SADLY, THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THINGS STAY THE SAME…

It seems that after each election I find myself being a little more frustrated with those in the leadership positions of my party than I was before.  Because it’s whenever presented with an opportunity to make good on their many promises that they have made in order to get themselves elected, that they choose to punt.  They come up with any number of excuses for being unable to make good on all of those things that they promised.  On the other hand, as we saw during the first two years of having Obama in the White House and the Democrats in complete control of Congress they displayed not a moment’s hesitation in seizing the moment to advance their leftist agenda as far as they could and as quickly. 

And so it was in 2010 that the Republicans promised to do all that they could to rein in the socialist agenda that Obama and the Democrats had managed to implement during those first two years of Obama’s presidency, and to work just as hard as they could to do away with the debacle that remains to this day, Obamacare.  So, of course, assuming they were men, and women, of their word, Americans handed to them control of the House.  But it wasn’t long before they were saying that even that wasn’t enough, to succeed they would need control of the Senate as well.  Because, they claimed, as long as the Democrats still controlled the Senate they were helpless at being able to prevent Obama’s effort to fundamentally transform America.

And despite their inability, or their unwillingness, to keep the many promises they had made to their supporters, the Republicans were permitted to keep their majority in the House and then in 2014 they were also handed control of the Senate.  And it was even still that they claimed that without the White House whatever it was that they could come up with would not survive the veto pen of Obama.  So, in 2016, even when everything seemed to be totally against them, the Republicans were handed that which they claimed they so desperately needed in order to finally yank America back from the brink, control of Congress and the White House.  And it was then thought by many that we would finally bring some sanity back to government.

But sadly once again it was simply not to be.  Because it was then that those of us who had thought that electing more Republicans would result in getting our country back realized that for six long years we had been lied to, that the folks who we had been voting for had no intention of doing any of the things they had promised.  We had known that if there was one guy we could elect who would sign into law nearly anything presented to him by our now Republican controlled Congress, it would be President Donald J. Trump.  To our way of thinking it was going to be a time for a little payback for those first two years of Obama’s presidency.  And yet how was it that our Republicans to use this rare opportunity?  We know the answer.

And now even after losing control of the House Republicans seem oblivious as to why, making it clear they’ve learned absolutely NOTHING.  They made that very clear by once again chalking one up for the status quo when they chose Paul Ryan’s right-hand man, and Establishment RINO, Kevin McCarthy, to be the party leader in the House and by also unanimously re-electing his fellow RINO Mitch McConnell to lead the Senate.  And despite the fact that Republicans suffered the worst mid-term defeat since Watergate, McConnell and McCarthy touted a list of supposed Republican accomplishments but conveniently failed to mention the party’s failure to keep their promises, which is the primary reason why the Democrats won the midterms.

And it was in a recent opinion piece for FOX News that McConnell, and rather hysterically so, actually bragged about how the past two years of Republican leadership “will be remembered as a period of historic productivity.”  He then challenged the new Democrat majority in the House to put aside partisan politics and work with Republicans to get things done.  Apparently, the concept of irony is lost on McConnell.  Outside of the Republican’s ‘alleged’ success at saving the Supreme Court, Democrats and Republicans have always been working together, which is why they still fund Planned Parenthood, Obamacare, DACA, and sanctuary cities with massive new spending that exploded the budget deficit. 

And while McConnell and McCarthy have adopted Presiden Trump’s “blame the Democrats for my failures” playbook, the sad reality is Republicans, or most of them, favor the Democrat agenda because it’s also their agenda.  And based on developments during the lame duck session, it’s going to be worse when the 116th Congress opens for business in January.  Pelosi called last week’s victory a mandate to save Obamacare and she will promote legislation designed to move America closer to a single-payer healthcare system.  And following the recent shootings in California, Pelosi announced that she would make gun control a top priority.  And there is little doubt that Republicans will go squishy rather that to oppose such an agenda.

And also comes word from the Democrats that they will work to bring back a classic of Bernie Sanders and Democratic Socialists — a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.  This despite the mountain of evidence that such action is a real economy killer.  But then Democrats have virtually no interest in taking measures that do anything other than to make our economy weaker. Because when folks can find a job they don’t need the government.  And when they don’t need the government they tend not to vote for Democrats.  And I think we can also now agree that what was the ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda is now essentially on life support if not dead.  And I don’t blame the Democrats as much as I blame lying RINOs like McConnell and McCarthy.

We were repeatedly told before the election to vote Red to make sure we stopped the Democrats from being able to threaten.  But to quote Hitlery during the Benghazi hearings, the Republicans have made it painfully clear over the course of the last eight years that when it comes to themselves and the Democrats, “what difference, at this point, does it make?”  With the election of Donald Trump the Republicans were presented with what was nothing less than a golden opportunity, just as the Democrat were with the election of Obama.  But did they seize the moment as the Democrats had done, no of course not.  Republicans simply pissed it away.  And it will be we who believed them, who trusted them, who will suffer the consequences.