Throughout the 2024 election cycle, Republicans pledged that, if elected, they would use their congressional majorities to reverse the disastrous policies enacted by President Biden and Democrats. Whether it was bringing down Bidenflation or curbing the border invasion, the campaign message from the GOP was clear: Elect us and we’ll fix it.
But now that they’ve been given the reins of power, many congressional Republicans have shown little interest in actually governing in accordance with the pitch they made to voters just a few short months ago.
On Wednesday, reporting surfaced that a cabal of House Republicans is fighting efforts to end the flow of federal taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, which also offers harmful chemical and surgical castration procedures. According to NOTUS, this group of lawmakers — which reportedly included Republican Reps. Mike Lawler, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Jen Kiggans — “made it clear to House GOP leadership that they oppose adding a measure to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood” to the House’s reconciliation package.
So, if slashing the taxpayer subsidization of entities that terminate unborn babies isn’t on the budget chopping block for Republicans, then what is?
It’s apparently not fully repealing Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act or making significant reforms and reductions to Medicaid. Congressional GOPers have come out opposing both options over the course of the party’s reconciliation negotiations.
And what about enshrining President Trump’s executive actions (abolishing the Education Department and DOGE cuts) or other conservative-backed priorities (judicial reform and major spending cuts) into the package? Where’s the sense of urgency among Republicans to do those things?
While time will tell what a final reconciliation bill will entail, the writing on the wall does not bode well for conservative voters wanting to enact generational change at the federal level. Much like their failed 2017 effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, many congressional Republicans seem more interested in protecting Democrats’ overreaching and destructive policies than defanging them.
What’s become increasingly clear is that, absent Trump and a few Republicans, the GOP lacks the willingness and ability to govern.
Unlike their Democrat counterparts, Republicans have no concrete, collective worldview. The party is a coalition of competing ideological factions that fail to agree upon a singular vision of what is viewed as American success, a reality that inevitably produces the type of intraparty policy disputes evidenced in the ongoing reconciliation negotiations.
The GOP’s biggest defenders will often concede that the party has its issues but argue that a Republican-run government is better than a Democrat one because the latter’s policies are far more dangerous and catastrophic. While that may be true, it doesn’t change the long-term consequences of Republicans’ fecklessness.
Putting a Band-Aid on a leaky pipe doesn’t fix the leaky pipe. It merely slows the leakage and neglects to fix the root of the problem.
The same is true of having a GOP-run Congress.
If electing Republicans is only about temporarily stopping the bleeding caused by Democrats without repealing their disastrous policies and replacing them with conservative-based solutions, then what is the point of having a Republican-run Congress at all? Under this logic, conservatives would essentially be voting for managed decline over immediate decline. In the end, everyone still loses.
This is in no way an advocation for Democrat control of government. It is a diagnosis of the establishment rot plaguing the Republican Party, and a call to action for conservatives to start taking self-governance seriously.
Being an American citizen doesn’t mean showing up to vote every two to four years and going home until the next election. It’s a duty that requires paying attention to and engaging with one’s representatives (at all levels of government) and involving oneself in the political process as much as possible.
This could mean participating in primaries to oust Republicans who fail to abide by their voters’ wishes, showing up at town halls or local board meetings, or contacting legislators about a certain nomination or bill and encouraging like-minded friends to do the same. It could also include pressuring Trump to make better endorsements and hold weak-kneed Republicans’ feet to the fire for sidelining conservative priorities in critical legislation (like major spending cuts in his “big, beautiful” reconciliation package).
The bottom line is that the Republican Party is only as good as the voters who comprise it are willing to make it.
Yes, the entrenched establishment is going to fight tooth and nail to stop conservatives from taking back their party. But the alternative (i.e., doing nothing) means the current cycle in which Democrats destroy the country while Republicans stand around kicking rocks will continue — and that is a pattern this country cannot afford.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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