Lujan: To Distract from Trump, House GOP Promises Obstruction

The revelations about Donald Trump’s horrifying, but unsurprising, treatment of women are not only sending shivers down our spines, but shockwaves down the ballot. It’s tempting to watch the chaotic impact of these reports and declare them a shocking turn of events, but those who have been watching closely know this is only the latest chapter in Trump’s hate-driven campaign. It’s also just another twist in House Republicans’ downward spiral towards extremism, division, and chaos.

For too long, House Republicans have enabled and empowered Trump – starting with their failures to stand up to his racist conspiracy theories about President Obama, and more recently during his campaign that has insulted immigrants, demeaned women, impugned the integrity of prisoners of war, made fun of people with disabilities, and denigrated the sacrifice of Gold Star families. House Republican have played an active role in him becoming their party’s standard-bearer.

{mosads}We at the DCCC asked House Republicans back in July, “If this is [your] standardbearer, what happened to your standards?” Still, instead of taking a step back and thinking about their party’s values and vision for the future, Republicans put party over country and continued to support Donald Trump.

The latest grotesque revelations are coming to light just as general election voters across the country are tuning into their choices for president and Congress. At this pivotal moment, it’s clear that Republicans running in House races have painted themselves into a corner. They can continue to stand by Trump and effectively give their stamp of approval to his horrible comments and actions. Or, they can change course and try to distance themselves from Trump – a move of political calculation only aimed at self-preservation. At this point, neither will work. 

In the coming weeks, to distract from Trump, Republican Party leaders will try to sell themselves on another argument – that they will be a backstop or firewall to a President Hillary Clinton. But this is no different than Mitch McConnell’s now infamous statement that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Voters will see right through this ruse for the obstruction that it is.

And voters will believe that it is House Republicans’ plan to block progress: they have become synonymous with obstruction and gridlock. This is the lot that shut down the government. They have brought America to the brink of a historic debt default again and again. They’ve repeatedly blocked efforts to keep guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists. They have failed to use their historic majorities in the House and Senate to make progress on the most pressing issues facing Americans: improving the economic security of our middle class, making college more affordable, reducing the influence of secret money and special interests, and keeping Americans safe at home and abroad.

Speaker Paul Ryan’s “backstop” argument is the wrong way forward and will lead to more obstruction, simply in order to block the next president’s progress, whoever she is.

Since long before Trump became their hateful nominee, Democrats have been working tirelessly to make sure people across the country have the chance to vote for strong Democratic House candidates who will fight for them. To give Americans the chance to stand up to the forces of bigotry, intolerance, and selfishness that not only gave rise to Trump, but that have been bubbling up among Tea Party House Republicans for years now.

If House Republicans have the audacity to look the American people in the eye in the coming weeks and promise more obstruction, they are putting politics over people, and to that I say game on. Welcome to the party – and to the fight for a Stronger America.

The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.