On PBS a couple of nights ago, David Brooks, when asked about the Republicans in the Senate, and their willingness to continue to roll over for whatever Trump does, said that they seem to be afflicted by a âlearned helplessness.â Struck me as being right on target. Theyâre like survivors of domestic abuse.
âSome people believe that the emergency declaration could lead to Democrats in the future doing the same thing on other issues,â he said. âThatâs not my concern. My concern is a broken border.â
Thatâs right Blanche. By the time we have a Democratic president, none of this will be your concern. More likely, your thoughts will run to concrete and carbohydrates.
Itâs a political bet. They might be against it but they donât want to risk losing trump voters or the big money (mercers etc) behind trump, so they stand back and let it get hung up in court.
"We hate the president. We know itâs a terrible plan. We donât like that itâs useless and will cost money that could be used to make things function in the government - but goshdarn it Iâm voting for it anyway.
These noodle-spined wimps are scared of their constituencies. I honestly believe thatâs all there is to it. They go home to a Town Hall or a County Fair and all the locals crowd around with the red MAGA caps and scare the crap out of them.
I see it as learned behavior, âAlways do what the Republican âleadershipâ wants you to doâ, doesnât matter if your constituents donât want it. They always play follow the leader, and this one is leading them off a cliff.
Pack of lazy cowards want the courts to do their work for them and take the shrapnel too.
The problem with this is were the Mercers the big money donors that gave to people like Blunt or Graham?
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said âI donât know yetâ
A plain signal that negotiations between him and trump are now open for his vote. Why donât we just come right out and admit it?
If Trump gets away with this he will have broken our present system of government. I have seen posters vowing for Dems to âdo the same thing when back in powerâ.
Tit for Tat vengeance does not work for the kind of system we have.
It may well get to be up to Roberts.
And Mueller.
ETA in the meantime thereâs gonna be some serious Litigation up in here
They donât want to make Trump veto it. (If they could get away with it, they wouldnât even hold a vote, but that wonât work in this instance.) They are literally as thick as thieves.
Bingo. They are too afraid of their base to do their jobs. Remember this in 2020.
Itâs exactly the kind of program Republicans love. A make-work project that lines the pockets of their wealthy construction industry supporters, while draining the Federal coffers so they can scream, âdeficit.â If they supported programs that did anything beneficial, theyâd risk making the case that government can be useful - and lose their raison dâetre (see ACA).
To paraphrase a great American: proceed, gentlemen.
Weâll see what the courts say, and what the voters say.
When I was young members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, were very protective of the powers given them in the Constitution. All this emergency declaration stuff evolved because the world moves faster than Congress can sometimes act. I get that, but this particular situation arose because the President didnât like how Congress actually acted. That is a different deal all together. Graham must be scared to death of the Trump base, because he seems hell bent to strip Congress of its power of the purse. Without it they might as well close down Congress.
It is so much easier for them if they just let Trump trample on whatever he wants. They donât really care about the responsibility of governance, or most of the things that he wants to trample anyway. They just want to keep their zombie base happy and keeping them in power (even if they donât really choose to use that power).
This same low-key grumbling and questioning went on in Orwellâs âAnimal Farmâ with every step the farm took down the road to totalitarian tyranny. The animals always said this wasnât how they remembered it was supposed to be. The pigs always had a smooth explanation for how it was no problem, and the other animals simply accepted it and went on until it was too late. But life doesnât imitate art; weâll save the 40 percent from a tyrannical republic and give them back their freedom, and theyâll never forgive us for it.