he just likes the attention. I do know his new persona is the only thing keeping him relevant as he heads toward the door.

Maybe Bill Cassidy will join Tillis in doing what is right now that he’s a lame duck senator. Like Tillis, he capitulated to MAGA trying to stay relevant. He knew that RFK, Jr. should never have been confirmed, but he voted for him anyway. He so wanted to continue serving that he sold out his values in an effort to make up for his sin of crossing Trump after January 6. Abandoning deeply held principles to curry favor is an all-or-nothing proposition in Trump world. MAGA demands unconditional surrender.

Regardless of what they do going forward, Cassidy and Tillis will never be heroes. They are cowards who knew what was right and then did what was wrong. They knew that Hegseth, Noem, Bondi, and Patel should never be near power, but they put their political ambitions before the country. Cassidy at least tried to hold Trump accountable, but Tillis abdicated that role.

He’s just stopping bad stuff from happening after giving grifters, con artists, opportunists, and sycophants free rein over our government. Neither Tillis nor Cassidy seems willing to take on the massive corruption going on as Trump and company profit from their positions. That’s not patriotic or responsible governance.

Tillis wants to go out in a blaze of glory, basking in the attention of doing what is right for the country after years of doing what was right for his political career. Maybe Cassidy will join him. The two of them could prevent more corruption and shine a light on Trump’s plundering the government with no-bid contracts and foreign policy deals that benefit his family and cronies more than the country. I’m skeptical they will.

Both Tillis and Cassidy had chances to be real heroes and show courage. They could have led a wing of the GOP that stood by conservative values and governance and stood up to the populism that has usurped their party. Instead, they tried to be all things to all people. Tillis waited until he had nothing to lose to show his true colors. Maybe Cassidy will too, but that’s not courage. That’s an attempt to stay relevant for one last moment before history forgets them and they are better known for what they did wrong than what they did right.