The GOP is Not Serious About the Border, or Foreign Policy

They only want the issues, not the solutions

There is a very easy way to see if a political party cares about an issue, are they willing to share credit to solve it, or do they only see it as a political benefit? Let’s take a recent tax proposal that came out of committee with bipartisan support. Without going into mundane details, fixes to the tax code were not going to be a major political issue, so there was bipartisan agreement.

Now, let’s contrast that to two specific concerns, the border, and US foreign policy.

The border is the easiest to point out the obvious hypocracy of the Republicans. First, let’s just agree that there is a major crisis on our border. This should not be controversial, any objective analysis reveals that the asylum system is being abused, and the process for adjudicating those claims is being overwhelmed. Something needs to change. For years, the GOP has been hammering the Biden administration, I believe correctly, for being slow to recognize this real issue. But that is the past, and Joe Biden has agreed in principle to real legislative changes to get a grip on the problem.

UH OH. The GOP didn’t see this coming. Why? Because they were never serious about solving this problem, they just want to demagogue the issue. They never assumed the President would agree to negotiate in good faith. In fact, just back in the fall of last year the Republican position was to “sadly” hold back Ukraine funding so they could force “legislative change” to the border crisis. Well, now that legislative change is on the table, the position has become “the President already has the legislative authority to close the border, so he should.” Heck of a pivot.

The GOP no longer negotiates in good faith, at least once the former President speaks up. How many times do they move the goal posts? I saw this many times over my 12 years in the house, the Freedom Caucus makes a demand that seems unreasonable, and once it’s met they then withdrawal that demand to an even more extreme position until alas, the demands cannot be met, the deal collapses, and they can then blame the “RINOS and Democrats.” Democracy cannot function when one party consistently negotiates in bad faith. This is governing by children.

I believe the President has an opportunity to blunt a real advantage to the GOP…border security. He should be out there constantly discussing his willingness to compromise to protect this country, and point out the lack of GOP willingness to solve the issue. It will take more than 10 months to flip the script completely on the border, but any progress is progress, and in such a seemingly tight election it will be important.

Finally, the Republicans have shown a lack of seriousness about foreign policy. We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, all because the GOP has decided to tie an unachievable-by-their-own-making requirement to Ukraine aid, and failing to press the boot on the Russian neck. However, I want to explore the obvious contradiction in Iran policy.

I want to add a quick disclaimer: I am a hawk, and believe US military power is important to show some actors that we will not tolerate attacks, and that we can enforce our will when necessary. Regardless, on the one side of the GOP are people like Lindsay Graham and Tom Cotton. Both have called for bombing Iran directly in response to the attack that killed three American military members and wounded dozens others. On the other side are the Donald Trump isolationists who are scared, weak, and so incredibly naive it makes one wonder how they have found any success in life.

Now, why am I bringing this split up? Because those two wings of the party are at each other’s throats and fighting an open civil war about American policy? NO! Because they BOTH are ATTACKING the Biden administration! Despite their glaringly obvious differences, it’s all about power and controversy. The hawk, no matter what Joe Biden does, will claim he’s weak. The weak isolationist will claim he is marching into WW3, and somehow in all of this, they both will unite against Joe. Because they are the opposite of a serious policy party. They are a cult, and the goal is to make their leader happy.

In a serious time, America needs serious leaders. Unfortunately half our leaders are intent on satiating a man who needs constant praise to fill his sad cup of loneliness. The best thing we can do is band together to ensure only serious people lead us in serious times. Trust me, we can and we will do this. My hope is that it’s soon, and not once we touch the stove too many times.