(Column by conservative Matt Lewis, syndicated by the Los Angeles Times, July 8) Forget the doomsday predictions about what President Donald Trump’s cuts might do – his “Big Beautiful Bill” has already notched its first major casualty: Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.
Tillis, who couldn’t support a bill that would kick an estimated 660,000 North Carolinians off Medicaid, told reporters: “I respect President Trump, I support the majority of his agenda, but I don’t bow to anybody when the people of North Carolina are at risk.”
Noble words. Touching, really. Like watching a man insist on reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while standing in front of a firing squad.
Tillis’ rare moment of spine predictably earned him a not-so-veiled threat from Trump: support the bill or enjoy your upcoming primary challenge. So, in a move that felt less like defiance and more like weary resignation, Tillis announced he wouldn’t be seeking reelection. “You can’t fire me, I quit,” he essentially said – the eternal battle cry of the soon-to-be-unemployed.
There’s a reason Trump’s threats are taken seriously. Indeed, while Tillis was channeling Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It,” a Trump-aligned organization – MAGA Kentucky PAC – was launching a $1-million ad campaign against another traitor: Rep. Thomas Massie. Massie was one of only two House Republicans who had the gall (or perhaps the intellectual consistency) to oppose the bill. Among Massie’s concerns is the impact the bill would have on the national debt: “We are not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” the colorful gadfly warned on the House floor. “We’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg.” Unlike Tillis, Massie is less bleeding-heart establishment type, and more libertarian monk. He’s survived Trump’s wrath before (which puts him in a very elite club with Georgia’s Republican governor and secretary of state) and seems weirdly unbothered by the fragging fire. That, of course, is rare.
Just ask Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who has increasingly clashed with Trump over a variety of issues. He’s announced his retirement too. This is a pattern. The streets are littered with the political remains of Republicans who dared to deviate from Trump’s whims…. [And] some who formerly opposed Trump have abandoned their principles and ambitions to be absorbed into the Borg. Remember Marco Rubio, who once warned that Trump couldn’t be trusted with the nuclear codes? As secretary of State, he’s now one of the nodding bobbleheads. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) went from calling Trump “a race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot” to fighting for the honor of Trump’s golf handicap. Nancy Mace and Elise Stefanik? They practically had a public conversion experience. The road to MAGA runs through the Valley of Self-Abasement…. [The full column is here.]
