Political writer and podcaster Matt K. Lewis, writing for The Kansas City Star, told readers to forget the doomsday predictions about the upcoming damage President Donald Trump's cuts might do and to look at the damage already underway.
"Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ has already notched its first major casualty: Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican,” says Lewis, who bids an embittered "goodbye" to one of the few Republicans who could not support a bill “that would kick an estimated 660,000 North Carolinians off Medicaid.”
"I respect President Trump, I support the majority of his agenda,” Tillis told reporters before announcing his retirement, which Lewis compares to “reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while standing in front of a firing squad.”
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Tillis was responding to Trump’s threat of “support [Trump’s] bill or enjoy your upcoming primary challenge,” so Tillis announced he wouldn't be seeking reelection.
"You can't fire me, I quit," said Lewis, “the eternal battle cry of the soon-to-be-unemployed,” and with good reason. Already a Trump-aligned organization - MAGA Kentucky PAC - was launching a $1-million ad campaign against “traitor” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kent.), for having the gall to oppose Trump’s bill.
This is a pattern visible in the departures of Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Mitt Romney, Mike Gallagher, Justin Amash, Denver Riggleman, Mark Sanford, Will Hurd and any Republican who “dared to deviate from Trump's whims.” Others, like Marco Rubio, became “one of the nodding bobbleheads,” along with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), abandoning "their principles and ambitions to be absorbed into the Borg."
Nancy Mace and Elise Stefanik, he said, "practically had a public conversion experience" because "the road to MAGA runs through the Valley of Self-Abasement.”
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But Lewis said the “real kicker for committed conservatives” is that Trump doesn’t care if a conservative replaces them.
“Ideological consistency was never the point,” said Lewis. “What matters to him is obedience. What matters is domination. He has figured out that when it comes to wielding power, it's better to be entirely in charge of one political party than broadly popular with the electorate.”
After Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) was pressured to announce his retirement the other week, Lewis points out the Cook Political Report downgraded his Nebraska seat from ‘Toss Up’ to ‘Lean Democrat.’
“This isn't about growing the party. It's about purifying it - boiling it down into a smaller, angrier and more compliant organism,” writes Lewis. “Welcome to the party of Trump. Where loyalty is mandatory, courage is crushed and ‘early retirement’ is the modern equivalent of a cyanide capsule.”
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“You're either on the bus, or you're thrown under it.”
Read the full Kansas City Star report at this link.