(Dobbs) An Especially Bad Day For MAGA
The MAGA Party is bent on fortifying Russia and weakening America.
Tuesday was a bad day for MAGA.
With so many members of the far right in the House of Representatives throwing in their lots with Russian president Vladimir Putin and throwing the national security of the United States and our European allies into the toilet, they thought they could separate aid to our ally Israel from aid to our ally Ukraine and get Israeli aid passed without helping Ukraine. They couldn’t. They lost on a bill they brought up. A critical piece of work to pass legislation in Congress is counting votes. They don’t even know how.
Then, hours later, once again led by the hard-right wing of Republicans, the long-planned impeachment of President Biden’s Homeland Security secretary fell flat. For the second time in a single day, they couldn’t even count their own votes, and again lost on a bill they brought up. They’ll have another go at propping up the house of cards they built to embarrass the president, but right now the only ones embarassed are the leaders of the GOP.
They lost on impeachment, they lost on Israel.
But when the Israel bill went down, it dragged border security down with it. With presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump brutally bashing the Senate’s bipartisan border deal— one widely described as the most conservative and most effective border legislation in decades— and with the Trump-loyal Speaker of the House repeatedly declaring it “DEAD” if it reaches his chamber, more conscience-free Senate Republicans yesterday jumped on board with MAGA, dooming the deal to its death even before it got to make its way the Capitol.
Forget for a moment that it’s the kind of deal for which the GOP has agitated for many years. Forget for a moment that the prime mover behind the bipartisan compromise was Oklahoma’s James Lankford, who has one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate. Forget for a moment that Trump arrogantly boasted that he is against the deal because he wants to keep the border festering until the November election as a campaign cudgel against Joe Biden. What we shouldn’t forget is that most Americans— at least the ones paying attention— can see the selfish political impulses of the membership of MAGA. It was a bad day for MAGA because during the general election campaign, it’ll be hard for Republicans to claim that we need to reinforce the border when they voted down a bill to do just that. This could come back to bite them.
But because its members put party above country, it was a bad day for us all. No one I read put it better than New York Times columnist Tom Friedman: “Thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not ‘America First’ but ‘Donald Trump First,’ ‘Trump First’ means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization. Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore… Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.”
That kind of common sense about what’s good for America used to be a hallmark of the Republican Party. But the Republican Party is no more. It is the MAGA Party, and it is bent on fortifying Russia and weakening America. Onetime GOP leader Liz Cheney called them out on it on Tuesday: “Trump and the [Republicans] are losing the war on purpose in an inexcusable betrayal that will strengthen America’s enemies for years to come.”
But at least they face formidable obstacles on another battlefront, and Tuesday produced one of the best. In a big blow to MAGA and its malevolent master, the federal appeals court in Washington said in a powerful ruling that Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution for any crimes committed while he was president. The appeals court’s three judges, although appointed by presidents from both parties, spoke with one voice: “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
That’s not just a legal opinion, it’s common sense.
By itself, it doesn’t put Donald Trump behind bars for the crimes he committed from the White House, but it does more likely put him in the dock to stand trial for them. Trump will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, but those justices will have a hard time justifying a vote against the rationale of the appeals court: “It would be a striking paradox if the President, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity.”
Tuesday had bad implications for all of us, but it was an especially bad day for MAGA. May there be many more.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
Yes indeed, may Maga republicans have many more bad days through 2024. These folks should live in Russia for 6 mos and tell us how much they love lying autocracy.