Opposing opinions on the days ahead

By U.S. Senator Jim Risch
R – Idaho

With the new year comes a new era in Washington, D.C. Donald Trump is returning to the White House, and Republicans will control Congress.

We have a mandate to restore American greatness.

In the 119th Congress, I’m committed to working alongside my Republican colleagues to reverse the radical policy passed by the Biden-Harris administration and return to common sense.

For Idahoans, we’re going to:

• Confirm President Trump’s nominees and ensure he’s got his team in place;
• Tackle inflation and bring down prices on everyday goods;
• Rein in bloated federal spending;
• Repeal costly rules and regulations that limit Idaho businesses and industry;
• Protect and prioritize American workers, producers, manufacturers, and supply chains
• Increase U.S. energy production and streamline permitting for critical mineral projects;
• Reverse the radical left’s climate policies; and
• Extend President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

It’s a great time to be a Republican and an honor to serve as your Senator.

I refuse to bow before our new MAGA overlords

By Mike Weland

Yes, Jim, it is a new era in Congress, the culmination of nearly 40 years’ patient effort by the radical faction of the Grand Old Party to assume control, of not just the federal government, but of the state governments as well. A government of, for and by the party.

To turn this nation from one in which all citizens are equal to a nation in which wealthy white Christian nationalists hold the reins of power, where the laws are of God as defined by the party, to support a criminal as president who, upon taking again the solemn oath he’s already broken twice will become only the second U.S. citizen since the founding of our nation to be declared by the Supreme court to be above the law, above the very constitution he will take a now frivolous vow to protect and defend.

President Joe Biden, the first citizen granted that privilege, requested by Donald Trump and granted Biden solely by virtue of his office, found the very idea of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution abhorrent, recognizing fully that where one is above the law, there is no law.

And pray tell, Jim, what is the radical policy passed by the Biden-Harris Administration? Could you be rereferring to the farcical September 29 memorandum of the even more farcical House Committee on Oversight and Accountability led by the stalwart James Comer, who, at citizen Trump’s behest, spent over three years looking for dirt on Biden, and who is himself quite nearly as farcical as Jim Jordan, who for the same amount of time did his best to find Trump some dirt on Joe’s son, Hunter? Isn’t that why Trump was impeached the first time? Notice how suddenly those stopped being issues as soon as Biden opted to drop out of the race?

And aren’t both James and Jim … and you, too, Mr. Risch … duly elected U.S. legislators in a branch of government co-equal to the executive? If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be an abrogation of responsibility to confirm Trump’s nominees without at least a show of oversight? Had Matt Gaetz not withdrawn, would you have given thumbs up to his being the nation’s chief law enforcement officer?

And who is it you represent? The constituents of your district and the nation as a whole, or are you but a sycophant beholden to Trump and MAGA?  It appears the latter, and history will not judge kindly.

While I’m glad to hear you and your Republican colleagues are now going to tackle inflation, rein in bloated federal spending, etc., forgive me for asking why you’ve squandered the last eight years? Wasting time on woke, going after libraries and criminalizing librarians, impeding the rights of diverse people to vote, undermining diversity itself? The record of the last congress is the worst ever, and that ain’t the libs’ fault, for you and your madcap MAGA colleagues compiled it on your own, bowing and groveling before a has-been president now president elect who is already being ranked as by far the worst president this country has ever seen.

Forgive me, Mr. Risch, if I am skeptical. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I think a more lucid assessment is that it’s a singularly bad time to be a Republican, especially those of the “conservative” sect who are sycophants to Donald Trump or members of MAGA, either that faction that values conspiracy over logic and yearns for the return of a nation where they will once again be able to judge and be judged for the color of their skin rather than the content of their character or the white Christian nationalists who want to lift God, who speaketh to and through them and must needs have them to lift Him unto His rightful place in our governments, schools, Dens of Iniquity and pits of pleasure from which He, speaking through us, may leadeth us not free of temptation, but to deliver unto to us that of value which you possess, Amen and Hallelujah!

The one saving grace I see as we head toward what will be a most interesting time our nation’s history is an observation made by Winston Churchill, “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”