Lynn Smith: Cowards, crooks, and crazies

There is no doubt that Republicans and Democrats engage in bare-knuckle partisan politics. Yet it is equally true that since Obama stirred up the Tea Party in ’09, Republicans have become increasingly focused on dismantling our democratic institutions, and continue to turn their backs on the traditional norms of American governance.

We’ve witnessed Mitch McConnell’s refusal to bring Obama’s last Supreme Court nominee to a vote, and we know that he allows most house-passed legislation to languish on his desk. Voters in 46 states have been victimized by nonsensical new “Big Lie” election laws, accomplished through the partisan manipulation of state legislatures. Worst of all, we’ve heard GOP leaders mumble, “let’s move on,” whenever faced with the growing evidence of the Republican-led coup against our nation.

This month I begin a three-part series on the radically changed priorities of the once, Grand Old Party. This dramatic downfall, occurring in less than two decades, could not have been accomplished without the able assistance of three groups of Republican leaders: the cowards, the crooks, and the crazies.

The cowards comprise the largest and the most dangerous group, in part because they enable the crooks and the crazies to ascend to power and then, retain it. This group has abandoned honesty, courage, and patriotism, in favor of preserving just enough power to propel the agendas of their dark money patrons. These folks don’t actually believe in Trump’s stolen-election narrative, they simply won’t publicly castigate him for fear of risking their own re-elections. They’ve witnessed the craven misdeeds firsthand, but have chosen to jettison American ideals in favor of their own career advancement and political self-preservation. And in July, these flag-waving phonies threw our veterans under the bus, simply to stay in lockstep with their fellow lemmings in the Senate.

The PACT Act sought to change how the VA cares for the veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate had overwhelmingly passed the original legislation in June, and when it moved to the House, it again garnered bipartisan support. When the bill returned to the Senate however, the votes of 25 Republican senators had flipped from yes to no.

It was only after Jon Stewart, comedian and long-time veterans advocate, took to the airwaves to publicly berate them, that Senate Republicans flipped again. On Aug. 2, the PACT Act finally passed, giving the Democrats another bipartisan legislative win … exactly what GOP senators had been trying to prevent all along. Through this shameful display of cowardice, we witnessed Republicans cynically ignore the “agent orange” inflicting our 9/11 generation of veterans, in favor of once again, obstructing the peoples’ business.

And in the House, Trump has turned GOP lawmakers into groveling sycophants whose demeanor toward the former president borders on religious fervor. The (potentially complicit) members of the Freedom Caucus want to minimize any discussions around Jan. 6 because it makes their guy, and them by extension, look unpatriotic and cold-blooded. And the more moderate members of the House GOP simply want to "get past" Jan. 6 because it demonstrates that their continued support of Trump is at best, spineless.

So, neither the Freedom Caucus nor the GOP moderates in the House, are displaying the ethical independence that Americans so desire. Unlike Cheney and Kinzinger, they simply stand together, unified by their unwillingness to take a moral stand on behalf of people that elected them.

Even the May massacre at a Texas elementary school was not enough to spur the GOP into the meaningful legislative changes that a majority of gun-owning Americans desperately want. And last month, House republicans rejected the job-creating CHIPS act, designed to enhance our supply chain security and reduce China’s monopoly in semiconductor manufacturing. In ’21, GOP leaders threatened retaliation against their members who voted for a long-overdue infrastructure bill, and even now, Republicans are lining up against Biden’s plan to cap the cost of insulin, negotiate drug prices for Medicare, and institute a 15% minimum tax rate on America’s wealthiest corporations, some who currently pay no taxes at all.

On Dec. 8, 2020, when Texas Republican Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to throw out millions of votes in four battleground states (including Michigan), 126 House Republicans signed on. Because dozens of federal courts had already declared that there was no evidence of voter fraud, their decision to mock American voters was nothing more than a feeble attempt to cling to power.

But enough about cowardice. Next month, we’ll be counting crooks.

— Community Columnist Lynn Smith is a retired wealth management executive who resides in Holland. Contact her at lynn.angleworks@gmail.com.  

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Lynn Smith: Cowards, crooks, and crazies