GOP senators shouldn’t fall for Pence’s subterfuge against RFK, Jr.
Harry Truman was a man who was able to put principles ahead of prejudices, for he was an old-fashioned Southern racist and antisemite who integrated the military and recognized the State of Israel. The RINO wing of the Republican party appears incapable of that type of wisdom, for it seems driven less by principles than by its members’ hatred for Donald Trump. Nowhere is that more evident than in the Mike Pence wing’s opposition to Trump’s DNI nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, and his HHS nominee, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
At one level, both of those nominations are simple political payback: Gabbard and Kennedy broke with the Democrats and threw their support behind Trump when he needed it. However, Trump is not engaged in a shallow quid pro quo. Were that the case, he could have given each an ambassadorship sinecure to some cozy, untroubled country.
Instead, Trump is doing something Machiavellian and very wise: The reason that Gabbard and Kennedy jumped ship is because the Biden government persecuted them.
YouTube screen grab (edited).
In Gabbard’s case, the intelligence community went after her based on Hillary Clinton’s vicious and spurious claim that Gabbard was a Putin asset. In Kennedy’s case, the entire Democrat party tried to destroy him for opposing the COVID vaccinations that are slowly being shown to have been of dubious efficacy, even as they created serious known health risks and raise the specter of further serious risks down the line.
Thus, Donald Trump, who sees as one of his primary mandates to bring the bureaucratic state to heel, is placing Gabbard and Kennedy in charge of the agencies that sought to destroy them. This means that they enter office with a mandate and will to reform agencies that have become bloated and partisan. For each of them, it’s not just a job; it’s personal—and that’s what Trump wants.
Moreover, because Trump is a superb manager, he has no intention of allowing either Gabbard or Kennedy to stray beyond that mandate. If Gabbard tries to interfere with foreign policy or Kennedy tries to federalize abortions, they’ll be hitting the pavement before Trump can even finish saying, “You’re fired.”
American voters, having seen Trump at work in the construction industry for decades and in the White House for four years, know this. They trust him to make good on his promise to reform a once-constitutional government that has become byzantine, corrupt, and downright totalitarian. That’s why he won with an Electoral College landslide and a strong popular vote majority—and why, after less than a week in office, he’s more popular than he’s ever been. Practical conservativism works.
The RINO branch of the Republican party, however, led by Mike Pence, is going to war against the Robert F. Kennedy nomination. (Presumably, Gabbard is in their sights, too.) To that end, Mike Pence’s “Advancing American Freedom” advocacy group launched a D.C.-based blitz targeting Republican Senators:
The ad campaign from Advancing American Freedom, details of which were shared first with The Hill, includes digital ads that will run through the next couple of weeks in the nation’s capital as Kennedy awaits his confirmation hearing.
The ad spend also includes a mobile billboard that will travel around Capitol Hill and the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion event that will take place Friday on the National Mall.
The group is also sending letters to senators.
A few things: First, it’s significant that the ads apparently aren’t national. The Pence crowd seemingly doesn’t believe it can change American minds. It’s just trying to bully senators. That’s deeply cynical.
Second, the ads go after Kennedy on abortion and vaccines. However, regarding abortion, Trump has already made clear that Kennedy won’t be touching it (which he can’t do anyway, given the Dobbs decision). As for vaccines, Kennedy has said the right thing, which is that he’s going to have HHS actually look at this hotly contested issue.
The one thing we know is that vaccines are no longer a narrow range of shots against ancient, deadly diseases such as smallpox, polio, and measles. Nowadays, kids get dozens of shots that rewire their bodies. Studying this would be a good thing.
Third, it’s pretty clear, since Kennedy does not pose a risk either to the pro-life agenda or to reasonable vaccines to keep Americans healthy, that what’s motivating the Pence crowd isn’t principle; it’s personal animus against Donald Trump.
Every one of Trump’s policies is something that the ostensible conservatives clustered under the NeverTrump banner have been advocating for years or even decades. What this means is either that these politicians never believed in the principles they promoted to get votes or they are the opposite of Harry Truman; that is, they are people who will put their personal prejudices above the principles that will benefit America.
We saw that vividly illustrated with John McCain, who saddled Americans with Obamacare because Trump hurt his feelings. McCain’s act reminds us that Trump can be really nasty to those who insult or wrong him. Frankly, I’d dislike Trump too if he said to me some of the insults he launched against his political opponents.
Having said that, though, I’d hope that my first loyalty would be to the American people, not to my ego. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Governor Ron DeSantis, and Senator Ted Cruz were all on the downside of Trump’s cutting insults, but they all rose above that because their loyalty is to America.
The NeverTrumpers need to take a look to those patriots for guidance, get over their hurt feelings, and start trusting that, whether they like him or not, Trump is the most effective conservative politician in modern American history...something the voters recognize and, per the polls, love. Any politician who ignores this reality should be wiped out in the upcoming primaries.