OPINION:
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a weekend TV news segment that “there are many Mamdanis popping up, running for Congress around the country, and you better be very serious about this” — a reference to the growing list of Democratic Socialists of America-supporting political wannabes who are being cheered by the king of DSA campaigns himself, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
And he’s right.
“This is a serious threat to our whole system of government,” Johnson said.
The question is: Why did Republicans let this happen?
Back when Barack Obama was president, and back when Obama was pushing Obamacare, and back when Republicans were pretending to fight oh-so-hard against the government takeover of America’s fine healthcare system — it was the GOP that actually gave up the fight against healthcare as a personal responsibility and allowed the left to run with the narrative that it’s a human right. By ceding that battle, Republicans actually ceded the war over Obamacare. Once it was accepted into the American consciousness that healthcare was a right, then the argument became one of dollars and cents — not of personal responsibility versus the rightful role of government. Republicans started dickering over costs, not principle.
Healthcare became a right — and Democrats quickly connected the dots to make it a taxpayer-funded right.
Voila. Obamacare took root and spread. Fast-forward to today, and now the arguments in Congress focus on whether young men who earn nearly 140 percent of federal poverty levels ought to be given Medicaid. Republicans can’t seem to reel back the health care giveaways.
My, how the Founding Fathers would have choked on the taxes that go to supporting those who don’t want to take responsibility for their own health.
Republicans did the same with border control.
Years and years and years ago, Republicans decided to set up a Gang of Eight to deal with Democrats’ nonstop cries for more open borders, ceding the idea that America already had in place plenty of border controls — the problem was they weren’t being properly enforced. Send it to a committee, Republicans said. Set up a commission, Republicans decided. That’s called booting the problem down the road, so as to save political face.
Meanwhile, American business owners dug in deep on the opened doors to cheap, cheaper, ever-cheapening labor costs, and even while voting Republican and decrying liberalism, hired more and more illegal immigrants so as to save on payroll — resulting in a depressed pay in certain employment sectors across the nation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, first quietly, then not-so-quietly, began to campaign for more open borders because — as Americans were told, time and time again — these migrants, these border-crossers, these illegals did the work U.S. citizens refused to do. Not exactly true — but then again, who cared? Businesses boomed, stock markets soared, and 401(k)s blossomed.
“Ronald Reagan used to warn about communism, he talked about it, but it was a distant threat across the world,’ Johnson said, The Hill reported.
Yes. Former President Ronald Reagan used to talk about government as the enemy of freedom, too. He used to warn that the scariest words in the English language were, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Republicans seem to have forgotten that, though.
Too often, the GOP has ceded the battle, which has led to a ceding of the war.
Too frequently, the GOP has tossed out principle for the cause of political pragmatism — for the cause of selfish personal ambition.
“And now the barbarians are inside the gate,” Johnson said.
And how exactly does he think they got there?
Democrats are driven by a demonic spirit, and their party has fallen on wicked times — so wicked, so evil, so demonic they’ve opened arms wide to embrace antisemitism, abortion, lawlessness and the like.
But America hasn’t ushered in a trend toward socialism and DSA mindset and now, growing Islamist aggression, by military conquest. It’s been a slow heat. It’s been a compromise here, a compromise there. It’s been a political betrayal here, a political betrayal there.
SAVE America Act, anyone?
And Republicans, thy hands are dirtied, too.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
Follow the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.