Mandates are a myth

While it’s important to remind people how extreme the Republican Party has become, I no longer feel it’s worth cover all their monstrously extreme statements. Not that I ever have — I’d have to post a lot more often — but I bookmark a shit-ton of stuff that I never get around to discussing. And as I’ve said previously, while their policies are bad, a lot of their rhetoric is now same-old, same-old. Shrieks of outrage they have to share the country. That everyone hasn’t already bent the knee to Glorious Supreme Leader Trump. Etc.,Etc. The latest lie about immigrants, Democrats, gays, etc.

However some of the lies are worth nothing, such as Republicans declaring Donald Trump has a mandate. Rep. Mike Johnson’s said because Trump has a mandate, we should accept all his candidate appointments — the people have spoken! Marjorie Taylor Greene is shocked—shocked—Democratic governors are “threatening the upcoming Trump administration’s mandate by the American people.” We’ll hear more about this soon.

Like the title of this post says, mandates are bullshit. I realized this in 2004 when W won re-election. Lots of conservatives declared he had a clear mandate from the voters but none of them agreed what. It was to clean up filth in the media! No, it was to slash government spending! To keep the war going in Iraq! Then it occurred to me that when W lost the popular vote in 2000, nobody on the Republican side claimed “well, he doesn’t have a mandate, he should compromise and reach out to the majority who didn’t vote for him.”

Trump won. That doesn’t mean everyone who voted for him supports his policies or that it’s wrong to oppose them: continuing the opposition is legal and acceptable. Hell, Republicans know this: none of them thought Biden had a mandate or that they were obligated to roll over and play dead. And Biden won a much more decisive victory than Trump.

Expect to hear more wailing that anyone who opposes Trump is doing something unconstitutional and unfair and remember it isn’t true.