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We need to be sending pocket Constitutions to all our Republican senators, with Article 1, Section 7 highlighted, the part where it vests them with the awesome power of overturning a presidential veto. Because right now, they are casting themselves as helpless to do anything but let the Russian asset in the White House have his way in this shutdown.
"I'm not contemplating anything that the president hasn't indicated he would sign," Republican Sen. Todd C. Young of Indiana told the Washington Post. "As we all know, the president feels strongly about issues. And he's a carnivore," said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy. Leaping onto the helpless boat, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina says, "The president won't sign it. Why would we work on it?" and Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso peeps, "I'm ready to vote for anything that the president agrees to sign. And once we get that, I'm a 'yes' vote."
Which makes them, literally, yes-men. Meanwhile, "in private, key Republicans are signaling more concern about the long-term repercussions of the shutdown and the atmosphere in Washington deteriorating after weeks of bitter brinkmanship and no substantive negotiations to reopen the government." But what can they do?
Nothing, by their reckoning. "If the president did not agree to a solution and Republicans tried to force a solution, then there's a political cost to that," Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho said. The political risk of standing up to Trump outweighs the principle of coming to the rescue of 800,000 federal workers, and 1.2 million contractors, who are now two paychecks behind. Not to mention the constitutional obligations of the Senate.
This week, they'll have a vote on a funding bill that's really one more white supremacist wishlist from Stephen Miller. It's so larded up with poison that even Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia probably won't have a problem voting against it. And if it wasn't already dead on arrival with Democrats, the Supreme Court just buried it. Now that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients are safe until at least next fall, Democrats can keep the focus on the real hostages—everyone hurt in this shutdown.
This spinning from Republicans, however, does show that they feel the pressure. They feel the need to shift all the blame onto Trump, while couching it as loyalty to him. The only way out of this is to keep that pressure on them and, through them, on McConnell.
Call your Republican senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to reopen government. Don't stop until this is over.