On this day in which the Republicans
take control of the Executive Branch … with a Republican dominant Congress … I
want to share an observation made by Matthew
Continetti (Editor in Chief of the Washington Free Beacon):
“Democrats
have been in power for so long that they’ve forgotten how to oppose. Their party has been on a roll since 2005 when
the botched Social Security reform, the slow bleed of the Iraq war, and Hurricane
Katrina sent the Bush Administration into a tailspin. The Democrats won the Congress the following year
and the White House two years after that. And while they lost the House in 2010 and the Senate
in 2014, Democrats still had the advantage of retaining the White House, a
president seemingly immune from criticism, the courts, the bureaucracy, and
large portions of the media. The
correlation of forces in Washington has weighed heavily in favor of the
Democrats for a decade.”
Well, today, this will be no longer
the case. The election of Donald J. Trump
has brought unified Republican government to Washington DC and overturned our
understanding of how politics works.
Clearly, the Democrats seem not to
understand how to deal with Trump and the massive change he is about to bring
to the nation’s capital. During the
general election they fell for the idea that Trump can be defeated by
conventional means – spending hundreds of millions of dollars in negative
television advertisements. This strategy
failed Trump’s Republican primary opponents; but Democrats figured that was
simply because the GOP was filled with deplorables. It was a rationalization that would cost them.
As of today, Republicans occupy the
oval office, control both the House and Senate, 34 governorships, and 4,100
seats in state legislatures.
Yet, Democrats act like they run
Washington. Nancy Pelosi’s speech to the
115th House of Representatives was a long-winded recitation of the same liberal
agenda that has brought her party to its current low. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is
just being delusional in pledging to oppose Donald Trump’s nominee weeks before
Inauguration Day. “If they don’t appoint
somebody good,” he said on MSNBC, “we’re going to oppose them tooth and nail.” That would “absolutely” include keeping the
seat held by the late Antonin Scalia empty, he said. “We are not going to make it easy for them to
pick a Supreme Court justice.”
Apparently, it’s too much to expect a graduate of Harvard Law School [Schumer]
to grasp the difference between majority and minority. And now, some 70 House Democrats are boycotting
the inaugural of Mr. Trump.
The blanket opposition to
president-elect Trump extends to his appointments at large. Democrats can thank Harry Reid for allowing
executive branch officials and lower-court judges to be approved by a majority
vote. But the Washington Post reports that Schumer wants to prolong the
confirmation process so that some Trump cabinet officials are not confirmed until
March. The reason: “Democrats have been
troubled by a lack of personal disclosure by Cabinet choices that they say
mirrors Trump’s refusal to disclose personal tax information during the
presidential campaign.” The presidential
campaign that, in case the Democrats have forgotten, Trump won.
Yes, the first duty of the opposition
is to oppose; and we can’t expect the Democrats to roll over for Trump. But, aren’t you surprised by their hysterics? They seem to have been caught off guard, to
say the least, by their situation. Take
for example their willingness to stand on a podium beside a sign that reads,
“Make America Sick Again.” By embracing
this message, such as it is, the Democrats associated … not Trump … but
themselves with illness. Who on earth
thought that was a good idea?
Understandably, it takes time to
adjust … after being in control for over a decade. The Democrats may be counting on inertia and
the media to slow the Republicans down and force them into a defensive crouch …
because it’s worked in the past. But
here’s the thing about Trump: He doesn’t play defense.
Okay, Republicans, you’ve got the
ball. Now let’s score some touchdowns
that “Make America Great Again!”
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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