Shortly after 13 House Republicans joined 215 Democrats last week to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, GOP lawmakers went to war with each other.
Some House radicals—who are apparently the dominant force in the GOP caucus—labeled the measure “socialist” and called their 13 colleagues “traitors.” Presumably, that went for Senate Republicans, too, after they helped negotiate the bill and about 40% of their caucus voted for it.
The pettiest man alive, Donald Trump, groused that “Old Crow” Mitch McConnell had voted for it while being “incapable” of delivering a similar bill during Trump’s tenure. McConnell, in turn, called the Biden bill a “godsend” to his state.
Republicans are still warring over the bill even as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 63% of Americans support the bill while just 32% oppose it.
The survey question was very simple: Do you support or oppose the federal government spending one trillion dollars on roads, bridges, and other infrastructure?
And yes, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they did support the trillion-dollar investment in roads, bridges, rural broadband, and more, while a fringey 32% opposed the spending.
The poll—entirely in line with polling of the bipartisan measure over the last several months—highlights that while the American people still broadly support infrastructure investments to benefit everyone, congressional Republicans have become so extreme, they are inciting death threats against their own members for giving the voters what they want.
In the Republican Party, you can no longer do broadly popular things if it in any way benefits your opponents. Passing good things for your constituents is treasonous if it also helps the other party and their constituency. In other words, backing anything that benefits everyone is an act of treason.
Republicans are still at each others’ throats over the passage of the popular legislation. During a House GOP conference meeting Monday, Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina filed a resolution to strip Rep. John Katko of New York of being the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee.
But that was relatively mild compared to the screaming match that broke out between Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, according to CNN reporter Melanie Zanona.
Roy was lamenting that he’ll be on the hook to explain to voters in his district why they should support Republicans when just handed Democrats a big infrastructure win.
“McCarthy then got up and shot back that he’s had to explain to voters many times votes that Roy has taken,” according to Zanona.
As Zanona put it: “House Republicans are more angry at the GOP lawmakers who voted for infrastructure than at Paul Gosar for posting a video depicting violence against Dems.” Gosar’s video depicted him executing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, to be exact.
But, yes, exactly. In today’s GOP, bipartisanship is more unforgivable than fomenting violence against your opponents.
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