October 9, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is blamed for more of the world’s problems than even global warming, climate change, extreme weather, or what we call ‘weather’ these days.
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Trump is also blamed for much of the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., such as the recent ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Perhaps if McCarthy was a contestant on The Apprentice and Trump told him “You’re fired!”, then blaming Trump would be appropriate.
YouTube screen grab
Here’s ABC News, tying Trump’s campaign catchphrase MAGA to McCarthy’s ouster:
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MAGA-inspired House rebellion against McCarthy leaves chaos on Capitol Hill.
The Hill agreed with this headline:
McCarthy’s ousting a result of his appeasement of MAGA enablers.
The poorly named left-leaning Lincoln Project piled on:
The Republican party of Trump cannot govern at any level; the Maga parasite is eating them alive.
Trump didn’t cause this mess, the Republican Party did, long before Trump appeared on the political scene.
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Rather than causing the problems, he is the voters’ response to decades of feckless GOP leadership and broken promises to their voters.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and the GOP offered up a decades-long vacuum of leadership and principles. Trump filled the vacuum as did Rep. Matt Gaetz last week.
Although it probably began much earlier, a notable starting point for Republican duplicitousness was from George H.W. Bush in his 1988 presidential campaign against Michael Dukakis. He uttered those famous six words, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
As Time reported, Bush as president, “Signed into law a stealth budget that, while leaving the income tax alone, raised various fees and levies.” Promises made, promises broken. He dropped like a stone in the polls, ushering in eight years of Bill Clinton.
From a Democrat like Clinton, lies are normal and expected. Senator Bob Kerrey in 1995 accurately observed, “Clinton’s an unusually good liar. Unusually good.”
Next came George W. Bush promising “compassionate conservatism,” whatever that means.
Instead, he ushered in the Patriot Act, providing the justice and intelligence agencies overreaching new powers to spy on Americans, then saddled the U.S. economy with a two-decade-long Middle Eastern war under false pretenses of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction.
His milquetoast presidency gave America eight years of Barack Obama and his many lies, including over Obamacare, “If you like your doctor/insurance, you can keep your …”
Then there was Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and a weaponized FBI and DOJ illegally spying on and sabotaging his political opposition, his IRS targeting conservative groups, to name a few.
And the Republicans did nothing.
What was Congress doing all this time? As Sundance at The Last Refuge summarized,
Suddenly, as if there was no background of repeated broken promises and a complete failure to deliver on any key request, Kevin McCarthy and his legion of professionally Republican supporters pretend they cannot fathom why the base voters are more than happy to support Matt Gaetz.
Beginning in 2009, the Republican ruling class asked for voters to give them control of Congress so they could repeal Obamacare and balance the budget. Gradually through 2014, voters obliged and gave Republicans both the House and Senate.
Republican voters, fed up with past broken promises, created the Tea Party movement starting in 2009 as an outlet for voter frustration. It wasn’t just Republicans in this coalition, but many libertarians and others favoring a less intrusive government and adherence to the Constitution. The Tea Party attempted to fill the GOP leadership vacuum.
It wasn’t a big ask. Tea partiers wanted smaller government, lower taxes, national debt reduction through less government spending, and a hard stop against government-run health care.
Republicans did nothing. Conservatives grew increasingly frustrated. The GOP ruling class went back to voters with another ask. Controlling the House and Senate were not enough they said, apparently not understanding Congress’s power of the purse and oversight. They needed the presidency too.
Voters delivered, electing Donald Trump who shared many Tea Party values. He promised to finally build a border wall, something the GOP Congress failed to do for decades. He also wanted Obamacare repealed, which Congress could have defunded. Trump wanted fiscal responsibility, which the Republican Congress ignored.
Trump wasn’t the problem; he was the last-ditch effort of frustrated conservatives to right the sinking American ship. If the Tea Party movement wasn’t taken seriously, perhaps MAGA would be different.
Still Republicans did nothing. Speaker Paul Ryan loathed voters who elected Trump to the White House, but not him and Mitt Romney. Ryan and his NeverTrump colleagues ignored or abetted a weaponized national security apparatus to illegally undermine President Trump and his administration.
Nothing was done to restore voters’ faith in elections and voting. Obamacare remained the law of the land. The national debt grew, and the border remained open, Congress unwilling to fund the wall.
Many Republicans fought against their party’s leader rather than supporting him. They went along with all the COVID mandates and restrictions with no pushback. They looked the other way as the FBI organized and carried out a supposed “insurrection” on January 6, some Republicans even leading the charge against Trump.
All of the January 6 tapes have still not been released, contrary to one of many undelivered Speaker McCarthy promises.
Biden Family bribery and influence peddling is finally being investigated, now almost three years into his presidency. Our national debt is over $33 trillion, growing by $5 billion a day, with interest payments costing taxpayers almost $2 billion each day. Much of it going to one of the most corrupt countries in the world holding no vital US interest while most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
Illegal immigrants are flowing into America to the tune of ten thousand a day. After Trump created peace in the Middle East, Biden is fanning the flames of an eschatological war in Israel, releasing funds to Iran, which is likely funding Hamas terrorists. Congress frets over Taylor Swift concert tickets.
The common theme is that Republicans do nothing, at least nothing that they were elected to do and which supports fiscal responsibility and limited government. Voters are exasperated since they only have two choices – a bad party and a horrible party.
Fortunately, a few Republican members of Congress finally said “enough” and fired the epitome of broken promises, Speaker McCarthy. How that will end is anyone’s guess. But don’t blame this on either Matt Gaetz or Donald Trump. They are the reaction, not the problem.
If competent Republicans ran serious presidential campaigns, Sarah Palin or Paul Ryan might be president today, succeeding John McCain or Mitt Romney. Donald Trump would be hosting The Apprentice and playing golf, perhaps with Congressional back bencher Matt Gaetz.
If Republicans governed with Constitutional and fiscally responsible principles, Democrats would be an irrelevant minority party today. But they didn’t and their leadership vacuum gave us a President Trump who for a few years showed us how to make America energy independent, safe, prosperous, and respected.
Many Republicans still loathe Trump, perhaps preferring millions of migrants invading our country, a national debt whose interest payments will soon eclipse defense spending, and world war breaking out in Europe and the Middle East.
Voters think otherwise and Trump is the only vehicle through which they can voice their displeasure. Trump didn’t create voters’ anguish; he is simply their way to voice their frustration.
Will Republicans learn anything and course correct? Given reactions from the Republican establishment and Fox News groupies like Newt Gingrich, Victor Davis Hanson, and Mark Levin, don’t count on it.
Republican ineptitude, even when on full display, is defended by the elites. Elected officials no longer give a whit what voters think, which leads to alternate forms of expression like Donald Trump. Or else nothing will be fixed and the GOP slide to irrelevancy will continue paralleling America’s decline as a beacon of freedom and liberty.
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph
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