Should we ever be surprised by Republicans?

 

You would think, after all of the events since the election of President Joe Biden, that Republicans would be a little bit chastised about doing things that aren't good for the country.

Well, not Senator Mitch McConnell.  He's trying to distance himself from the pitiful former POTUS, but he won't distance himself from the tactics and strategy that got us here, and got us him -- divisiveness and party above both principle and patriotism.

This is not the time for that.  There are too many problems, and too little time, to waste it on petty politics and maneuvering for advantage.  Shouldn't a Republican Party -- and leadership -- looking to get back on the right side of history realize that?

Apparently they haven't realized that yet. Specifically, Mitch McConnell hasn't realized that yet.

Fight over the rules grinds the Senate to a halt, imperiling Biden’s legislative agenda

Excerpt one:

"Two days earlier, he [McConnell] had notified his Republican colleagues in the Senate that he would deliver Schumer a sharp ultimatum: agree to preserve the legislative filibuster, the centerpiece of minority power in the Senate or forget about any semblance of cooperation — starting with an agreement on the chamber’s operating rules."

Excerpt two:

"But most of those Democrats — who watched McConnell exempt Republican nominees from filibuster rules where he saw fit under Trump, after using them to the GOP’s advantage for six years before that to block Obama’s legislation and nominees — now find his early power move to be infuriating.

“We’re not going to go along with it,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who was among those who signed the 2017 letter. “There will be some kind of resolution that does not involve Mitch McConnell getting what he wants.”

Schumer said as much Friday on the Senate floor, telling McConnell that he considered any guarantee surrounding the filibuster to be an “extraneous demand” departing from the arrangement that the two parties worked out the last time there was a 50-50 Senate, in 2001.

“What’s fair is fair,” Schumer said, noting that McConnell changed Senate rules twice as majority leader. “Leader McConnell’s proposal is unacceptable, and it won’t be accepted.”

So that's where we are.  Despite losing the majority due primarily to major fed-uppedness with their tactics (and it will be sweet to see Merrick Garland come up for AG confirmation as a reminder of those tactics), the tactics of obstinacy, of standing in the way of what needs to be done NOW, continue.

So I came up with a T-shirt design, even though I'm not really a T-shirt designer.  Maybe someone can do better with the same basic idea.

Well, it's a start.