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Portrait of a Bipartisan, Good Republican, Never-Trump Weasel
When Representative Justin Amash voted for the original – politically motivated – Donald Trump impeachment, it made his re-election in his relatively conservative west Michigan district untenable. This opened up his seat to challengers and it was ultimately won by the heir to a multibillion-dollar retail empire, Representative Peter Meijer.
And his first act upon arriving in Washington was to… vote in favor of a politically motivated impeachment of Donald Trump. This may have disappointed his constituents in western Michigan, but it was a coup for an ambitious freshman congressman. Meijer immediately because a darling of the media; the go-to “good Republican” to go on the Sunday news shows and soak up the adoration for bravely agreeing with CNN’s opinions. (And sneering at grassroots conservatives as a “low-dollar fundraising base.”)
“My principles compelled me to vote for impeachment.”
He also tends to be a bit of a drama queen, but that’s on-brand for American politicians in the 21st Century.
Meijer, of course, voted for the Bipartisan January 6th Commission to Relitigate Impeachment, so that millions of taxpayer dollars could be spent to produce a report that he could point to and say his vote was justified. He claimed that such a commission was necessary in order to get the facts. One might question how he could vote for impeachment without the facts he now claims it is necessary for a commission to find.
Meijer evidently has ambitions beyond his congressional district, and one can imagine his highly-paid consultants telling him “Don’t worry about those hicks in the 3rd District. If you want to be senator or governor, you have to win over the suburban women in Livonia and Farmington Hills.” Hence his Twitter feed (conspicuously absent of opinions on anything controversial or any criticism of China whatsoever {He is the US Chamber of Commerce’s boy, after all}) is filled with emotive appeals to helping refugees, working with Democrats on bipartisan legislation, admonitions to get vaccinated, regular reminders of how “principled” and empathetic he is, and highlights like this:
Now more than ever we need to increase access to affordable childcare. The full “three martini lunch deduction” isn’t the most effective use of taxpayer $. It’s time we repurpose these funds. 1/2
Today I joined @RepBonamici introducing a bill to direct these projected $5B in savings to the Childcare Development Block Grant. This would give more childcare options to families who need it most. I’m glad to co-lead this bipartisan effort!
Get it? “Look at me, suburban women. I’m taking money away from greedy businessmen and spending it on your child care.” It’s a position precisely calculated to make a suburban woman nod in between sips of box wine and sigh, “He’s one of the good ones.”
So, Pete Meijer aims for the “good Republican” status enjoyed by the likes of John McCain, and thinks branding himself as a “good Republican” will help his rise to higher office. He forgets, however, that the ultimate duty of every “good Republican” is to lose to a Democrat.
Published in Politics
Start at 10:20 and listen to about 22:00. Then tell me what to do. Who and what should I believe in, as well?
“Beware of unintended consequences”
Forgive me. Do not quit listening at 22:00. lol
But the unintended consequences form a pattern. It’s like unintended jig saw puzzle parts.
I’m not saying this is right, but this guy is really smart. MMT, basically. Plenty of smart guys think we are effectively in MMT, anyway. The ruling class central planners need this.
Tell me what should I believe in and who should I believe in?
Is there a way of getting a transcript o this so I can read it?
Unless you have a Twitter account you will only see part of it. Really, the one tweet is the only thing that matters.
Except that isn’t the purpose of throwing money at moms with kids. It’s to put them back to work. And that only serves a certain brand of conservatism that prioritized chamber of commerce more than cultural conservatism.
We could say “so what?” But it’s the chamber of commerce and intervention republicans that are losing support among conservative republicans.
The Federal income tax no more serves the Federal government than the Federal Reserve does.
We needed to pay people to procreate tax slaves a long time ago.