Last week, I wrote about how GOP-controlled Washington, from Donald Trump to Congress, needed to “put up or shut up” concerning their campaign promises. Unfortunately, even before Trump is sworn-in, it appears that Trump, McConnell and Company are preparing to do what the GOP establishment always does: ignore the voters who put them in office as they take care of their positions of power.
In the days following the election, Trump and his surrogates made several media appearances where they essentially confirmed that Trump will operate as the New York Liberal that Conservatives knew him to be. Just a few of the things we’ve learned so far are:
- Trump is unlikely to fully repeal Obamacare, saying that there are parts of the disastrous plan he likes. During the campaign, he talked about how he would create a single-payer system, so this isn’t really that surprising. But Trump also promised to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act leading up to the election when he was looking for ways to catch up to Hillary following the third presidential debate.
- Trump isn’t going to “rip-up” the Iran nuclear deal.
- Trump isn’t going to relocate the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem without “consensus” from a group of people he has yet to identify.
This Jekyll and Hyde approach to his job is something even his campaign admits will be normal. For example, Trump’s economic adviser Anthony Scaramucci prepared fiscal conservatives for the likelihood that the president-elect will abandon the economic policies he ran on.
“Mr. Trump is a different type of leader not burdened by rigid ideology. He is not dogmatic about policy positions. Rather, he has set bold targets from which to begin negotiations.”
Do you remember Trump’s clever “drain the swamp” promise? Well, it would appear that the drain empties into the White House because many of the swamp monsters are either already working for him, or they are being considered for a position.
- Reince Priebus, the despicable RINO who hijacked the Republican National Convention in order to shut out Conservatives, has just been selected as Trump’s Chief of Staff over the objections of conservative groups.
- While Trump did recently promote Mike Pence to Chair his transition team, it is loaded with Washington insiders, in addition to Trump’s children and Wall Street executives.
One of the long-time residents of the swamp, Mitch McConnell, will likely retain his Majority Leader position, so we can expect the same spinelessness we’ve come to know under his leadership. For instance, he has already taken term limits off the table–one more reason we need the Article V Convention of States. And while the Kentucky Senator has indicated the Senate will do something about repealing Obamacare, one of his flunkies, Roger Wicker (R-MS), warned America no to expect McConnell to suddenly grow a spine.
“Let’s see if we can reach some sort of consensus with our Democrat friends to make this repeal and replace [work].”
On the other side of Capitol Hill, Paul Ryan’s position as Speaker of the House is in danger after his lackluster support Trump’s campaign. Now that his buddy Reince is going to be Chief of Staff instead of Stephen Bannon, it becomes increasingly likely that Ryan will surrender what little remains of his conservative credentials as he surrenders to Trump’s progressive goals.
The day following the election, I challenged my readers to stop playing the game and start changing it. I looks like that’s the only hope we’ll have if we want to see our great republic returned to her constitutional moorings.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” His articles can also be found on RedState.com.
His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated with Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.
