Re: ‘A Normal Politician’

By Charles C. W. Cooke

Thursday, September 01, 2022

 

Kevin asks:

 

“But we want a Republican majority!” Okay, sure — why? To give a bigger megaphone and a better-placed monkey wrench to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lindsey Graham? So that Lauren Boebert can have a better position on the House Budget Committee?

 

Count me less-than-enthusiastic about that.

 

I can only answer for myself here, but no, that’s not why I want a Republican majority. I want a Republican majority so that it can block the agenda of our currently unified government, which has done all sorts of things that I dislike, and which will continue to do so if it maintains power. Republican control of both chambers of Congress would be ideal. One will do, if necessary.

 

This isn’t about Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is going to win in 2022 whatever happens. It isn’t about Lauren Boebert, who is going to win in 2022 whatever happens. And it isn’t about Lindsey Graham, who is not up until 2026. It’s not really about anyone in particular. A Republican majority in the Senate can be achieved with just one Republican pick-up, and it can be achieved in the House if Republicans pick up four. I would like to see that happen so that the president is unable to convince Congress to change our federal laws in ways that I profoundly oppose, that will be extremely hard to undo in the future, and that could well change our system of government for the worse.

 

Even if one were to accept wholesale Kevin’s disdainful view of the GOP, it would be peculiar to conclude from it that the Republican Party — and, for that matter, the country — would be made worse by divided government. We’re not talking about reelecting Donald Trump here. We’re talking about putting Republicans in charge of the federal legislature in order to create gridlock in Washington D.C. so that the federal government cannot implement policies that all of us — including Kevin — disdain. Would I like to see a Senate that had better members than Blake Masters? Sure. I’d also like to see a Senate that had better members than Mazie Hirono. But I’m not going to get that for now, and, unless we are dealing with the handful of figures who have truly disqualified themselves from consideration, it does not seem reasonable to me that only one side should have to swallow its grenades.

 

Kevin says that “we should insist on better politics.” I agree. And, because the political ledger has more on it than the Republicans’ sins, I think that taking the keys away from the Democrats would represent “a better politics” than the one we currently have.