The move represents a trend in Congress during Donald Trump’s second term. Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum keep casting votes in favor of bills even while warning that they’re deeply flawed and may require fixing down the road. In some cases, lawmakers explicitly threaten to vote “no” on bills before eventually folding and voting “yes.”
It isn’t unusual for lawmakers to back legislation they call imperfect. But this year, that contrast has become more stark. It comes as Trump has solidified his grasp over the GOP base, resulting in lawmakers growing increasingly leery of crossing him and risking their political futures.
Nowhere has that dynamic been more pronounced than with the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have repeatedly threatened to oppose bills before acquiescing under pressure from Trump. With Trump’s megabill, they complained about red ink: It’s expected to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Democrats ahould hold an official press conference, and send out official press releases, declaring that the Republican party is officially dead, and would not be referred to again, except in a historic context. They no longer represent ANY of the foundational tenets of the Republican Party - smaller government, lower taxes, family values, individual liberty, no government interference, etc. - so they can no longer claim to be Republican.
Instead, they are the MAGA Party, whose core tenets include racism, corruption, duplicity, lies, cruelty, ignorance, anti-intellectualism, Nazism, weaponized incompetence, party and societal polarization, revenge, and worse. This is the MAGA Party all the way, and they should have to acknowledge and live with it, whether they like it or not.
The Democrats should take the official position that the Republican Party is dead, and has been replaced by the MAGA Party, and then live by it. Make the MAGAs desperate to reclaim their original identity, and fight to demand and regain their identity as Republicans.
Sounds good, but unfortunately it turns out Republicans were also racist, corrupt, liars, cruel, ignorant, anti-intellectual, Nazi, incompetent, polarized, rapists, christofascist, and child molesters.
It turns out MAGA was Republican all along.