It's Not Just the Primary Things

It's the Fundamental Things

This week President Trump called for the GOP to “primary” US Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. His basic “crime” is not being a good little soldier boy for the commander in chief.

Trump has a mandate, it is claimed, so all the soldiers in his party are expected to fall in line, follow orders, and become cannon fodder in the war on the Democrats.

The penalty for this traitorous behavior against the commander is political death. But Trump has shown how merciful he is by only calling for a dishonorable discharge.

There is no question that it is just war and the stakes are high. Trump is right about many things and this is a justified war. I would rank it above the rest of what he has done so far. (Much of which I agree with.) In recent years the opposition turned into the enemy and tried to kill Trump, metaphorically, and for some leftists, literally.

But this is where my metaphor breaks down.

Massie isn’t a soldier for Trump or the GOP. He is a representative for the people who vote in the 4th congressional district in Kentucky. The people he represents know precisely where he stands on every issue. There is no mistake because he has always told them before and after each and every vote he has taken since being elected. He tells whoever cares to listen in advance. He’s not a guy who surprises his party, or the country in general, about anything.

Apparently, to be called a “grandstander” by the most prolific presidential grandstander of all time is a bit of irony lost on Trump and his true believers. To be personally attacked and compared to Liz Cheney is roughly equivalent to what current Dems have compared Trump to. To say it is over the top would not be an exaggeration.

To be considered to be a traitor to someone you have never claimed allegiance to is preposterous.

So I stand for Massie in this kerfuffle just as I stand for Trump when he is right and when he runs for office against those who seem hell bent on destroying the country.

It’s important to avoid TDS AND MDS. I’m not deranged in support of Thomas Massie either. Someday he will do something I disagree with. When he does I’ll be calling him out just as he calls out his own party when they vote for party loyalty instead of the people of their districts. Not to mention the principles they claim to stand for.

I don’t get to vote for Massie. And I was forced to vote for Trump because choosing him over the people he ran against in the general elections were probably the most important votes I have ever cast. I don’t regret supporting either of them when I think they merit it.

The people of the country deserve to avoid the collapse of the republic. The kind of collapse that almost every society in history has suffered. Insane spending is almost always the cause for those who self-destroy.

I understand that many people disagree with me for their own reasons. But on this vote against the Continuing Budget Resolution, I support Massie, happily so.