Dear America,
As far as politics is concerned, there is nothing new. The Republicans are still trying to catch the elusive Hillary Clinton in some sort of mortal sin while coming up with nothing more than venial ones. They continue to flog the Benghazi murders, but even after at least three full investigations they can't come up with anything inculpatory, so they have resorted to pretexts on which to bring Clinton before them toward the end of creating some kind of spectacle that will embarrass her. Though eight of Trey Goudy's prefabricated questions for the former Secretary of State apparently do relate to Benghazi, that event now serves as nothing but a gambit for his committee's subpoenas, their primary interest being her private email account, with which the other 124 questions are concerned. But even with the currency of that issue behind them, it is obvious that the Republicans are struggling to find something to do that will capture public sentiment. They have gone so far as to schedule not just one, but two sessions with Ms. Clinton so that they can drag the passion play out a little farther toward the 2016 election season. But while the now-habitual strategy of vilifying the opposition rather than coming up with cogent policy ideas is still their modus operandi, the Republicans' control of the policy message they seek to send to the voters as the identity of the Republican Party continues to be elusive.
The first three announcements of candidacy for the presidency by Republicans have been by the arch-conservatives Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, and while the first two are probably nothing but background noise in the final analysis, Rubio seems to be gaining recognition in a broader sense, and he may have the effect of making the anointment of a unifying candidate as difficult, and Pyrrhic, as were the last two quests for the presidency. The debates will probably be fewer in number this time, but Republicans seem destined to demonstrate the disarray of their party again...and in an equally significant way. The fractiousness that the 2008 and 2012 Republican debates put on display was so broad from pole to pole that in the end, the moderate candidates were forced to box themselves into some positions that were too conservative to be enticing to a popular national majority. This time, Paul is playing the same role that Newt Gingrich did as the self-proclaimed advanced, non-mainstream thinker, Cruz is playing the role of Paul's father as the fringe candidate and Jeb Bush is vying with Scott Walker, the anti-labor Governor of Michigan, for the title of most viable, just as Rick Perry and Mitt Romney did in 2012. The actors have changed, but the roles are still the same, and as the field rounds out to include those who today are only watchers and waiters, the sanctimony and personal ambition that is at the core of Republican candidacy will emerge giving the same caution to voters as has kept the Republicans out of the White House for six years this century and for the last eight years of the last one.
With that in mind, one might think that the Republican majorities in the two houses of congress would be more intent on showing themselves to be competent and reliable, but their performance since taking control of the Senate, and thus both houses, demonstrates that the Republicans just can't help themselves. They keep reloading that foot-shooting pistol they carry and firing it whenever they get the chance. Recently they have made a lot of noise about a reiteration of the authorization for The President to use military force, or the standing AUMF that both George W. and President Obama have relied upon for the power to deploy our military in the air and on the ground in Iraq and Syria respectively, but as would-be party leaders took to the grandstand, what should have been a univocal call for such became just one more cacophony that made it clear that the Republican Party is no more internally consistent than it has ever been since the turn of the century. And as if to amplify that message, they sat on the nomination of the next Attorney General of the United States, Loretta Lynch, for nearly half a year despite their persistent plaints about her predecessor, Eric Holder--notably the only Attorney General to ever be found in contempt of congress--for the past six years. And what's more, they did it in service of an already bipartisan bill to protect against human slavery over language in it that does no more than reiterate "the Hyde Amendment," which proscribes the use of federal funds for abortions. The clause in question is totally redundant in light of Hyde, which has been law for decades, but the Republicans failed to pass a bill that even their opposition approve of, a reauthorization of a program that already existed to aid the victims and potential victims of a universally abhorrent crime, in order to advocate for something that also already exists. What a waste of taxpayer money...and this from the party that claims to advocate austerity.
So, we slog on politically as a nation, trying to overcome the foolishness permitted, facilitated and even required by the Republicans' effete leaders, and precipitated by the conservative polar elements of their fragmented party. And by showing us this they expect us to be persuaded to vote for them?
Your friend,
Mike
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