OPINION:
The week’s drama over the Supreme Court took a decided turn for the worse for Democrats after Brett Kavanaugh, before the Judiciary Committee, issued what will go down as one of the greatest “you go, guy” speeches in conservative history — seconded only by the subsequent righteously indignant set of remarks from none other than Sen. Lindsey Graham.
But the process really shouldn’t have had to reach that point.
Kavanaugh shouldn’t have had to take such a hard and lonely stand. He shouldn’t have been so far out on the Republican branch, absent his Republican support system.
The fact that he was bringing up a larger question, a problem within the Republican Party, and it’s one that goes like this: What is the GOP so afraid of?
Why does the GOP, as a party, always seem frightened to stand strong, even when its members know they’re right — and, most frustratingly, at the times that seem to matter most?
It’s a point that’s angered conservatives of the country for years; think tea party uprising, think Donald Trump’s 2016 White House win.
Truth is, Democrats, who’ve been in the minority in Congress for some time, have nonetheless far too frequently seized the upper hand in dealings with Republicans. Truth is, too, conservatives outside the Beltway can’t understand the reticence of their elected Republican representatives to do what they were handed the standing to do at the ballots.
Conservatives want Republicans to fight. It’s what conservatives send Republicans to D.C. to do.
But far too often, Democrats grab at the reins of control and run roughshod over voters’ wills.
It’s like Democrats are busily playing a political game of chess, plotting their paths three, four, even fives moves down the line — while Republicans, oblivious to the background, backdoor secrets of the left, are simply tossing down cards in a childish chance game of “go fish.”
Honestly, the GOP needs to stop reacting and start plotting — start going on the offensive and stripping the Democrats’ of their ability to control.
Remember Barack Obama days when Republicans ran scared from the Democrats, passing everything from ungodly budgets to unconstitutional stimulus bills, even while holding the majority in Congress?
Fast-forward to today’s political debacles, most notably the Kavanaugh hearings, and it’s clear, roles haven’t changed much. The situation’s the same. Republicans may hold the majority by number, but they’re far too often behaving as pawns in Democrats’ political designs.
On Kavanaugh, Republicans could’ve dismissed the objections of Democrats and gone forward with a Judiciary Committee vote as they originally planned, days and days ago. They didn’t.
Republicans could’ve fought off the last-minute claims of Christine Blasey Ford with an immediate barrage of facts — such as the type of facts Kavanaugh himself laid out in his magnificent Thursday testimony — and presented, as a party, a unified front to the shrill illogic of the left and mainstream media. They didn’t.
Republicans could’ve issued, one by one, one after another, statements of support for Kavanaugh that were sympathetic to female victims of sexual assault, but that also set the usurpers of the nomination process on notice and made clear the left’s partisan tactics wouldn’t bring the desired results — that good would not kowtow to evil. They didn’t.
Republicans didn’t do any of this.
What Republicans did instead was to allow a single woman with a swiss cheese memory and an army of well-funded anti-Trump Democrats to steamroll the entire Supreme Court process, tear at the reputation of a highly esteemed man and his family and ultimately, cut at the fabric of our country’s Constitution.
This is no way for Republicans to run the party.
Clearly, the GOP needs to man up and become the party of the people — the party of strong and uncompromising principle the people want for political representation.
The left will never concede defeat. The Democrats will never give up their fight. The media will never regard conservatives in friendly lights. The left is wily, deceptive, cunning and unafraid to appear the liar, unabashed and unashamed to be called out for evil. Those are truths and they’re irrefutable. So it’s high time the Republican Party trade its playful “go fish” game for a chess board and start politicking like strategists with gumption.
Republicans can no longer afford to be taken off-guard by the left’s antics or worse, and as this whole Kavanaugh process seemed to proceed, run for cover to the nearest corner.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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