A few are fraidy cats.
The others are right-wing, ultra-conservatives. These elected Members of Congress oppose the free world. They oppose honest elections. They oppose Social Security and affordable health care. They fight the proven facts of climate change. They even oppose the Farm Bill.
Oppose. Oppose. Oppose.
These right-wingers do have a few things they support. They support Putin. They stand with oligarchs and authoritarian leaders in the definitely-NOT-FREE! Parts of the world. They support Trump. I often wonder if Trump, like Jim Jones did in Guyana so many years ago, were to pass out poisoned koolade to his right-wing minion supporters, would the supporters drink it? And yes, I believe these members of the Cult of Trump would.
Now, the right-wingers have found a new cause: They support the impeachment of President Biden. Never mind that there is no evidence of guilt, not even a hint. It seems they believe all it takes for impeachment is to wave around, “but somebody said,” kinds of charges, no facts, no documentation. They believe in payback, but even to do so, they need some facts. They note that Biden talks to his son. Hmmmnn. When adult children get in trouble, isn’t that the responsible thing to do … talk and show love? I think so.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney is not one of these right-wing believers of wanna-be-authoritarian Trump, and today he proved it. Romney, always a straight talker, announced he would not run for re-election, saying, “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution” (The Atlantic). Romney believes in the Constitution, and clearly, he doesn’t want to spend his life sitting around watching the right-wingers playing their delay, delay games.
“Delay, delay” is the mantra of the House, and clearly, Romney is worried about the right-wingers’ long-term effect on the Constitution.
Republicans have a very narrow majority in the House, so let’s get back to the “No guts, no gonads, no glory” title of this blog. Only three of the 18 purple districts Republicans flipped in 2022 have Members who are using straight talk about the looming impeachment. They are Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), and Mike Lawler (N.Y.). Bacon and Lawler have specifically said the evidence for impeachment does not exist. Fitzgerald has compared impeachment to the equivalent of a no-confidence vote in the British Parliament, i.e., a waste of time.
At this point, “time” is what matters. The right-wingers want to shut down the government, and if a budget deal isn’t struck by September 30th, they will have succeeded. But Republicans — right-wing or not, have done this before, e.g., during the Clinton and Obama Administrations. Essentially, what those Republicans did then was waste a lot of money while pretending they were standing for a “sound” budget. This time, it’s the same song, an ugly song that we can expect to be even uglier and, once again, will waste money and accomplish nothing.
The bottom line: Republicans in the House need to get some backbone. Their “No guts …” theory of governing hurts our country and the World.
Here is one prediction about how this “No guts …” theory could end up: How The Biden Impeachment Inquiry Could Backfire On Republicans In 18 Purple Districts (Sara Dorn, Forbes)