Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Sunday, December 25, 2022

What's The Equivalent?

 Read this nice story about a Congresswoman from New Mexico who made it her mission to replace a dangerous school on Navajo lands. She said that this was the reason she came to Congress: to make sure some of her most vulnerable constituents had a safe, new school.

Can you imagine a similar agenda or sense of achievement from a Republican member of Congress? Aside from defunding critical race drag shows or cutting Elon Musk's taxes, what exactly do Republican members come to Washington to do? Not complain about...do?

There are a lot of differences between the two parties, but that one strikes me as fundamental. If you are not in Washington to solve actual problems - not the outrage de jour on Fox - why are you there? 

You are there, because it beats working, because it's prestigious. So, winning means more than doing anything concrete, because, hell, you aren't there to do anything concrete to begin with. So, if winning is more important than anything else, then it's very easy to avoid having principles. It's very easy to embrace Donald Trump.

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