The MAGA GOP ... their lips move, but to what purpose?

February 8, 2023

By Mike Weland
Publisher

“Tonight, Governor Sanders showed that while Washington is filled with chaos and crisis, Republican Governors are delivering on promises made to our constituents," Idaho Governor Brad Little said of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckaby Sanders' Republican response to the State of the Union. "Americans look to our states for a better form of government – one that prioritizes freedom in education, energy independence, safer communities, and opportunity for all. The Biden Administration should take notes.”

While couched in a much more gentle voice than used in most of her press briefings while White House Press Secretary to former president Donald J. Trump, the gist of what she said was just as virulent, self aggrandizing and false

"I’m the first woman to lead my state. Biden is the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t tell you what a woman is," she Tweeted today, still flush with the heady success of a performance well appreciated by the MAGA faction of today's GOP, but sorely lacking in reason, logic or fact. "Everyday we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong."

Same woman of unmerited power and authority who once said Trump’s policy of separating children from their parents at the border and locking them in detention facilities was “very biblical.”

In loud and righteous voice, she cried out for a "new generation of Republican leadership" and described the choice between Democrats and Republicans as a choice "between normal or crazy."

It wouldn't be so alarming if the crazy Republicans hadn't come to equate the normal "sensible" members of their own party with the crazy Democrats, heeding the propendency of our uncouth 45th president for juvenile name calling rather than rational discourse.

I could abide a spoiled, blustering cretin like Donald Trump calling those like me a RINO or a "fake news" enemy of the state, but to have leaders and neighbors I'd worked with for years in Boundary County echo such baseless and childish assertions astounds me.

I would ever expect Sarah Huckabee Sanders to sail her ship of state straight into the reefs right alongside HMS Trump ... she gave away any credibility she had while serving as a press secretary and lying blatantly for an oft affirmed liar in chief. That's not press, that's propaganda.

What is even more disheartening to me is to hear the comments as regards President Biden's State of the Union Address of such promising Idaho politicians. I remember a time, not so long ago, when a president was afforded a modicum of respect by my GOP brethren. Not so today.

Republicans all, Fulcher, Crapo, Risch and Simpson ... the entire Idaho delegation won't proclaim overt loyalty to the Donald, but their press releases as regards Joe all sound akin:
  • "Last night, during his State of the Union address, President Biden touted the disastrous policies he’s championed over the last two years." ~ Jim Risch
  • "The economic policies of the last two years have made life unaffordable for many families. Unrestrained federal spending led to the highest inflation in decades, a harsh reality anyone who has gone to the grocery store or filled up their gas tank has encountered. Compared to this time two years ago, Idahoans are paying more than $800 per month just to keep up. Higher prices have wiped out wage gains, and higher interest rates have made it harder to buy a car, invest in a home or save for the future." ~ Mike Crapo
  • "Despite inheriting the most secure southern border in history, President Biden has allowed over 4.5 million illegal border crossings since taking office and has allowed the flow of deadly fentanyl to infiltrate our border. In the first three months of FY23 alone, CBP seized over 9,000 pounds of fentanyl—that is enough to kill more than 2.1 billion people. Yet, only now is he suggesting to work with Republicans in Congress to secure the border and accomplish meaningful immigration reform for a legal workforce." ~ Mike Simpson
  • "Tonight, President Biden described an America that few of us recognize. When he spoke of creating jobs and a growing economy this past year, American families remembered their paychecks shrinking due to record-high inflation. Disposable income fell by $1 trillion in 2022, which constitutes the second largest drop in real disposable income ever after the Great Depression." ~ Russ Fulcher

"House Republicans are offering the American people real alternatives to the false reality that President Biden presented to us tonight," Fulcher said. "Our 'Commitment to America' agenda will create an economy that’s strong, a nation that’s safe, a future that’s built on freedom, and a government that’s accountable."

Really? You whose commitment stands in support of a former president of these United States of America who in a mere four years established the most corrupt administration, with the most administration officials convicted and sentenced to crimes, the most who asked for and received presidential pardons?

You stalwarts who stood faithful for a United States president who begged a foreign leader in a "perfect phone call" to give up dirt on his political opponent in exchange for arms already approved by Congress? You Republicans who applauded and cried "thank God for freedom!" for a cowardly president who took the vaccines he encouraged the "true patriots" to ignore, to personally avoid a pandemic that killed more than a million who might have been saved?

You "more reasonable" Republicans leaders who cowered beneath pews or fled like cowards when the mob incited by the 45th president of this nation answered his call far an insurrection in a baffling attempt overturn an election he knew he lost?

No, not even close, boys and girls. You embraced the dark side, standing MAGA Republican wrong at the expense of the obvious right. You are just as despicable as the misguided loudmouths who howl aloud just to hear their teeth rattle; Boebert, Greene, Hawley, Jordan, Gaetz, Kennedy, Santos et al.

You are a disgrace. Your lips flap, but nobody hears what you're saying.