House Republicans are practicing political nihilism

[homersapien 11,381]

By Eugene Robinson

 

If House Republicans refuse to fix the border crisis, nobody will be able to deny the obvious: The GOP is more interested in nursing grievances and stoking anger than actually solving problems. That’s exactly what Donald Trump has trained them to do.

Bipartisan Senate negotiators and the White House say they are close to a deal on legislation to alleviate what everyone agrees is an emergency. It would give Republicans much of what they want regarding the southern border — beefed-up security against illegal crossings, tightened asylum rules, provision for more detentions and expulsions, perhaps even limits on President Biden’s authority to “parole” certain groups of immigrants into the country.

The package would also approve billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine, which the administration says is urgently needed but some House Republicans oppose. This is how bitterly contested issues are resolved in Washington: One side gets some wins and makes some concessions, the other side does the same, and both sides claim they got the better of the deal. And maybe, in the end, some good gets done.

But after Biden met with congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) immediately threw doubt on the very idea of an agreement that addresses both the border and Ukraine. His position has been that the border question has to be resolved first, and that any solution has to be based on draconian House-passed legislation that would, among other things, require building 900 miles of Trump’s border wall. For both the Senate and Biden, Johnson’s demand is a non-starter.

Why would House Republicans balk at a chance to ease the crisis at the border that they’ve been braying about for years? Because they would rather have the issue as a cudgel for Trump, the likely GOP presidential nominee, to use against Biden in November.

“Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating,” Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.) told CNN this month when asked about the idea of a border deal. “I will not help the Democrats try to improve this man’s dismal approval ratings. I’m not going to do it. Why would I?”

Nehls has a habit of blurting out, uncensored, what the Republican Party really thinks. Last month, as the House approved an impeachment inquiry against Biden, GOP leaders bloviated about how they were taking the step more in sorrow than in anger. But Nehls told USA Today that his aim was to give the twice-impeached Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back” in the general election campaign.

Partisanship is one thing, but what Republicans are practicing is something very different. It is political nihilism. It’s not about enacting policies or fulfilling responsibilities but, rather, about accentuating voters’ fears, anxieties and resentments — and doing whatever Trump wants them to do. if he agrees to the Ukraine funding bill

“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all,” Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social, “unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!”

Trump’s pronouncement appeared designed to prevent any wobbling by Johnson following the White House meeting with Biden. The screed confirmed Rep. Jamie Raskin’s analysis: “Rather than joining Democrats and Biden in good-faith, bipartisan negotiations to make progress on immigration, they are taking orders from Donald Trump and actively obstructing a bipartisan border deal,” the Maryland Democrat said at a House Oversight and Accountability hearing this week.

It’s not just immigration. Some MAGA Republicans are also obstructing $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, which the White House says is desperately needed to sustain Kyiv’s resistance against invading Russian forces. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has threatened to file a motion to oust Johnson as speaker if he agreed to the Ukraine funding bill — a move that would thrust the House, once again, into leaderless chaos.

And to what end? Not even Greene and her most unhinged colleagues can seriously think their extreme agenda, however thin it might be, could ever be accepted by the Democrats who control the Senate or their not-so-MAGA colleagues in Senate GOP leadership — to say nothing of Biden, who can veto any nonsense that reaches his desk.

If Republicans really cared about out-of-control spending or taking inventory of U.S. commitments abroad or easing the humanitarian crisis at the border, they would negotiate and compromise. Instead, they posture. They issue sound bites. Occasionally, they eat their own.

The GOP is a riot, not a party, and our national interests are being trampled.