Sunday Smiles

David Strom 2:30 PM | March 24, 2024
memes

I got a good laugh yesterday when I saw this bit of news: George Santos is leaving the Republican Party, arguing that it is filled with lying grifters. 

Ironically, he has a point. I guess it is true that it takes one to know one. 

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As the majority in the House keeps getting slimmer--to call it a razor's edge right now is hardly an exaggeration--more than one  political observer has noticed that Democrats never give up a seat without a fight, while Republicans have their own version of virtue-signaling that always gets them into trouble. 

Was Santos an embarrassment? Sure. Is Menendez an embarrassment for the Democrats? Admittedly, not so much. Democrats are never embarrassed, so the Senator from New Jersey is still voting. 

But regardless of whether you think Santos should have been allowed to stay, his point remains:

Disgraced former Rep. George Santos said he is ditching the Republican Party and will instead run as an independent in the race for New York’s 1st Congressional District, following his expulsion over fraud allegations.

“I am officially suspending my petitioning in #NY01 to access the ballot as a Republican and will be filling to run as an independent…,” he wrote on X Friday. “I will take my Ultra MAGA/Trump supporting values to the ballot in November as an Independent.”

He said the switch comes after the House on Friday passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to prevent an impending government shutdown. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, quickly filed a motion to have Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, ousted from his post. 

“After today’s embarrassing showing in the House I have reflected and decided that I can no longer be part of the Republican Party…,” Mr. Santos said. “The Republican Party continues to lie and swindle its voter base. I in good conscience cannot affiliate myself with a party that stands for nothing and falls for everything.”

Mr. Santos, who was expelled from his House seat representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District, announced earlier this month during President Biden’s State of the Union that he would be running for Congress again.

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Is he wrong? 

I say it in sorrow, as a pretty loyal Republican, but Santos has a point. Not exactly a good messenger, though.

Unlike many, my disappointment has less to do with the failures we have been subjected to during this particular legislative session--after all, it's pretty clear that the Republican majority in the House is so thin that no Speaker of the House could actually achieve much, regardless of how aggressive he was. We've run that experiment, and we get the same results no matter who is there. 

No, the problem goes deeper. Republicans haven't found a way to get off their back foot for years. Republicans haven't had much of an agenda and are utterly incapable of making a persuasive case for any agenda. 

Admittedly, some of that is their inability to break through the agenda-driven media that does little but parrot whatever Democrats say, but it is equally true that they can't do that because they have no message nor solutions to the problems Americans face. 

Each party's message is: the other guys are awful. The difference is that when Democrats have power, they use it to the fullest, while Republicans temporize and compromise with the Democrats. This strategy might have some merit in a healthy Republic, but we are long past that point. The Democrats are ruthless; the Republicans are not. 

Ruthlessness need not be married to mendacity, as it often is with Democrats. But it does mean that when the opportunity to accomplish a worthy goal arises, that opportunity must be seized, regardless of what the media or the establishment says. It also requires forcing the Democrats to play by their own rules. 

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In 2020 I wrote fundraising letters for Republican candidates and argued the same thing every fundraising letter ever does: this is the most important election in our lifetimes, or at least since 1980. I did so with a clear conscience because it was, and losing it has cost the country dearly. 

Unfortunately, 2024 is even more important because the alternative to winning is to lose almost everything we hold dear in this country. The Democrats have made clear that even the brightest constitutional lines don't hold them back, nor do basic legal norms. Whatever you think of Trump, any sane American should see that the lawfare being used against him is almost Putinesque. 

One example is Letitia James' legal attack on Trump, where her "expert witnesses" argued that Mar-a-Lago was worth only $18 million. The judge agreed.  Now James' defenders are demanding Trump sell his home to pay his fine, and that he could easily get hundreds of millions for it. 

Get it? One minute, the property was overvalued; the next, they wanted to force him to sell it at fire-sale prices that were still 10-15 times more than they had insisted it was worth just months before. 

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As awful as the Republicans are, and Santos is right, the alternative to voting for them is allowing our country to become a banana republic. We need to remember that politicians need not be paragons of virtue--they never have been. They need to be good enough for the moment. 

Can Trump fix the Republican Party if he wins? I fear not because for Trump, the highest virtue is loyalty to him personally. I wish he were better. But he may be good enough for the moment.

He may be able to instill some discipline in the Party, which would have some real value, and if he accomplishes some basic goals he may create a new coalition that might endure beyond his presidency. It is on us to make that coalition do right by the country. 

The old coalition clearly isn't working and hasn't for a long time.

On to the smiles...
















































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