The GOP Mindset

Sponsored by: Patriot Home Funding

To those of you who played competitive team sports, did you ever have teammates that were too comfortable losing? That didn't practice as hard, didn't play as hard, and just accepted losing as if it is no big deal?

Then welcome to President Trump's world.

For decades, the democrats and their lapdog media have run Washington, and by extension the country, into the ground and the republicans on Capitol Hill and in the RNC are perfectly fine with it. What they have failed to understand is that We the People, the voters that elect them, are not nearly as comfortable being in the minority and losing as they are. For them, the money train and benefits never stop. For us, the consequences are real and expensive.

Yesterday, the RINO's in Indiana, with a supermajority in their legislature, sided with democrats to defeat a Trump backed redistricting plan, which effectively gifted the democrats two seats in the House of Representatives at a time when the GOP majority is 7 seats. Bear in mind that the democrats have total representation in 6 states with similar registration percentages- Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Later in the day, the GOP led senate failed to pass the Trump backed alternative to the Obamacare subsidies that the democrats shut the government down for, by a vote of 48-51. Do you think the republicans REALLY want to get rid of Obamacare? Then why haven't they come up with a viable alternative and made it happen in 15 years? It is because they don't care. They are better off fundraising off it than fixing it. Meanwhile, the cost of my health insurance was 6 times more expensive last year than it was in 2012. I bet yours isn't any less.

In 2022, Senate democrats tried to do away with the filibuster. They lost by a 52-48 margin, with Senators Sinema and Manchin siding with the republicans. Sinema and Manchin are no longer in the Senate. You can bet your bottom dollar that the democrats are going to come back and try to eliminate it the minute they regain the Senate and White House. And when they do, they will redo our immigration laws, election laws, expand the Supreme Court, and grant statehood to DC and Puerto Rico, effectively giving them 2 more house seats and 4 senate seats.

In the last 10 days, President Trump has lost 3 acting US Attorneys in blue states. Why were they acting US Attorneys? Because of the ridiculous and archaic "blue slip" tradition in the senate. Note that I didn't say law, rather I said tradition. The democrats are holding up Trump's judicial appoints en masse in states with a democrat senator, and Leader John Thune and the republicans are perfectly fine with it, because of tradition.

In the first year of Bush 41's presidency, the legislature passed 242 bills. For Clinton it was 209, Bush 43 it was 109, Obama 120, Trump 45 got 96, Biden 122.... In Trump's second term? 47, many of which are ceremonial or continuance of existing laws. With majorities in both houses, the White House, and a Supreme Court majority, the GOP has managed to pass 47 bills. Have the republicans even tried to codify Trump's agenda and executive orders? Trump took a bullet for the country, the GOP on Capitol Hill can't even take a vote.

How about recess appointments? Bush 41 got 77, Clinton 139, Bush 43 got 171, Obama got 32- but bear in mind he had super-majorities in the first two years of his presidency so it was moot- Biden got zero, and Trump, despite having control of the senate, has zero. Thune has held two-minute pro forma sessions every few days when the Senate was not in official session to block Trump's nominations.

How about cabinet nominations? Trump has put forth 20 percent more nominations to be confirmed by the senate in the first 10 months of his presidency than Bush 43, Obama, and Biden. Out of the possible 1300 government positions that require senate confirmation, only 265, which is just over 50% of the nominations to date, have been confirmed by the republican controlled Senate, with the average delay in confirmation being 145 days, compared to 42 for Bush 43, 48 for Obama, and 94 for Biden. Again, John Thune and republicans control the senate.

Yesterday in the house, 13 republicans sided with democrats to repeal Trump's executive order limiting federal workers' and bureaucracies' collective bargaining, saving and strengthening the government unions that donate to democrats to the tune of 88% while their members donate to the tune of 99% to democrats. Why? Has anybody in the media asked them? Do you think the democrats would have crossed the aisle if the situation was reversed?

For as much as Trump has accomplished, he is being isolated and marginalized by the very people he has sacrificed for and helped get elected. The republican party believes that the mandate that was given Trump, especially among young people and minorities, is their mandate. That is a mistake. The majorities they enjoy, the funds they raise, the power they have, is all because of Trump. Without Trump, they are the pre-Gingrich republican party that was the minority in the house nearly continuously from 1931 to 1994, eating democrat scraps, getting just enough pork to keep the status quo... feckless, spineless, and powerless.

When republicans on Capitol say that they are America first, are they? When they say they support Trump, do they? When they tell us that they're going to Washington to represent the voters who sent them there, will they?

When people show you who they are, believe them. In this case, we have almost 100 years of evidence to judge them by. And next year, when they come knocking on my door asking for my vote, is it fair to ask them why should I vote for them when they can't be troubled to vote for me?