LOYALTY TEST A-COMING

Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas. Trying to understand the gap between GOP words and actions this a.m. MAGA Republicans, who back Trump, need an election issue. They are trying to turn the migration influx at the southern border into an issue that can win for them in November. In December 2023, extremist House Republicans refused to pass a supplementary funding bill that is crucial to Ukraine’s effort to resist Russia’s invasion, insisting that the “border crisis” must be attended to first, although they refused to participate in the negotiations that Biden and senators promptly began. Then, after news hit that the negotiators were close to a deal, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Fox News Channel personality Laura Ingraham told the television audience that they had both spoken to Trump and he opposed a deal. Negotiations continued, and last night, journalists reported that Trump was pressuring Republican lawmakers to reject any deal because he wants to run on the issue of immigration and “doesn’t want Biden to have a victory.”  Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) told CNN that “the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.” Attacking Romney on social media, Trump said: "[W]e need a Strong, Powerful, and essentially 'PERFECT' Border and, unless we get that, we are better off not making a Deal, even if that pushes our Country to temporarily 'close up' for a while, because it will end up closing anyway with the unsustainable Invasion that is currently taking place,” which he called “A DEATH WISH for the U.S.A.!...”  Now, after insisting the border issue must be addressed and riling up their base to believe it is the biggest crisis the U.S. faces, MAGA Republicans are in the position of having to refuse to address the problem. So they are escalating their rhetoric, claiming that the bipartisan deal to address the border is not good enough. Ha. In addition… Twenty-five Republican governors have issued a joint statement supporting “Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.” House speaker Johnson has also posted: “I stand with Governor [Greg] Abbott. The House will do everything in its power to back him up.” And DJT called for “all willing States to deploy their [national] guards to Texas.” Wow. So power is ceded to an out-of-office fighting-the-law loser to wreck what is considered your most dire, urgent, signature issue these days…and while he’s at it he’s calling for a reigniting of the Civil War in Texas. Welcome to your chosen chaos.