Let’s play the word association game. When you think of a member of the United States Congress, what pops into your mind?
Reliable? Public servant? Honest?
Probably not. With the state of our politics right now, you’re probably more likely to think of words like liar, hypocrite or even criminal. And based on the evidence, you’d probably be right.
Two Republican house members were indicted in August alone. Democrat senators Kamala Harris and Corey Booker made fools out of themselves with blatant lies during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings this month. Members of Congress on both sides have had major #MeToo reckonings in 2018.
But the criminality and lying are just part of it. Politicians are politicians, and even the ones who seem most reliable will change their positions on any issue depending on where the wind blows. We saw that with Ted Cruz in 2016. He spent the entire primary campaign talking about how Donald Trump was a danger to the country, and fending off Trump’s insane attacks. Most notable among those were Trump’s claim that Cruz’s father may have been involved in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy and his mocking of Cruz’s wife’s appearance.
Then at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Cruz gave what seemed at the time to be one of the most courageous political speeches of this century. It was a rousing defense of conservative values and a non-endorsement of Trump that angered the Trump campaign and much of Cruz’s base. He stuck to his guns at a breakfast with the Texas delegation the next morning.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” he said.
But alas, just two months later with polls showing strong support for Trump among the GOP base, Cruz caved and endorsed Trump. Politicians gonna’ politician.
With Trump in office, the rest of the Republican delegation in Washington seems to have followed Cruz’s lead. They’ve consistently knuckled under and bent to Trump’s will so as not to draw his Twitter ire or cause conflict with the party’s base.
One of the best examples of this is on tariffs. Republicans are supposed to be the party of free markets and lower taxes. That’s why they’ve taken pride in the tax bill passed last winter and bragged so much about all the regulations they’ve cut. But tariffs are—by definition—taxes…
