JACKSON — Right out of the gate in 2023 the juxtaposition of images was stark.
There were Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic President Joe Biden standing next to each other in Kentucky praising the bipartisan infrastructure bill. There were Republican after Republican in the House disparaging the bill and condemning McConnell and 18 other Republican senators who voted for it. (Sen. Roger Wicker was one of them.)
There was the Senate calmly electing Democratic Sen. Patty Murray as president pro tempore by unanimous consent. There was the House in frantic turmoil unable to elect its speaker.
There were 20 or so Republican fanatics in the House denying the speaker position to Rep. Kevin McCarthy time after time and saying they were representing the “will of the American people.” There were the other 202 or so Republicans in the House backing McCarthy and saying no, they represented the will of the people. Then there were 212 Democrats in the House backing Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and saying, of course, that they represented the will of the people.
Fascinating that the will of the people could change stripes so quickly so often. The opposite of fascinating was that just 20 House members could so easily shut down Congress. Without a speaker, the House could not function and Congress could not enact legislation.
Nobody seems to pay attention to our nation’s founders anymore. But I’ll put this out there anyhow.
President George Washington warned about political parties in his farewell address: “However (political parties) may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
He also warned about factionalism: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
Images of bipartisanship in the Mississippi Legislature look dim this election year. On the other hand, images of factionalism among Republicans appear likely with issues such as abolishing the personal income tax and extending Medicaid for postpartum care the triggers.
For many false prophets have gone out into the world. — 1 John 4:1
- Bill Crawford is a Republican former state lawmaker from Jackson.
