INTRODUCTION
Similarly to child custody fights, the Republican Party is destroying itself by radical adherence to impractical goals, along with failures to negotiate and usefully compromise with other Republicans. There has been a recent, lengthy partial government shutdown. Future shutdowns seem likely: excessive hostile emotions, not enough willingness to compromise, and not enough political skill.
Like tragic child custody fights, who gets the money and the control can become very dangerous—a fight felt so important to win that parents have physical fights and children get murdered by a parent. In the past 15 years, 973 children have been murdered by divorcing and/or separating parents. Seventy percent of the time it’s men murdering one of their own children; whereas, thirteen percent of murdered children are by mothers. Physical violence to intimate partners happens to 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men when desperately struggling to survive or end their relationship. This is from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence at:
In both hard core politics and endangered marriages, the fighting parties care so much because the stakes are high but they don’t have sufficient negotiation strategies to engineer reasonable compromises. In either marital or political conflict, things can get real ugly.
In Congress, Senator Tuberville designed
and stubbornly implemented a political strategy which violates traditional styles
of how experienced politicians make our government function.
WE NOW MEET SENATOR TOMMY TUBERVILLE, WHO IS HOLDING OUR MILITARY HOSTAGE . . . OVER “ABORTION”
Tuberville has been a (well regarded) football coach who was endorsed by Donald Trump and elected Senator from Alabama in 2021. His undergraduate degree was in physical education. He has not previously held political office. But he established himself as:
“[An] ally of President Donald Trump, he was among a group of Republican senators who attempted to overturn Democratic president-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.” And, “Starting in February of 2023, Tuberville has held up all military promotions requiring Senate approval in protest of Defense Department policies on abortion, delaying the filling of hundreds of senior positions and leaving the Marine Corps without a leader for the first time in a century.” More recently, the Navy and Army were left without their top ranked officers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tuberville
Here is some background for what Tuberville did to hold the military hostage.
In the Senate it has been permissible for any Senator to put on hold nominations for political offices and military ranks. These holds rarely create ongoing national news—because compromises are made. But Tuberville has refused for months and months to allow the Senate to give the go ahead for over 350 military promotions. This is a huge harassment in the face of the other Senators and America’s armed forces.
From the Vox news organization, their article describes that: “Sen. Tommy Tuberville has held up the confirmation of more than 260 generals for new command posts—including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the head of the Marine Corps—over his objections to the Pentagon’s abortion policy.”
The Vox article goes on to note that by the end of this year there could be as many as 650 promotions stalled. Moreover, Tuberville misunderstands the Pentagon’s abortion policy. Defense Secretary Austin has pointed out that the continuing hold on leader nominations will affect military readiness. For example, when there are officers missing in chain of command slots, this interferes with the normal execution of military actions. https://www.vox.com/2023/7/16/23793775/republican-wokeness-pentagon-military-tuberville
Tommy Tuberville entered Congress in 2021. He was endorsed by Donald Trump and by the National Right to Life Committee, which is America’s largest anti-abortion organization. Tuberville was expected to win and he did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tuberville
Were there an abortion bill in the Senate to be voted on, Senator Tuberville could, of course, honorably vote against it on any basis he might choose. But Tuberville is a hard right man stubborn and appearing quite self-assured inflicting his personal anti-abortion values on the armed forces.
But it is outrageous for him to bring to a halt a normal process of Congress by inflicting his personal abortion views on military promotions, which in fact have nothing to do with abortion. The resulting frustration and anger is not beneficial for the Republican Party. It is divisive. Tuberville is not letting the armed forces run their own promotion affairs. Tuberville is blocking some of the normal functioning within the armed forces; he is doing this to force other politicians and the military to prevent soldiers from accessing their abortion rights through traveling.
PROBLEMS IN CONGRESS OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS
The new York Times published online an article titled, “The Wrecking-Ball Caucus: How the Far Right Brought Washington to Its Knees.” This article can be found in Apple.news at: https://apple.news/ASmFj8EwNSiOl8yAJpWBZLA
Here is some of the commentary from the above article, which was written by Carl Hulse (long-time, Chief Washington correspondent):
“Right-wing Republicans who represent a minority in their party and in Congress have succeeded in sowing mass dysfunction, spoiling for a shutdown, an impeachment and a House coup.”
“We knew Tommy Tuberville was incompetent, but insulting [the] leader of the Marines is galling.”
“Sen. Tommy Tuberville's arrogance, comparing his former job as a football coach to the life-and-death decisions faced by Gen. Eric Smith, is stunning.” The article points out that Tuberville’s nomination blocking has been going on for seven months! Some of the political ploys of the Far Right GOP are viewed as “irrational and cruel.”
“Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling discusses Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) hold on military promotions over his protest of the Pentagon's abortion policy. Hertling points out that vital functions can’t be assumed by persons not appointed to those positions (which are now vacant due to Tuberville.).”
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS BEEN INCREASINGLY OUT OF STEP WITH THE MAJORITY OF AMERICAN VOTERS
I have written many blog episodes, over the past two years, about:
abortion rights,
voting access rights,
income inequality and excessive tax cuts for the rich,
the need for gun control,
and the need for politicians to communicate clearly and honestly with their citizens.
My research and my opinion is that the Republican Party has consistently been legislating against the majority of American opinions and values. These are my opinions as a moderate Republican.
Our hope is NOT fulfilled in the Republican Party. It is being fulfilled by the FBI and the State and Federal Criminal Justice Systems.
Criminal Justice deals in facts that can be established. And, the tide is turning against those who sell falsehoods to the voters and behind the backs of the voters manipulate regulations and laws to serve politicians’ personal agendas rather than the majority of voters. The facts accumulated by the criminal justice system have produced strong cases, many convictions, and many guilty pleas by the principle actors implementing former President Trump’s attempt to overturn the now President Biden’s election.
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