The most unpopular new president in the history of polling is about to pass the most unpopular piece of legislation in generations. But who knows what happens next?
Is there a better revenge story than Virginia?
A George W. Bush Republican runs a Donald Trump campaign and get crushed like a guy who picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. And still the House of Delegates may still be controlled by Republicans, mostly due to extraordinary gerrymandering with a little touch of a ballot mix up. Yes, it’s a huge victory, but 300,000 Virginians could still be denied Medicaid that the state is paying for anyway. And people will die because of that.
As of right now, it appears the GOP is on the verge of passing as regressive tax plan that will raise taxes on millions in the middle class to fund a massive giveaway to the rich and their corporations. Susan Collins, one of the key votes against the repeal of the ACA repeal, seems to be trying to find a way to say yes. As does Lisa Murkowski and John McCain. There are more Senators in play but they are the Senators who vote with Trump so often that they look like they’re tying to win a free Mar-A-Lago membership, despite the occasional bold speech or tweet.
Unless we raise holy hell, which I know you are, this thing is going to pass.
It’s going to pass, unless we raise holy hell, because Republicans just don’t vote no on tax breaks.
The loss in Virginia has made GOP donors more eager to get their pound of flesh now and Democrats’ new confidence from that victory may have some on the left thinking, “Pass that unpopular bullshit and we’ll only beat you worse and fix it later — if Robert Mueller doesn’t get that ass first.”
This assumes that we’re going to overcome gerrymandering, nationalized voter suppression and whatever the fuck the Russians are doing that Trump seems to have no interest in stopping. There will probably never be any shitstorm like the Comey letter again, but who knows what fresh hell this administration might dredge up right before the next election. And you can never calculate for variables like terror or personal scandals throwing all reality out of whack.
It would be unprecedented for an historically unpopular president running on an even more unpopular agenda to do well in the midterms. But is precedent-ed now? Donald Trump is the goddamned president. And if this tax scam becomes law, Republicans will have the thanks of grateful donors with fresh billions to spend in ways we can’t even conceive of yet.
Even if we win the House and — gasp! — the Senate, which are real possibilities, Trump or Pence will be there to veto any decent legislation.
This tax bill is designed to leave Democrats with an ungovernable mess. There is no undoing the damage it will do, especially if it’s followed by the right’s desired cuts to Medicaid.
We must kill it now or regret it for the rest of our lives. And it has to happen in the Senate.
[CC image credit: Gage Skidmore | Flickr]
