Op-Ed: GOP Establishment Needs a Wake-Up Call - Pence, Christie, Ryan Are Out of Touch
The only people more delusional than Sam Smith are our establishment Republicans. In the same way Smith fancies himself a sex symbol now, the Republican old guard fancy themselves relevant and savvy political minds.
The latest instance came last weekend when former Vice President Mike Pence torpedoed himself during an interview with Tucker Carlson.
Referring to the ongoing decay of major American cities while Ukraine receives billions in foreign aid, Carlson asked Pence, “Where is the concern for the United States?” Pence responded, “That’s not my concern.”
In four words, Pence created attack ads that he will never live down. Immediately, commentators were ablaze. Bizarrely, instead of moving on from this peculiar declaration, Pence shared a clip of the comments on social media. His own followers were resoundingly outraged. If Pence’s comments were a fire, he used social media to fan the flames.
Likewise, presidential candidate Chris Christie has become king of “self-owns,” as the kids call it. (A self-own is when you humiliate yourself, usually unwittingly, often while intending to brag.)
Christie’s 2019 book “Republican Rescue” was a huge self-own — or perhaps very small because it didn’t sell very many copies.
A recurring motif in the book is that Donald Trump obviously does not trust or like Christie, yet Christie does not seem to realize it. Eventually, the self-owning comes to a head when Christie is repeatedly led on by the Trump transition team (which he chaired before being demoted), and they offer him one job after another to neutralize him during a sensitive period for the administration. Eventually, he’s left with nothing.
Christie recently continued his tradition of self-inflicted humiliation in his attacks on Trump, bragging about his ability to do to Trump what he did to Marco Rubio on the debate stage in 2016.
First, no one can remember what he’s talking about. Second — even assuming he did take out Rubio in 2016 — why did he attack Rubio and not Trump, who was the front-runner? This is a self-own with more layers than an onion.
Though not running for president, the most delusional politico is former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
Ryan appeared to conveniently forget history during a recent TV appearance, complaining that the GOP does not win under Trump. Ryan seemed to forget that the GOP lost an extremely winnable race in 2012 when he ran as VP with fellow establishment Republican Mitt Romney.
Ryan also seemed to forget that the House of Representatives was lost during his speakership, thanks in part to his choice not to help Trump marshal resources to build the wall, secure the border, and pass a major infrastructure package. Ryan delivered tax cuts for the Republican donor class, lost the House, and then retired without any concern for the fact that he had obstructed most of the GOP’s mandate in 2016.
Of course, Trump is not without some blame here. Trump should have anticipated that Ryan would betray the populist wave in the party when he stopped campaigning for Trump in the weeks before the 2016 election. Trump also never took bold executive action on building the wall or used talented pro-border security minds like Kris Kobach to secure our southern border.
Nonetheless, Ryan fails to notice that he shares much of the blame. He also omits that Republicans expanded control of the Senate under Trump in 2018 and that if it weren’t for Trump-appointed justices, we likely would have never had a Supreme Court brave enough to strike down Roe v. Wade.
With so much madness within the ranks of the GOP establishment — and with President Joe Biden’s poor health and incompetence obvious to all — the problem is clear: These men are unfit to govern.
A hammer, yet again, needs to be taken to Washington — but who can do it?
The best choices are just as clear as the problem itself. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are the only two men who seem authentically bent on changing American governance for the better.
Both men have been attacked for challenging the powers that be in Washington. Both men have connected with voters because of their ability to identify and zero in on the issues middle America cares about, including immigration, crime, inflation, ending pointless foreign wars, boosting domestic production, and rolling back COVID totalitarianism.
But wait! What about Ron DeSantis?
DeSantis remains an elusive figure. He was inarguably the bravest governor in the country during the pandemic. After agreeing to the initial lockdown, DeSantis was put under immense pressure from Biden and the corporate media to impose further lockdowns and vaccine mandates; nevertheless, he resisted.
However, DeSantis’ position on intervention in Ukraine remains mysterious. His ability to resist the lobbying of entrenched corporate interests is similarly murky.
DeSantis successfully took on Disney, a major corporation in his state, because of its propagandizing of children with woke gender ideology. However, although DeSantis never voted directly on free trade agreements while in Congress, his vote authorizing President Barack Obama’s fast-track trade authority indicates that he may have been open to the Trans-Pacific Partnership — potentially clouding his record.
Considering this, Americans should cautiously keep an open mind as to a third option for president. There could be three men in this race who could reset Washington, but each should be made to prove himself, and he must be ruthlessly held to account where he falls short of his promises.
If Americans want to make sure our governing class snaps out of its delusions, we must reserve our votes for those most capable and committed to breaking up business as usual in Washington.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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