With an incoming Republican administration I’ve resumed my practice of writing to our senators, even though I doubt it’ll do much good. The new one, Senator Richard Budd, hasn’t responded; Thom Tillis does (I do give him points for that) but as always, it’s to emphasize his absolute loyalty to the Glorious Supreme Leader. To Tillis’ credit, he voted to certify Biden’s win in 2020. However his initial criticism of the Jan. 6 attempted coup has, like most other Republicans, faded in favor of kowtowing to the man behind it.
During the Biden years, Tillis whined that Democrats passed partisan bills, meaning that Republicans didn’t support them. He had, however, no problem voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh despite the lack of Democratic support. In the past he’s drawn other lines in the sand — then erased them and done Trump’s bidding.
Now he’s declaring Glorious Supreme Leader has a mandate to govern (a common tactic in authoritarian states as Kristin Kobes duMez says), yet somehow he never thought Biden deserved the same consideration. As I’ve mentioned before, mandates are bullshit. If Trump did have a mandate it would presumably be for things such as rounding up immigrants and imposing tariffs — stuff he talked about during the election. It doesn’t follow that everything he does has the voters’ blessing.
I specifically urged Tillis to vote against anti-vax RFK and the abominable Pete Hegseth as SecDef. Tillis’ response was that one of his priorities once Congress is in session is to review and then approve Trump’s nominees as fast as possible. I take it that’s a no to my suggestions; if I’m wrong, I’ll happily apologize. I doubt I am.
