“Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss” -The Who 1970s

An email from an organization called “Stand Up for America” breathlessly announces that the Republican Study Committee (RSC), led by Rep. Jim Banks, (R-IN), previewed its ‘Post-Trump agenda.’

The problem is that the RSC’s “conservative post-Trump agenda” sounds very much like the Republican Party’s pre-Trump agenda. It is a compendium of the same disingenuous promises, the same pandering, the same old GOP shell game they have been perpetrating on their voters for at least the last three decades. 

These “policies” include:

• Balancing the budget! Seriously? This is something the GOP has been trying to do since time immemorial and never does. Even when they were in control of the White House, the Senate, and the House, the GOP did not balance the budget. Indeed, it often increased the debt. So this is baloney. 
• Fighting for Working Americans! This has been a constant refrain since the 1990s. But the phrasing does not mention a thing about curbing illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is an objective of the Corporate GOP. It has no intention of ever limiting it. The Corporate GOP did everything they could to prevent Trump from stopping illegal immigration. So this too is just malarkey.
• Healthcare Freedom! This is just a rehash of the same policies that were trotted out by the GOP in the early 1990s, in response to Hillarycare. They were never enacted by an impotent GOP House – that had every opportunity to enact healthcare legislation during the first two years of the Trump administration. Legislation that President Trump pleaded with them to pass. But they did not. So this is another phony promise.
• Confronting China! This is a new one. Until now the Corporate GOP would pander to Americans destroyed by American corporations selling out to China by claiming that more capitalism will mean less communism in China and therefore more world peace. How has that worked out? This seems to be just more pandering.

Two items must be noted about this email and about Rep. Banks.

One is about ‘Stand Up for America.’ It was founded by Nikki Haley and will probably be used as a platform for her presidential run. A solicitation to contribute was included with the email. The address of this group is a UPS store in Washington DC. The degree of influence this organization has within the GOP or among the American people is unknown. But if Haley is cheerleading this Trojan Horse of a Post Trump agenda her future is not promising.

Regarding Rep. Banks. Inasmuch as he votes with the GOP nearly all the time it is unlikely that he will bring the necessary innovative and creative leadership to the caucus. His proposals augur ill for a GOP all too anxious to purge the party of Donald Trump who was one of the most innovative and creative presidents America has seen in generations. 

If this is the “Post Trump GOP” they have failed to learn from President Trump. All they want to do is return to the “Pre Trump GOP” that was a party that kowtowed to the Democratic Party. Who needs them?

As the title of The Who’s 1970s hit song says: we will not be fooled again.