Republicans could vote their conscience and protect our democracy if they understood the power in numbers. When people (e.g., Republicans) act together with a unity of purpose, they become an indomitable force with the collective ability to disempower threats such as Trump’s threat to primary dissenting Republicans.
38 Republicans voted against Trump’s insistence that Republicans remove or extend the debt limit in the face of Trump’s threat to back a primary challenger against them, financed by Elon Musk. They either had the courage to put the country first or believe they’re not vulnerable to being primaried.
The dangers in backing Trumps unqualified and pernicious picks, (Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, RFK Jr. for Health Department and Kash Patel to head the FBI) for his cabinet appear too powerful to topple. So, Republicans cower because it’s hard to see how one or two defections could nullify Trump’s threat.
Representative Thomas Massie has never bent to Trump and never suffered politically for it even after Trump called him as a “third rate Grandstander” and said voters needed to “throw Massie out of Republican Party!” Massie has won re-election twice since then.
Other Representatives like Andy Biggs, Andrew Clyde, Josh Brecheen and Tim Burchett are highly respected in their solidly Republican districts and secure in their bid for renomination even if confronted by a Trump-backed challenger.
Representative Chip Roy has been brutally attacked by Trump for not voting to overturn the 2020 election and endorsing Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. Roy has also publicly clashed with Trump over his demand to raise the federal debt limit and chided other Republicans for not joining him. He was steadfast, insisting, “My position is simple — I am not going to raise or suspend the debt ceiling without significant & real spending cuts … No apologies.” Roy chose what was best for the country over surrendering to Trump. He assumed office on January 3, 2019 and current term ends on January 3, 2027. So he’s survived several Trump attacks
Add the 170 House Republicans who, in the face of Trump’s warning that any defectors “will, be Primaried,” joined Democrats in approving an emergency funding bill without Trump’s requirement that the federal debt ceiling be removed or extended to 2029.
There’s a meaningful subtext here. The 170 Republicans recognize that he’s dangerous — that he wants to eliminate the debt ceiling so he can overborrow and overspend, threaten Americas credit and enrich himself. He’s setting the ground work to do just that.
Trump canceled Biden’s ethics rules and fired the director of the country’s watchdog responsible for overseeing ethics compliance by the Executive branch, including the President. He’s also rolling back prohibitions on Executive Branch employees (including himself) on accepting major gifts (think bribes) from lobbyists. And he fired at least 17 inspectors general from their roles as watchdogs without explanation.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics director Donald K. Sherman warns,
“Together, these actions streamline efforts he and his administration make to personally profit. Trump is planning to run a lawless administration.” Is Trump the next Putin. See what President Reagan says.
Trump already became the swamp’s chief alligator in his last presidency by tailoring foreign policy against bipartisan objections in exchange for favors, bribes, and to protect his foreign real estate.
But defying Trump’s demand that the debt ceiling be raised or eliminated is only a start for Republicans to put country over party. Alarmingly, they voted to confirm the most pathetically unqualified, dangerous and embarrassing cabinet in America’s history, including anti-vaxxer RFK JR., as health secretary, who will undoubtedly discourage vaccines and kill countless Americans. The data validates the risk. The unvaccinated were 20 times more likely to die from COVID than the vaccinated, and COVID vaccines could have prevented approximately 1.1 million deaths.
By confirming Fox News cohost, Pete Hegseth, as Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Republicans raised the risk of a nuclear crisis, knowing that Trump had to be stopped by his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, from misusing our nuclear arsenal in the last month of his presidency. There’ll be no General Milley to stop Trump next time – only a Fox News co-host who promises to purge all generals who push back on Trump’s decisions. So if Trump reaches for the button again, his Secretary of Defense will cheer him on.
Although these Republicans submitted to Trump’s picks out of fear of losing a primary to a Trump-supported challenger, it’s as likely that, in the national election, they’d lose to a Democrat when voters get enough of Trump’s destruction and when his policies hit voters’ in their wallets from the increased costs of food, gas prices and other items that are surely to result from Trump’s tariffs and the wage inflation caused by his massive deportation of immigrant workers.
It’s already started. Many voters are calling their Senators and Representatives, alarmed – even panic stricken — at Trump’s extreme and distructive behavior. They include a variety of Americans — farmers, small business owners and people who have never called their elected officials before.
To keep it growing and become resistant to Trump’s threats, Republicans should form a large group of, say 25 members, who reject his pick of Kash Patel and push back on his continuing efforts, by disobeying or appealing court orders that block blatantly illegal decisions, such as:
- Freezing payments on all federal financial assistance programs;
- Denying citizenship to children born in the United States who don’t have parent who is a permanent resident or U.S. citizen;
- Requiring the CIA to use unclassified documents that expose and endanger operatives who monitor adversaries like Russia and China;
- Suspending nearly all U.S. foreign aid programs, including for all humanitarian aid which wiped out America’s benefits such as building America’s influence and military might around the world, including developing military bases and critical allies.
- Reducing the risk of coup’s by hostile and corrupt leaders.
- Strengthening the U.S. economy by growing foreign industries that buy U.S goods, which was critical to pulling the U.S. out of the most recent recession.
- Ordering all employees of USAID foreign aid to return to the U. S. from their worldwide assignments, and
- Shrinking the agency from 13,600 personnel to 294.
A final warning: Trump and his deputy, Elon Musk, are emotionally disturbed madmen who are dismantling our government and rendering the Constitution meaningless. And only the Republicans in Congress can save us.
