"Commitment to America"

This past week, with much fanfare, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik released the GOP's program for the coming midterm elections and beyond. Titled "Commitment to America," it is a one-page flyer that is long on stirring, yet vague language and short on specifics of action, and echoes the much-ballyhooed, quickly ignored, and long forgotten "Contract with America" drafted by Newt Gingrich in 1994. As historian Heather Cox Richardson noted in her "Letter from an American" on September 23rd, it reflects the thoughts of George Orwell in his famous essay "Politics and the English Language." In that essay, Orwell noted that

"The political dialects to be found in pamphlets, leading articles, manifestos, White papers and the speeches of undersecretaries do, of course, vary from party to party, but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech. When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases ... one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them."

and further,

"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible ... Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness."

Granted, the political platforms of both parties* tend to be vague, pompous, and quickly discarded upon the assumption of power. Nevertheless, the language of the GOP's "Commitment to America" soars to new levels of hypocrisy and balderdash.

The document proposes four aims: "An Economy That's Strong," "A Nation That's Safe," "A Future That's Built on Freedom," and "A Government That's Accountable." Let's look at them in some detail ...

1. "An Economy That's Strong." Everything noted in this section is already being done by the Biden Administration. One looks in vain for anything the GOP would do differently.

2. "A Nation That's Safe." While the document says the GOP will "secure the border and combat illegal immigration," it fails to note that the GOP has done nothing to address the nation's outdated immigration and asylum laws that contribute to the mess. It also notes that people must have "legal status" to get a job ... which is already the law. It "support(s) 200,000 more police officers through recruiting bonuses," but does not offer suggestions on how this would be paid for**. And it endorses "peace through strength with our allies," although the previous GOP administration did its best to undermine the NATO that is now proving to be a bulwark against Russian aggression beyond Ukraine. I don't know about you, but I feel a lot safer without Der Furor and his sycophants in the driver's seat.

3. "A Future That's Built on Freedom***." "Freedom" is a word much used by a party that seems more intent on taking freedoms away. GOP policies on education, such as they are, are utterly absurd, and essentially empower parents to decide what their children will learn based on their own political, social, and religious biases, rather than what children need to know to survive and thrive in today's world ... the simple fact that stupidly dangerous inanities like Q-Anon have a strong following argues for more and better education. The document wants to "achieve longer, healthier lives for Americans," but ignores the GOP's history of attempting to kill the Affordable Care Act while keeping the cost of health care (prescription drugs in particular) the highest in the developed world, well beyond the reach of many lower-income Americans. And the final part of this section, "Confront Big Tech and Demand Fairness," is clearly designed to punish technology firms for cracking down on hate speech and demanding even a modicum of online honesty and accuracy. Looking at the behavior of the GOP around the country, it is clear that the concept of "freedom" applies only to those citizens of the proper race, ethnicity, political orientation, and religion.

4. "A Government That's Accountable." This is particularly rich, given the frantic attempts by the GOP to evade accountability for the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, ongoing GOP attempts to undermine public confidence in the electoral process and deny the results of the 2020 election, and closing Republican ranks to protect Der Furor from accountability for the theft of sensitive government documents. Of particular stupidity and arrogance is the call to "require the White House to answer for its incompetence at home and abroad." One shudders to think of the national and international disasters we would be facing had Der Furor been reelected. 

In poker terms, the GOP is attempting to play a very poor hand as well as it can. The accomplishments of the Biden Administration so far overshadow those of Der Furor's feckless "leadership" that one has to shake one's head in disbelief at the Orwellian newspeak of the Republican "commitment."

The midterm elections coming in November will likely be the most consequential of our lifetimes. We owe it to the nation and to our children and grandchildren to decisively crush the increasingly authoritarian ... swiftly approaching fascist ... aims of the GOP.

Vote.

Have a good day. Consider which party is actually committed to all Americans ... not the favored few.

More thoughts coming. 

Bilbo

* Let us not forget that the GOP did not even bother to publish a platform prior to the 2020 election, simply saying that "the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda." Exactly what that "agenda" was was quite flexible, and depended on the political advantage of the moment and the whims of the Toddler-in-Chief.

** And we all know that the GOP insists on programs being paid for ... usually by means of tax cuts which benefit the wealthy and big business and the elimination of social programs which help the middle and lower classes.

*** In my high school civics class, we were taught that there was a difference between "freedom" (which implies acceptance of responsibility for the consequences of exercising one's freedoms) and "license" (which implies the unrestricted freedom to do what one will, without consequences). The GOP approach is closer to the latter.