War Consigliere vs The Surrender Caucus: Where You Been, Bro?

 

It was no accident that Texas Representative Chip Roy became the spokesman for the Defund Obamacare Republicans in the Congressional hearing yesterday. Roy fought to keep the government closed to force the Democrats to cave and defund Obamacare when the Democrats were in power. He was scathing in his criticism of fellow Republicans who caved in and voted to fund it, so the government could re-open. He called them the "surrender caucus" in 2013. 

Now, Roy finds himself on the winning side, watching the surrender caucus of Senate Democrats cave in, while moving on the House side to drive the dagger in the heart of Obamacare.

Roy is cunning enough to frame Obamacare as:

1/ A scheme to enrich insurance companies--a good villain to pick in these times

2/ A program which limits the choice of doctors and hospitals so the government dictates which doctor you can and cannot see.

Of course, Obamacare was criticized at the time of its passage as a scheme to enrich commercial insurance companies. The Democrats wanted, and tried, to pass Medicare for All but ran into a brick wall constructed by Republicans who called it socialized medicine and, of course, lobbyists for the insurance companies were all over Congress and so, as happens in democracies, a compromise was struck handing insurance companies the business, but at least insuring that ordinary folks could buy insurance, no matter what "pre-existing conditions" they had. 

In fact, if Representative Roy had not been in Congress when he got his Hodgkins lymphoma and then applied for insurance he would have been denied coverage for his pre-existing condition. But what he complains about is that Obamacare would not have covered his care at MD Anderson, which is not really the fault of Obamacare, but of MD Anderson's business model.

It is also particularly rich to hear Roy inveigh about the Democrats holding the country hostage to Obamacare for 45 days, when he did precisely that to deny the country Obamacare back in 2013, and when his party caved, he called them "the surrender caucus."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPUJOpB2_Qg&t=1546s

Across from him, Hakeem Jeffries rises to attack the Republican assault on Obamacare, and he  confronts Roy for having tried to kill Obamacare 70 times, and for having fled Capitol Hill for 7 weeks rather than engaging in any kind of debate. 

"He couldn't see fit to ask us a single question, to engage in a debate. Where you been, bro? You don't have the time to have a back and forth? You want to repeal and displace tens of millions of people. That's the Republican plan. What I don't understand why my colleague (Roy) cut and run. The absence of any plan to make life better for every day Americans. Republicans literally stole food from children, mothers and veterans, and all of that was literally done to enact massive tax breaks for billionaire donors. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they skyrocketed the debt by trillions of dollars a year. So we are not going to be lectured about fiscal responsibility by you when you did that because Donald Trump ordered you to do that."

All this brought to mind the difference between a war consigliere and a consigliere who counsels accommodation, surrender and moderation. 

Sometimes fiction can instruct us on real life; it can provide a reference story we can refer to, just as many find Bible stories allegories to help them with the troubles they face in daily life. 

For Mad Dog, one such story is the movie, "The Godfather." When Tom Hagen, the Corleones' consiglieri, assesses the family's position after the attempted assassination of the Don, he advises accommodation or some might say, surrender, because it makes business sense. It's cheaper than a war, and it means everyone can make money. 

Michael decides to reject that advice and chooses to assassinate the would be assassin who had already missed his chance. And later, when the Corleone family decides to go to war, he excludes Tom, who is stunned and asks, "Michael, why am I out?"

"You're a good consigliere, Tom. And I love you, but you're not a war consigliere and you're out."

There are times when you need to follow your gut, or, to put it another way, to do what is emotionally and possibly morally the required decision. 

Winston Churchill, whose bulldog visage is at Donald Trump's elbow in the Oval Office, took the war consigliere position. Churchill's  predecessor had conciliated Hitler, had appeased him. Not Churchill. "We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. And we shall fight them in the hills. We shall never surrender."

Now that is the sort of leader Democrats need today.

CODA:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9uEy5RKz6uI