Posted on 07/06/2017 2:48:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In October 2016, concerned about progressive complacency toward the election just ahead, I tried to draw attention to the dire immediate consequences of a Donald Trump win combined with GOP success in hanging onto control of Congress. I pointed to Paul Ryan’s confident predictions that his own “Better Way” agenda could be smoothly enacted via the un-filibusterable budget-reconciliation process, which he called the “bazooka in my pocket.” On Election Night I warned that big scary changes for the country might be swiftly on the way thanks to the GOP trifecta victory and the Republicans’ power to impose their will no matter what Democrats did to fight or obstruct them.
Turns out I may have spent more time anticipating the actual outcome than did a lot of congressional Republicans, according to one of them, Senator Pat Toomey:
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey offered a simple, remarkable explanation this week for why Republicans have struggled so mightily to find a way to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“Look, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win, I think most of my colleagues didn’t, so we didn’t expect to be in this situation,” the Pennsylvania Republican said Wednesday night during a meeting with voters hosted by four ABC affiliates across his state.
According to the Washington Post’s Paul Kane, this is almost certainly why congressional Republicans agreed upon a “repeal and delay” strategy for dealing with Obamacare soon after the election: They had no real clue how to do anything else. But the lack of advance planning has also been evident in the inability of Republicans in the Executive and Legislative branches to reach any kind of agreement on how to proceed with other very basic agenda items — also achievable without Democratic votes — like “tax reform” and the federal budget. And the disarray extends beyond the legislative process:
Perhaps nowhere did the surprise factor of Trump’s victory show its impact more than in the effort to fill top jobs inside the administration. Clinton’s campaign, fully expecting victory, was stocked with hundreds of volunteer advisers who were already angling for sub-Cabinet-level posts in key agencies including the departments of State, Justice and Defense. Many of them were current or former senior staff to congressional Democrats.
But with Republicans, those connections were rare because few believed them to be worth the effort.
It is hard to overstate the difference for Republicans between the “Trump wins” and “Clinton wins” scenarios. After all, the GOP had been rehearsing the politics of obstruction and enjoying the innocent pleasures of passing consequences-free legislation for six long years after Republicans retook the House in 2010 (and then the Senate in 2014). The transition from gesturing to governing was especially tough for the anti-government party, and it did not help that the new GOP president was so unorthodox, unpredictable, and inexperienced a figure. Republicans did not, as Toomey said, “expect to be in this situation,” so they did not go through the difficult process of airing their differences and putting together pre-vetted consensus plans. On issue after issue, they are doing that now, on the fly, using — as Toomey puts it— “live ammo.”
It’s not going very well.
“Da fix. Dey said it was in!”
Ditto.
You took the words right out from my fingers.
I have an idea...if after President Trump and President Pence if we ever have another ‘loony lib’ resident again, lets burn down the cities, counties, and states, smash every window everywhere, spray paint on everything we see, turn over cars, slash tires, stand in the middle of freeways, march into schools and turn over desks, tie up the teachers and principals, march on D.C. and set fire to all limos...
Wonder how the ‘loony libs’ would like that???
“Soooo....you thought a CROOKED Leftist”
Most of the GOP are the same. They hang the “conservative” label around their necks at election time and spout a bunch of platitudes to get our votes, then toss that label in the trash afterwards.
The Uni-Party occupies 85% of the seats of power in DC. I won’t call it “Washington”, as he would be shocked by what it is.
This is a fight to the death to restore some semblance of our Republic. People like Ryan and McConnell are just as much enemies of ours as Pelosi and Schumer are.
Once you wrap your mind around that, the last 8 years, and what’s happened since our President has been in office becomes clear.
This “theory” doesn’t pass the laugh test.
The truth is both simpler and more sinister: A significant number of Republican politicians are actually covertly in league with the globalists and the deep state.
It was against the rules!
Soooo....you thought a CROOKED Leftist would win the hearts
and minds of American citizens, Sen. Toomey???
***************
Well Hillary did win a majority of the popular vote but that
isn’t exactly how the President is selected.
I throw every piece of RNC mail in the trash now. These SOB’s make excuses as opposed to working/passing bills we need now. I have told both Senators no more.
The leftist MSM owns the Donkey Party and the Globalist Corporations own the RINOs. If you do no fall into either of those categories then you have no representation at the Federal level of government with the exception of Mr. Trump and the WH.
Just confirms all those votes on repealing Obamcare were show votes.
Nothing more. Show votes, grandstanding and Kabuki dances.
Generally, doesn’t the White House switch parties after 8 years of an Administration? /rhetorical
One cannot expect more of the cultists called "Progressives." They never have spouted the ideas of liberty anyway, and they certainly have done everything within their human ability and lust for money and control to substitute power for themselves over individual liberty for their fellow citizens, but this is ridiculous that, in America, nowhere have been heard the voices of liberty, strong enough to drown out those of the cultists--not even among those claiming to be "conserving" something valuable!
From the Russell Kirk web site:
"So in our time, as Yeats saw,- Russell Kirk
'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.'"Lacking conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the captains and the kings yield to the fierce ideologues, the merciless adventurers, the charlatans and the metaphysically mad. And then, truly, when the stern and righteous God of fear and love has been denied, the Savage God lays down his new commandments."
here it is in a nutshell
See my post above.
So basically the ones that arent corrupt to the core, are dumb as bricks!
Excellent point! Might help predict future elections.
Exactly. I doubt many GOPs even wanted Trump to win. The jerks.
Learn from it, prick. Time to do what the people sent you there to do instead of obeying the Party line.
Jump on Paul Ryan’s Twitter feed. All he ever says is how “we’re gonna” and We’ve got plans” but nothing ever actually gets done. What a weasel.
Actually, they love Obamacare and are trying to figure out a way to fool their base into accepting a modified version of it.
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