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Quote of the Day: Calling Out Fellow Republicans
Gov. Ron DeSantis calls out his own party–
‘If they get majorities in the Congress, I’m sick of them talking,’ he said during the ‘Victory Dinner’ event as dessert was being served. ‘I’m sick of them telling us what they’re going to do. I’m sick of them going on cable and doing this, and prattling. In Florida we don’t just talk, we do,’ he added.
When you contemplate the changes that might actually happen in Congress after the November elections, do you think anything will be different? I think Gov. DeSantis is in the ideal position to lecture Republicans in Congress on actually doing something. He’s repeatedly demonstrated taking action: defying the federal government to assist Floridians regarding the pandemic, protecting our children from early gender training, to the corruption of our school curricula; preventing banks from discriminating against customers who might not fit their criteria for “woke” corporations. He doesn’t just speak out; he initiates legislation and takes the continual onslaught of criticism.
Do you hear any other Republicans actually criticizing their own?
I hope our legislators will take his advice and actually do more than talk. Let’s see some defiance against the Left and some initiative to correct the path of the legislature and get some things done!
Published in Group Writing
Well, yes, but the GOPe works hard to destroy them.
You can bet the Turtle will not be happy with DeSantis for this. Expect him (and the rest of the GOP traitors) to be helping Democrats defeat DeSantis.
It’s a matter of leadership and expecting that from McConnell or McCarthy is pointless. They need to go.
If Republicans win the house, Kevin McCarthy may end up the leader. Expect the Keystone Cops routine for any House action. Expect leaked recordings of McCarthy on the phone saying the opposite of what he says in public.
Given that the Senate will be in Democrats’ hands, nothing’s going to happen for a conservative agenda. The President will get his court nominees. The Media will portray House Republicans as nutcases.
I wish I could counter your projections (and Drew’s and Hangon’s, too) but I can’t. But I saw Mollie Hemingway on Fox News the other day, and she very firmly said the GOPe is done. Over. Finished. (Well, those are mostly my words.) I wish I could have explored all the implications of her statement. If they are done, what do we need to do to take charge?
DeSantis is a head-scratcher. He makes you wonder, “Can my Republican politician do things too? Is it allowed for people with an (R) to be pro-active?” It is disorienting.
Because it’s never happened in my lifetime. Not even with Reagan.
I know what you mean DonG! But I’m learning to live with it . . . ;-)
Reagan’s mission was to defeat the Soviets. He did that, with humor and aplumb. We need more Reagans.
Though whoever this “new Reagan” is needs to focus on our situation as it is, not how it was 42 years ago.
This kind of talk is also why it’s unimaginable that DeSantis could run as Trump’s VP. DeSantis’ brand is to be the boss.
In fairness to GOP politicians accused of all talk and no action, I think their inaction aligns with their actual beliefs. Their inaction is their preferred action. Vote accordingly.
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Moments in politics is so fleeting. You never seem to know when the window of opportunity is closing until after it has closed. That is why DeSantis’ call to action is so appropriate. But it is also a calculation the he must make for his own destiny.
If he makes it into the WH some day, and calls or the same actions, they will probably hate him. But he’s accustomed to the hatred. Get over yourselves, people.
With this statement, he is possibly violating Reagan’s 11th Commandment. Good.
Side note, another site is calling DeSantis GOPe. I am not sure why. I think my instincts for that are decent but…
I just remember years of GOP politicians complaining about Obamacare and then when they got the House, Senate, and white House . . . they didn’t even have a bill ready to go. When they finally put one together they couldn’t get it through. Somehow Democrats push through what they want, even if it’s unpopular.
That’s bizarre. They will do anything they can do to bash him: call him a Trump guy, call him part of the swamp–as long as some people see that as discrediting him, they’re happy.
They could have sent the one that they sent to Obama ten times. The whole Obamacare debacle clearly demonstrated Failure Theater.
I like DeSantis. I don’t think that his criticism is altogether fair, though. This is an issue of electoral math, so I looked up the numbers.
So Florida is getting things done. That’s great. Why? They do have good leadership in DeSantis. They also have a large Republican majority in both houses of the Florida legislature.
In the Florida Senate, with 40 Senators, the Republicans had a 60%-40% advantage after the 2020 election. Currently, it’s 59%-41% (23-16), as there is one vacant seat.
In the Florida House, with 120 Representatives, the Republicans had a 64%-36% advantage after the 2020 election. This is essentially unchanged currently (there are 2 vacancies, but it doesn’t change the percentages when rounded).
It shouldn’t be surprising that Florida can get good Republican laws enacted, with legislative majorities this large.
With a narrow majority, there are likely to be a few legislators, typically from swing districts, who are quite moderate. We see this regularly in Congress.
It’s not very surprising that the Republicans in Congress have had a difficult time enacting their agenda. As a practical matter, you have to control the House, the Senate, and the White House. How often has that occurred, say since 2000?
2017-2019: After the 2016 election, the Republicans had a 241-194 seat advantage in the House (55%-45%), but only a 52-48 seat advantage in the Senate. This dwindled to a 51-49 seat advantage in the Senate at the beginning of 2018, because Jeff Sessions had resigned. (Sessions resigned early, and was initially replaced by an appointed Republican, but then replaced by a Democrat after a special election in late 2017.)
2003-2004: After the 2002 election, the Republicans had a 229-206 seat advantage in the House (53%-47%) , and a 51-49 seat advantage in the Senate. (Note: this counts an independent Senator and an independent Representative from Vermont as Democrats — they were Sen. Jim Jeffords and Rep. Bernie Sanders, not yet a Senator at that time.)
2001-2003: After the 2000 election, the Republicans had a 221-213 seat advantage in the House (51%-49%), and a 50-50 tie in the Senate, though VP Cheney did have the tiebreaking vote. (Note: This counts independent Sanders as as Democrat, and does not count independent Virgil Goode of Virginia, who was previously a Democrat, ran as an independent in 2000, and became a Republican in 2002.)
The Republicans have had narrow majorities in at least one house of Congress, in each of the three periods in which they held Congress and the White House since the turn of the century. It’s not surprising that it has been difficult to get things done.
This is frustrating to me, too.
I do think, however, that it’s a bad idea to blame the Republican Party nationally for this problem. We have been a very closely divided country, politically, for about 30 years now. Each Senator and Congressman gets to make up his own mind, and has to appeal to his own state or district.
This is not really a bug in the system. It’s a feature. Our Founders designed a government to check the influence of factions. It seems to me that there’s something like a “free market” in effect in our politics, tending to drive the two major coalitions toward equipoise, as the “center” can shift gradually.
I’m not sure, but I suspect that the Founders may have been surprised by the emergence of national parties. The tendency is for national politics to drive the parties to equipoise, but this can cause large imbalances in certain states.
The lesson that I draw is the importance of persevering in the face of this frustration.
And yet the Dems seem to get lots past and they’re in the same country.
Washington hated the idea of parties, and discouraged organizing them. He knew how contentious they would be.
Often with help from Republicans.
Democrats actually believe in progressivism; Republicans just use “conservative” for marketing.
Doh! Sorry I missed the obvious, VTK. At some point we need to decide if we want the milquetoast Republicans to be called Republicans. Maybe they need to find another home . . .
And is one of the primary reasons that the GOP’s base has had it with the GOP.
Funny how “It’s a binary choice!” is only the battle cry when the GOPe gets their candidates nominated. Should a Kari Lake (for example) get the nomination, the RINOs all start campaigning for Democrats.
That was one of the big disillusionment about the GOP for me. I spent years parroting their line that they had replacement plans ready to go, when they were lying. By the time John McCain was able to do his best impression of Nero and give a thumbs down and preserve Obamacare I was beyond disgusted.
Its also a reason that we should have the various states doing things as opposed to the federal government. Alas, we seem determined to resolve very issue at the DC level.
We have a lot of citizens who believe that the Federal Government must step in and take over if their state or local governments aren’t doing what they want. Because to them, the Federal Government will always do things the right way.
They need a lesson in federalism.
Forsooth! Why would you ever accuse anyone of doing that? Oh wait
CTH, right? I don’t get that. If DeSantis can fake being anti-establishment for the next 20 years, that works for me.
Yep
The Dems are pretty stymied, too. We don’t feel their frustration, because we don’t share their goals.
Imagine that you’re a Democrat. What might be on your wish list?
That’s just a short list. They haven’t been able to pass any of this.
Their bills are in the trillions. Of course, we help them along…