This just in from Scott McKay at the American Spectator: Thom Tillis Is Why That Red Wave Didn’t Materialize. Excerpt:
I bring this up often, but I’ll do it again because this is yet another example. Here’s how legislative negotiations work between Stupid Party Republicans like Tillis and Mitch McConnell, who isn’t stupid but stands as one of the most egregious political point-shavers in American history as the leader of the GOP caucus, and the Democrats:
Democrats: We want 100. Give us 100.
Republicans: What are you offering in return?
Democrats: Nothing. But we want 100 and you have to give it to us.
(Or maybe the Stupid Party even skips the question about what they’ll get for the 100.)
Republicans: What if we gave you 10?
Republican voters: Excuse us, but why are you offering these people anything? This is stuff we have to pay for, and we don’t want you to give it up.
Democrats: Shut up, you racists!
Republican voters: See? Why would you sell us out to these jerks?
Republicans: Forgive our voters. How about 20?
Democrats: We can’t even discuss this without getting at least 30.
Republicans: Well …
Republican voters: DON’T YOU DARE TAKE THAT DEAL!
Democrats: Terrorists! They’re terrorists! Send in the FBI!
Republicans: Will 30 seal the deal?
Democrats: We’ll have to see …
Democrat voters: Should we riot? Firebomb a care pregnancy center? Send in idiots in red t-shirts to harass people in the Dirksen Building?
Democrats: Sure. Knock yourselves out.
Republican voters: This is who you idiots want to do a deal with? You really are the Stupid Party.
Republicans: Well …
Democrats: Sure, we’ll take 30.
Republicans: Excellent! Glad we’ve been able to come together.
Republican voters: Come together for what? What did we get out of this?
Republicans: We got 70! Isn’t that great?
Republican voters: If you’d walked away from the table at the very beginning we’d have 100. You got taken to the cleaners, you morons, and we just got stuck with the bill.
Republicans: Yes, but look at this nice writeup in POLITICO.
This ridiculous pantomime has gone on for literally decades, and it fools absolutely nobody but the Thom Tillises of the world.
Negotiating, to the Democrats, means “you give us what we want and shut the hell up, or else we’ll call you racists, Nazis, fascists and whatever other terms we’re using as synonyms for ‘doody-head.'” This isn’t a new thing; this is exactly how we went, in ninety years, from being able to buy a Thompson sub-machine gun in a hardware store to having to beg the government permission and wait for weeks to exercise a Constitutional right.
Here’s the thing, though: It’s not just a matter of “voting out the RINOS.” It’s gone well past that. Look at the voting maps. We’re well into a social and political divide the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1860, only this time the divide is urban vs. rural, with the suburbs as unwilling and often unwitting referees. The “squish” Republicans all too often represent states, like Susan Collins’ Maine, where they are the only kinds of Republicans that can get elected.
Yes, the GOP Charlie Browns needs to quit running at that football that the Democrat Lucys are just going to yank away. But they damn well better learn how to make some inroads into those increasingly-dominant suburban and urban areas, or they’re going to keep producing disappointing results come Election Day.
