The Oklahoma GOP voted on and approved a resolution over the weekend to condemn and censure the senior senator from Oklahoma, James Lankford, for his role in the bipartisan border negotiations. They called on Senator Lankford to “cease and desist” and said they would withhold support for him until he ends negotiations. 1
I have been under the obviously mistaken idea all these years that a major part of being a congressperson was to negotiate with other members of Congress to craft legislation that will address various problems facing, not only the individual states, but the country as a whole. That is apparently the sin that Senator Lankford has committed – negotiating! Remarkably interesting times.
The GOP has been beating the immigration drum for years and now, when it appears as if a negotiated agreement is within reach, the MAGA Republicans want to torpedo the whole thing. Why would they do this? They do not want to ‘hand Biden a victory’ during this election year. This ‘blow everything up’ movement is, of course, being led by none other than Donald J. Trump, showing once again he does not give one damn about the United States of America but only cares about Trump!
It is quite clear that the MAGA Republicans really don’t care about doing anything constructive to solve or help mitigate the immigration issue. They simply need an election issue for Trump to flog. They are willing to sacrifice aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel and America’s reputation as a reliable partner on the global stage for cheap political gamesmanship. No doubt Vladimir Putin is cheering them on. Absolutely disgusting.
This is exactly why this Congress has been one of the least productive in modern times – because members who attempt to do their jobs are called to task, censured, threatened with a lack of support for the simple act of negotiating. In the real world, it has long been recognized that an incestuous gene pool will serve only to weaken a species. Inbreeding is ultimately a death sentence to a population. The same is true for ideas. If the MAGA Republican continue to insist that members of Congress should only deal with other MAGA members who believe exactly as they do, it will be the death of the MAGA movement. The only question will be how much damage they can inflict upon the country before that happens.
