Many Congressional Republicans Will Vote To Over-Ride "Mr. Veto"

VIEWPOINT - Lame Duck President Trump has NOTHING ANYMORE with which to threaten Congressional Republicans!

No more threats of "I'LL PRIMARY YOU out of office if you dare oppose me", the Donald used to rage.     

So, what now? Of course, deep MAGA (~ 20% +/- of voters) remains MAGA-like, BUT what about the majority of just scared stiff Congressional Republicans? The tsunami-like blue wave of the midterms made it clear that the majority of voters nationwide are furious about the chaos, cruelty, corruption of the Trump Administration...and as Republican Strategists proclaim, "affordability, especially the gas and diesel due to Trump's unpopular Iran War did us in".    

So, in just 2 years, everyone in the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate will be up for re-election. Seemingly, most all re-elected Republicans on Tuesday November 3 saw their former huge margins shrink dramatically. Many "untouchable right-wing seats" were now won by a very uncomfortable scary margin. So, do they now think that blue wave might knock them also out of Congress in 2 years?...OR do they blindly continue to bet on the now-debunked belief of Deep Red State invincibility? Or, one might say, "are these dudes even smart enough to get out of the rain?" With the "writing on the wall", I personally think that their reading skills are just fine. For many of them, the hardest thing to overcome will be inertia. And they have been legislatively stuck on blind obedience to President Trump for many years. So, will many amongst them now be willing to passively "go down with the ship"?     

President Trump has vowed to become "Mr. Veto". He presently intends to veto any Democratic-sponsored bill that could benefit struggling American voters. However, if he does callously kill such Democratic promises of relief for the masses, it seems reasonable to believe that an even larger portion of the electorate will become more furious at him and his lock-step Republican Representatives in Congress. So, it shouldn't take a whole lot more disgust in '28 to throw out any Republican that won by a small to moderate margin (of say 5% more or less). 

So, do you think most remaining Republican Senators and Representatives are mostly ideologically right wing driven OR are they still mostly consumed by only one real motivation  - NOT getting thrown out of office?

Senators John Thune and John Cornyn dared to oppose President Trump and he Primaried them both out of office. So, what did they do once there were no more Trump threats available? Both, not surprisingly, became UNFETTERED from Trump's blind obedience and started repeatedly lashing out against his unpopular policies.

So, there you have it. When one no longer is threatened by being Primaried, one becomes free to no longer blindly support, but one might even find vocal opposition to be empowering...and, in future cases, improve chances for re-election.

So, I contend that the cure for "loss of backbone" is self-preservation. And that self-interest is more likely to be preserved by going along with the wishes of the majority. So, Congressional Republicans are now free to say what they might secretly believe. And some of that is: 

• Stop all Congressional funding for the unnecessary provocative war against Iran NOW.
• The deliberately provocative tariffs, which have turned our greatest allies like Canada against us, need to all be repealed immediately. Note: The appropriate thing to do in 2028 will be for the new Democratic President to apologize for President Trump's absurd animosity against our closest allies worldwide. (But conversations about restoring our decades-long support for democracy and opposing dictators are possible topics for future articles by me).
• Get Ukraine the military support it needs to force Russia to eventually give up their war of aggression there.
• When the Robert Garcia House anti-corruption hearings begin, Republicans need to stand with the Democrats and voice their outrage at trying to bury the Epstein Files, for example.
• Deporting undocumented non-criminal family members needs to end immediately...and maybe with a plan to allow those unfairly deported back into the country (when the Democrats have control of all 3 branches of government in 2028).
• End the deliberate brutality and illegality by ICE along with closing down deportation centers nation-wide.
• etc. etc., etc.

So, what is the real nitty gritty of all this supposition? Ta-da... the best way to "save their butts" from losing will be to help OVER-RIDE TRUMP VETOS on all the issues mentioned above!  The electorate has spoken through the midterm blue-wave tsunami. So, if Republicans aren't tone deaf, they may actually see that OVER-RIDING MR. VETO is truly their inevitable best option. Hopefully, they will be smart enough, fair enough, and democratic enough to do the NON-RIGHT RIGHT THING!

Be thoughtful, be democratic, be of ken.

(Ken Ross is a retired dentist, former Associate Professor at UCLA Dental School, and a longtime animal advocate. He is a former NENC First Vice President, and is a staff writer for Valley News Group, and a regular contributor to CityWatchLA.com)