Thanks, NBC. You needed to go and remind us that South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham exists, and boy is he indignant at his fellow Kamala Harris-endorsing Republicans!
For starters, it’s good that the body was “what do you think about all those Republicans endorsing the vice president?” And Graham was scorching at the concept that Republicans like former Rep. Liz Cheney would assist Harris. (Transcript right here.)
“To every Republican supporting her, what the hell are you doing? You’re supporting the most radical nominee in the history of American politics,” he stated Sunday on “Meet the Press,” which is identical factor each Republican has ever stated about each Democratic nominee within the historical past of nominees. “And I can’t take four more years of this crap.”
4 extra years of this crap!
You is likely to be forgiven for being confused about what “this crap” may imply, given report unemployment, report inventory markets, the greatest economic system within the industrialized world, an surprising avoiding of a recession, and a rustic lastly out of any direct wars. We may all use some extra of this “crap!”
So what precisely are Graham’s issues?
“[A]s to the Democratic agenda, I think it will change America fundamentally, that they want to pack the court, they want to go to 13-9, they want to eliminate the Electoral College,” Graham argued. “You know, they want to make D.C. and Puerto Rico states. So yeah, I think their agenda’s really radical.”
Making America extra (small “d”) democratic would change America essentially, however for the higher. And higher but—increasing the Supreme Courtroom and including new states—all of that’s permitted by our nation’s Structure. Congress can set the scale of the Supreme Courtroom, in addition to admit new states. It’s been carried out earlier than.
None of it’s loopy, apart from it could dilute the institutional energy that Republicans have constructed for themselves in direct contradiction to the nation’s citizens. Bear in mind, Republicans have misplaced the favored vote for the final 20 years.
We should always have a rustic that displays in style assist, not one with a 6-3 conservative Supreme Courtroom majority.
Republicans can’t be faulted for wielding energy successfully when given the possibility, however that courtesy also needs to be prolonged to Democrats, and it’s time for our aspect to take action as effectively.
And the Electoral School? Is there a cause that billions ought to be spent to maneuver a number of hundred thousand individuals in simply six states? Sure, it has benefited Republicans, however huge swaths of conservative voters in locations like southern California, upstate New York, downstate Illinois, japanese Oregon, japanese Washington, and deep pink outposts like Wyoming, Idaho, and West Virginia are ignored by presidential candidates each single election cycle.
Do away with the Electoral School, and each single conservative voter, regardless of the place they stay, are out of the blue critically vital. That features these in Graham’s house state of South Carolina. Republicans ought to solely worry that in the event that they don’t assume they will win a easy American majority. (They usually don’t.)
What else acquired Graham scorching below the collar?
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“The Green New Deal. Medicare for All.” Given this hurricane season, maybe Graham shouldn’t be so petrified of efforts to fight local weather change? His is a coastal state in spite of everything. And boy, his constituents may absolutely use a severe dose of higher well being care, given South Carolina is the eleventh least wholesome state within the nation by at the least one measure.
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“She was the last person in the room before Biden decided to withdraw from Afghanistan.” His boy Donald Trump really made that call.
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“She was the border czar.” Harris wasn’t the border czar. But when she was, she may take credit score for fewer border crossings than in the course of the Trump presidency.
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“She cast a tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act that gives you high prices.” The U.S. inflation fee is now at 2.4%, and has been steadily dropping as parts of the Inflation Discount Act come on-line. And Republicans maintain desirous to take credit score for initiatives they voted towards in that invoice.
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“What are you doing? You’re trying to convince me that Donald Trump’s rhetoric is the danger to this country? The danger to this country is the policies of Biden and Harris. Her fingerprints are all over this disaster.” Sure, Trump claiming he desires to be a dictator, that he desires to ship the army after his critics, that he desires to deport authorized immigrants … sure, all of that’s extremely harmful.
Graham was clearly on air to make Trump comfortable. However regardless of all of the indignant bluster, his actual worry is a Democratic majority that will undo the GOP’s ill-gotten institutional benefits.
And that ought to sound fairly superior to us.