The Game Is For Show
Those Republicans just can’t win. Just when you think they might pull it off, the Democrats find a way to outfox them…over, and over, and over again. Doesn’t it make you wonder just how the GOP can possibly end up losing every time?
Look at the current situation in the Senate. Although poll numbers vary, generally speaking the SAVE Act is quite popular nationally, and especially so among Republican voters. Regardless of how you personally feel about the bill, politically it should be a no-brainer for Senate Republicans, right? Their voters want this, yet Majority Leader Thune has stalled the bill for weeks with much speculation that he doesn’t have the votes to pass it. Why would Thune and his party be so reluctant to pass something that their electorate clearly wants, and wants badly? Won’t that spell disaster for them in the midterms?
Well…yes and no. If you assume that Republicans are actually conservative and actually want to win on conservative principles, then yes, failure to pass the SAVE Act could wreck the midterms for the party. But what if those two assumptions are false? What if the “conservatives” of the Republican Party are not really conservative at all? What if they are progressives, and are simply required to masquerade as conservatives in order to fool their voters and keep their jobs?
If that were the case (and I believe that it is), then it does not benefit the Republican Party to keep a majority in DC. With a majority, conservative voters expect that the Republicans pass conservative agenda items…things that the actual progressives in the GOP have no interest in passing. Problem is, they need to look like they’re trying in order to appease those same conservative voters. That’s tough when you have a majority and could actually do things, and it’s tough having to constantly find ways to wiggle out of doing them. (Isn’t that right, Senator Thune?)
It’s much easier to pull off when you’re in the minority. In the minority, no one really expects you to win. All you have to do is shake your fist at the sky and swear to your voters that you’ll keep fighting the good fight…as long as they’ll just get to the polls and re-elect you.
It reminds me of a Harlem Globetrotters game. Their forever rivals, the hapless Washington Generals, play their hearts out every time…and come up short every time. The reason is that the game is just for show, and the outcome is predetermined. Both teams have a role to play, and the role of the Washington Generals is to make it appear that they are trying to beat the Globetrotters…but still lose.
Unfortunately, I believe the same game is being played in the halls of Congress. Both teams have their role to play…and the GOP is playing the role of the Washington Generals to the Democrats’ Harlem Globetrotters. They didn’t intend to take a majority in 2024, and they’re doing their best to throw the midterms and move back into the minority where they can play their role properly.
It’s just an observation, and sadly, I don’t have any answers as far as what to do about it. But after watching the Republicans for decades saying what they want to do and then observing what they actually do when in power, it’s hard for me to come to any other conclusion.
The game is just for show.
