Trump’s 'America First' vs. McCain’s 'America Last'

PJ Media ^ | July 28, 2017 | David P. Goldman

[2ndDivisionVet]

Not the supposed protectionist Donald Trump, but the “free trade” wing of the Republican Party has taken the United States into a trade war that it can only lose. New sanctions against Russia passed by the House and Senate last week force Europe into a de facto alliance with Russia against the United States, and by extension with China as well. It is the dumbest and most self-destructive act of economic self-harm since the United States de-linked the dollar from gold on August 15, 1971, and it will have devastating consequences. The charade in the House and Senate may embarrass Trump, but it also poses a threat to European energy supplies as well as an extraterritorial intrusion into European governance. Berlin, Paris and Rome will conspire with Moscow to circumvent the sanctions while attacking the United States at the World Trade Organization and other international fora.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), and their counterparts in the House of Representatives allowed their dudgeon against a sometimes provocative president to overwhelm their sense of self-preservation. The sanctions will hurt Russia, but not nearly as much as they will hurt the United States over the long term. The White House envisioned sanctions as a bargaining chip, to be used to persuade Moscow to behave in the Ukraine and to limit the ambitions of its Iranian ally of convenience. In their present form, however, the president will have no authority to remove sanctions imposed by Congress. That turns a feint into a threat. Wars have been started over less.

The Democrats along with the McCain Republicans, it will be remembered, accused Trump of undermining the Atlantic Alliance....

[Eleutheria5]

Wouldn’t it be something if his alleged brain tumor was a lie to garner sympathy for him as he pushed his agenda. He’s not acting like a dying man.

[Crucial]

Why did the House pass this?

Can Trump veto this and should he?

If he was able to, that would help economic growth and not destroy relations with the Russians. Yet in doing so, it casts him as a collider with Russia. It puts Trump in a difficult position.

Why would House Republicans backstab the President this way?

[ek_hornbeck]

The only silver lining to an otherwise dark, black cloud is that those in Arizona that voted for Mc Cain were screwed by him too.

On another thread, I asked how it is that conservative states like AZ and SC gave us dud Republicans like McCain and Graham. It isn't as if these are liberal states like NJ or MA where a Christie or Romney is as good as you're going to get so you have to vote for a liberal Republican who can win the general election. In AZ and SC a Republican is guaranteed to win, so why do they keep re-electing McCain and Graham in the Senate primaries?

Someone mentioned that SC and AZ have open primaries, and since Democrats know that only a Republican can win the general election, they throw their vote to the most liberal Republican running.

That would certainly explain a large part of it. Once they're in office, there's also the power of incumbency and having the party PACs lined up behind you in the primaries. So I wouldn't be too harsh on the Republican voters of SC or AZ if they're victims of an open primary system and its aftermath.

[cousair]

McCAIN is what he is and no one is going to change that. We don’t have to bring up his service, for our great country and McCain probably thinks as most of us do about things AMerican. He acts like the bully everyone knew in their school days, and that bully never changes. He always has to have the last say.

[Grampa Dave]

Trump is flushing out all the Rino’s and Undocumented Democratic plants in Congress!

President Trump and we have to get rid of Undocumented Democrats posing as Republicans in congress!