Fresh off gaining new majorities in both houses of Congress on promises of taking action to stop Obama’s illegal action on amnesty and to defund Obamacare the Republicans, to the surprise of no one, immediately turned around and did exactly the opposite. Tonight Senator Ted Cruz of Texas forced a vote on a Constitutional Point of Order declaring illegal Obama’s power grab, whereby the president minted millions of new citizens based solely on his own whim. The Republicans could not even get a majority of their number in the Senate to vote for the measure, thus giving their blessing to Obama’s actions and perhaps torpedoing legal challenges pending in the courts. They did this under no duress at all since the point of order would not have been binding (really, Obama already ignored the law, what is one more piece of paper).
Indeed, their only motivation for not voting for the measure was as a giant F-U to their constituents. The Republican establishment wanted amnesty from the get go and they wanted the money that would come in from the Chamber of Commerce and other interests more than they wanted to do the will of their constituents. There is an old, off-color saying about screwing someone and not even giving them the common courtesy of a reach around. That is essentially what the Republicans did here. They achieved their objective to get amnesty through with the funding bill that just passed in the House. Then they did not even feel compelled to make a symbolic, conciliatory, if ultimately meaningless gesture to their constituents by voting for the Constitutional Point of Order.
Their priorities after winning the last election were to pass some legislation that Citibank wanted and to make the Chamber of Commerce happy with amnesty. Well, I think they are going to find that they do not enjoy their thirty pieces of silver quite so much as they thought they might. Their thinking is if both parties are in on the swindle then who else are you going to vote for? I am not sure what the answer to that question is, but I am sure of one thing, the Republicans are not going to like the answer. I think people gave them one last chance to prove they weren’t what they just showed themselves to be yet again tonight and now whatever happens going forward they are no longer a viable option.
There is no amount of money their cronies can pay them that will win back the votes they just lost. I have already stopped voting Republican just to keep a Democrat from winning the seat. I have a congressman I vote for but both of my Senators have been dead to me for a while even though they are Republicans. A very, very large portion of the electorate no longer sees our government as being a legitimate entity. It is something foreign and occupying that is not subject to any law and that has no real limits other than what the people in power want them to be. What other conclusion can be drawn from tonight’s events?
We have to hope the incoming members of Congress who will be seated soon will change the dynamic but I have zero hope of it. Even Charlie Brown caught on to Lucy’s true nature after a few runs at the football.