Republican Heads Spin Round And Round

Once upon a time — I’m thinking about during the Clinton administration — Republicans devoutly believed that the character of a president mattered. We had to impeach Clinton; no person of bad character belonged in the White House.

Now, of course, neither liability for sexual assault nor criminal conviction for falsifying business records (nor inciting an attack on the Capitol Building) disqualifies a president from office. Character’s irrelevant.

That’s one.

Once upon a time — it was surely true during the Reagan administration — Republicans devoutly believed in free trade. Reagan proposed a free trade agreement with Mexico, negotiated a free trade agreement with Canada, and launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1986.

Now, of course, that was all foolishness. We need a baseline tariff of 10% for all countries, and tariffs of perhaps 145% or perhaps 30% for China.

That’s two.

Once upon a time — I’m thinking about forever — Republicans devoutly believed in fiscal responsibility.  Reagan emphasized the need to reduce the national debt “beginning today.” Republican candidates for president said the same thing right up through Trump, who said during the 2016 campaign that, “If we don’t take back our money and if we don’t, you know, balance up our budget — at least get it damn close and soon — we’re not going to have a nation anymore.”

Now, of course, Trump and Republicans want to extend the 2017 tax cuts, which would add a mere $4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.

That’s three.

Once upon a time — I’m thinking about the past 50 years — Republican foreign policy was interventionist, muscular, and hawkish. Republicans wanted to support NATO, defeat the Soviet Union and, until about 120 days ago, support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Now, fuggedaboutit.

That’s four.

Once upon a time — I’m thinking about forever, basically — Republicans did not like the idea of concentrating power in one place. Republicans would explain that this is why power properly belonged in state governments, not the federal one. Federalism tells you that concentrated power is a threat to individual liberty; it’s socialist; and it encourages corruption because lobbyists (and others) can spend their money in just one place and influence wide-ranging policies.

Now, Republicans fully believe in giving power not simply to the federal government, but to one person in particular in the federal government, allowing that person to set tariffs, reduce them, and grant individual exemptions to particular industries, based on his own personal whim. Could that whim perhaps be influenced by corruption?

No need to worry your silly little head about that.

That’s five.

You get the idea.

I’m only slightly offended by the young MAGA crowd, who perhaps haven’t held these positions over time. If you just now voted in your first election, at least you haven’t seen your entire belief system do a backflip in the past eight years.

But for the slightly older MAGA folks among you, you’re too old for backflips. Aren’t you just a little bit dizzy?

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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