What Are Republicans So Afraid Of
Instead of conspiracy-mongering about an election they did well in, they could try to win real majorities.
Opinion Columnist
There was a time, in recent memory, when the Republican Party both believed it could win a national majority and actively worked to build one.
Take the last Republican president before Donald Trump, George W. Bush. His chief political adviser, Karl Rove, envisioned a durable Republican majority, if not a permanent one. And Bush would try to make this a reality.
To appeal to moderate suburban voters, Bush would make education a priority and promise a compassionate conservatism. To strengthen the partys hold on white evangelicals, Bush emphasized his Christianity and worked to polarize the country over abortion, same-sex marriage and other questions of sexual ethics and morality. Bush courted Black and Hispanic voters with the promise of homeownership and signed a giveaway to seniors in the form of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. He also made it a point to have a diverse cabinet, elevating figures like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales.
Whether shrewd or misguided, cynical or sincere or outright cruel and divisive these gambits were each part of an effort to expand the Republican coalition as far as it could go without abandoning Reaganite conservatism itself. It was the work of a self-assured political movement, confident that it could secure a position as the nations de facto governing party.
‘nobody Is Afraid Of Their Grandfather’
Many Republicans expect Americans will become dissatisfied with record levels of government spending and debt, an increasingly crowded U.S.-Mexican border;and new rules and regulations promulgated by the Democratic Congress and the Biden administration.
Pledging to work with the Biden administration on an infrastructure bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is “hopeful” that “we may be able to do some things on a bipartisan basis; but they got off to a pretty hard left-wing start.”
“We don’t intend to participate in turning America into a left-wing,;kind of Bernie Sanders vision of what this country ought to be like,” McConnell told Fox News after the meeting between Biden and congressional leaders.
Fiscally conservative groups are stepping up campaigns against Biden and his spending proposals.
The organization Americans For Prosperity is preparing ads for competitive House districts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia. Biden wrested those states from Trump in the 2020 election, providing him his margin of victory in the Electoral College.
Some Republican criticism plays off Biden’s age and his occasionally mangled syntax, but that strategy has met limited success. Some of the attacks mirror the ones Trump made in 2020 against “Sleepy Joe.”
“Trump never found a salient way to brand Biden, and Republicans continue to struggle after the election,” Republican strategist Alex Conant said.
Opinion: What Are Georgia Republicans Afraid Of
It wasnt so long ago that disenfranchised Blacks and activist Whites were beaten and killed for attempting to secure the right to vote.
Among the better-known victims were civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three young men who were abducted, shot at close range and buried in an earthen Mississippi dam on June 21, 1964. Part of the Freedom Summer, the three had hoped to register Black voters and educate them so they could pass the literacy tests required to vote.
When their bodies were discovered nearly two months later, one of the dead men had red clay in his lungs and clenched in his fist, indicating he was probably still alive when buried. The perpetrators included members of the local Ku Klux Klan and the Neshoba County Sheriffs Office.
This incident was but one of many leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but is illustrative of how bloody and hard-won the right to vote was. Weve come a long way, as they say, but some people are still determined to make voting more, not less, difficult. Georgias recent 98-page voting reform legislation, signed into law on March 25 by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, is a case in point. These red-clay legislators dont require a literacy test, but theyve created a host of new regulations that potentially make voting more difficult for minorities.
Read more:
Also Check: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans
Opinion: What Are Republicans Afraid Of
Its almost funny, in a twisted sort of way. Election after election, Republicans have based their core political appeal on fear.
And yet as dual gun massacres this weekend starkly illustrate they refuse to offer solutions to any of the mortal threats Americans actually face.
President Trumps closing message;in the midterms was Be afraid, be very afraid; he and his co-partisans have lately doubled down on it for 2020. Of course, the perils that Republicans promise to rescue us from are often fictional, or of their own making.
We must fear the coming scourge of socialism . Trump likewise stokes public anxiety;over;a Market Crash the likes of which has not been seen before if anyone but me takes over in 2020 .
;Trump and allies urge us to cower in trepidation from helpless parents and children seeking asylum, a threat so grave they needed to be separated from one another and caged. We must also fear the supposed Muslim and Latino hordes, who threaten to;wipe out;Anglo-European culture and displace white babies with their own.
These are hardly the only foreigners who should inspire existential dread, according to right-wing fever dreams. Rogue nations should, too, thus justifying enormous increases in our defense budget. Of course, all the nukes and jets in the world wont protect us from the assault our enemies abroad are currently waging against us, and that Republicans;resist;confronting: the one on our electoral system.;;
Read more:
Senate Republicans Use Filibuster To Kill Jan 6 Commission
Only six Republicans joined Democrats in a procedural vote.
Senate Republicans block Capitol riots commission
In a remarkable political moment, Republicans on Friday blocked the Senate from moving forward on a bill that would establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.
Six Republicans joined Democrats in the 54-35 vote, but that fell six votes short of the 60 needed to start debate on establishing a commission — which then, normally, would require only a simple majority to pass in a final vote.
“Out of fear or fealty to Donald Trump, the Republican minority just prevented the American people from getting the full truth about January 6,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said right after the vote.
“Senate Republicans chose to defend the ‘big lie’ because they believe anything that might upset Donald Trump could hurt them politically,” he said.
The Senate leader reminded GOP senators they “all lived the horrors of January 6.”
“I was no further than 30 feet from those white supremacist hooligans. Do my Republican colleagues remember that day?
“Do my Republican colleagues remember the savage mob calling for the execution of Mike Pence — the makeshift gallows outside the Capitol? Men with bulletproof vests and zip ties, breaking into the Senate gallery and rifling through your desks. Police officers crushed between doorways?” he said.
“Not so today,” he concluded.
No Republican spoke.
Also Check: Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats
Gop Lets Trump Fight Election For Weeks Despite Bidens Win
WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday theres no reason for alarm as President Donald Trump, backed by Republicans in Congress, mounts unfounded legal challenges to President-elect Joe Bidens election victory a process that could now push into December.
Republicans on Capitol Hill signaled they are willing to let Trump spin out his election lawsuits and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud for the next several weeks, until the states certify the elections by early December and the Electoral College meets Dec. 14.
McConnells comments show how hard Republicans are trying to portray Trumps refusal to accept the election results as an ordinary part of the process, even as its nothing short of extraordinary. There is no widespread evidence of election fraud; state officials say the elections ran smoothly. The delay has the potential to upend civic norms, impede Bidens transition to the White House and sow doubt in the nations civic and election systems.
Trump remained out of sight at the White House, tweeting his views, but the social media company Twitter swiftly flagged the presidents tweets that he actually won the election as disputed.
Its not unusual, should not be alarming, McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. At some point here well find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states, and the Electoral College will determine the winner. … No reason for alarm.
What Do Republicans Fear
What do Republicans fear?
Muslims? Political correctness? Taxes slightly higher than zero?
Having to adapt and compete with everyone, not a select few? Fully funded and functional public goods? Obamaphones?
Hearing strange languages? Waiting a little longer at the all-you-can-eat buffet line? Not being able to hunt deer with a rocket launcher?
Equality? Opportunity? Their own aging genitalia? Falafel?
Or maybe they fear for their wallets. Fair enough. I worry about my economic future, too. But, you know what? Economics is a policy question. Economics is not a science. If it were, we’d be doing the optimal thing all the time.
You know what is a science? Medicine. Reproductive health. Environmental studies. Geology. Biology. Meteorology. Science is a frikkin’ science! Believe me!
I think they’re scared of losing a dream of what they could have been. They’re nostalgic for a past that never existed. Norman Rockwell–painter of Great America–was married three times and one of his wives tried to burn his house down with him inside. There was never a perfect world.
“Make America Great Again”? America’s been great forever, but that doesn’t mean it’s been great for everyone.
I would love to be proven wrong. I mock, but I’m eager to learn, because right now, it makes no sense:
Republicans seem to fear being slightly uncomfortable. The rest of us fear being slightly dead.
I’m afraid of nuclear war and having to learn Russian or Mandarin.
Hooray.
You May Like: William Oberndorf Net Worth
Primary Election Snafus Show Challenges For November Vote
Republicans’ and Democrats’ vastly different starting points help explain why the politics over voting and elections have been and likely will remain so fraught, through and beyond Election Day this year.
Sometimes it seems as if the politicians involved barely live in the same country. It has become common for one side to discount the legitimacy of a victory by the other.
And the coronavirus pandemic, which has scrambled nearly everything about life in the United States, makes understanding it all even more complicated. Here’s what you need to know to decode this year’s voting controversies.
The Rosetta stone
The key that unlocks so much of the partisan debate about voting is one word: turnout.
An old truism holds that, all other things held equal, a smaller pool of voters tends to be better for Republicans and the larger the pool gets, the better for Democrats.
This isn’t mathematically ironclad, as politicians learn and relearn regularly. But this assumption is the foundation upon which much else is built.
The Goal Is To Undermine Confidence In Elections
Underscoring the point, Rep. Jim Banks , the chair of the Republican Study Committee, made an extraordinarily disingenuous appearance on Fox News Sunday. Banks had endorsed the Texas lawsuit, which would have invalidated millions of votes in four states based on fictions, and voted to overturn President Bidens electors in Congress.
Pressed by Foxs Chris Wallace to admit Biden won fair and square, Banks kinda sorta acknowledged it, but immediately pivoted to claiming those actions were entirely justified, by insisting that his serious concerns about the election were still valid.
This is not the act of a coward who fears Trump, and would vouch for the integrity of the election if only he could do so without consequences.
Rather, it is the act of someone who is fully devoted to the project of continuing to undermine confidence in our elections going forward.
This is for purely instrumental purposes. Republicans are employing their own invented doubts about 2020 to justify intensified voter suppression everywhere. Banks neatly crystallized the point on Fox, saying those doubts required more voting restrictions after reinforcing them himself.
Indeed, with all this, Republicans may be in the process of creating a kind of permanent justification for maximal efforts to invalidate future election outcomes by whatever means are within reach.
Read Also: Democrats Republicans
Officer Goes From ‘sadness’ To ‘rage’
Sicknicks partner on the Capitol police, Sandra Garza, wrote an essay about the attack and the aftermath in which she said in part, I saw officers being brutalized and beaten, and protesters defying orders to stay back from entering the Capitol. All the while, I kept thinking, Where is the President? Why is it taking so long for the National Guard to arrive? Where is the cavalry!?
She added, As the months passed, my deep sadness turned to outright rage as I watched Republican members of Congress lie on TV and in remarks to reporters and constituents about what happened that day. Over and over they denied the monstrous acts committed by violent protesters.;
For example, when Gosar called the Jan. 6 attackers peaceful patriots.
During the Benghazi hearings, Republicans were laser-focused on trying to place blame on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But after four years of investigations, most of them purely partisan affairs, they found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on her part.
Republicans dont want anything close to that type of scrutiny on the Capitol attacks of Jan. 6. In fact, they dont seem to want any scrutiny at all.
Almost as if they know what will be found.
Almost as if I didnt have to use the word almost.
Reach Montini at .
Cap Times Idea Fest: Panelists Consider How Law Enforcement Can Evolve
“They put up with the crazy in order to have the power and do the job,” Rucker said. “And then once they were in the job, they didn’t want to give it up, in part because they enjoyed the trappings of power, but also because they worried, ‘OK, if not me, who is going to be here next?'”
The bigger question, Rucker said, is why Republican members of Congress didn’t act as a check on the executive branch, even after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Republican members of Congress can be broken into three groups, Leonnig said. Some were willing to say privately they were concerned about or angry with Trump, but concealed their feelings because of the voting base he commanded. A much smaller group of officials was willing to publicly criticize him, like Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Liz Cheney. Finally, there were “true believers,” like Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green.
“Our country is in peril right now. It is on the brink,” Leonnig said. “‘It’s a republic if you can keep it’ is a serious question right now, because how do you continue along the path of democracy when … the overwhelming number of the members of are afraid of the former president and want his voters?
“How do you continue when you are feeding them baloney and they are believing it?”
Get the Cap Times app for your smartphone
;for the Android version
Tags
You May Like: Can Democrats Win Congress 2016
No More Distractions Maybe Maybe Not
Republicans said they were distracted in making the case against Biden by a lack of cohesion, including internal disagreements over what to do about Trump.
Some blamed Cheney, the now-former House Republican Conference chair who argued that the party should move past Trump and stop echoing his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She said those claims triggered the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, an incident Democrats would surely use against Republicans when elections roll around.
House Republicans voted Wednesday to demote Cheney from her role as third-ranking Republican. She responded that the GOP would struggle against Biden and his agenda if it continues to embrace Trump and his conspiracy theories.
“To be as effective as we can be to fight against those things, our party has to be based on truth,” Cheney told NBC News.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who supported demoting Cheney, said voters are disenchanted with Biden and the Democrats. Scalise told Fox News he sees “a lot of really serious concern about the direction that the socialist Democrats are taking us,” and “Biden has embraced that far-left Bernie Sanders;agenda.”
“People don’t want this to become a socialist nation, yet you see how far theyre moving,” Scalise said.
“It’s always difficult to generate a unifying message when you’re the party out of power,”; GOP pollster Whit Ayres said.
New Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Voting By Mail Amid Pandemic
Traditionally, Republicans have tended to support higher barriers to voting and often focus on voter identification and security to protect against fraud. All the same, about half of GOP voters back expanding vote by mail in light of the pandemic.
Democrats tend to support lowering barriers and focus on making access for voters easier, with a view to encouraging engagement. They support expanding votes via mail too.
The next fight, in many cases, is about who and how many get what access via mail.
All this also creates a dynamic in which many political practitioners can’t envision a neutral compromise, because no matter what philosophy a state adopts, it’s perceived as zero-sum.
You May Like: What Caused Republicans To Gain Power In Congress In 1938
Blinken Cracks Up At Hearing Over Gop Senator’s Conspiracy Theory
Days after a bipartisan agreement was reached in the House to form a commission to examine the roots and events of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that he opposes the bill.
) McCarthy doesn’t want to testify under oath about his phone conversation with former President Donald Trump on January 6“What I talked to President Trump about, I was the first person to contact him when the riots was going on. He didn’t see it. What he ended the call was saying — telling me, he’ll put something out to make sure to stop this. And that’s what he did, he put a video out later.” 2) McCarthy wants to be speaker badly.
