The media and American people have become somewhat inured to the spectacle of Republicans saying nutty things (we win trade wars!) and carrying President Trump’s water on everything from the “dreamers” to the Russia investigation. Periodically along comes a Republican to say the emperor and his courtiers on the Hill have no clothes. That snaps you out of the fog of lies, nonsense and mealy-mouthed rationalizations.
Sunday, the “snap out of it!” moment was provided by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who endearingly cannot conceal his disdain for former colleagues. He had this exchange on CBS’s “Face the Nation” regarding free trade:
KASICH: We have 40 million Americans that work in trade-related jobs. Most of the export activities in this country are done by small and medium-sized businesses. What this is going to do is cost consumers, slow down the economy. It’s nuts. It’s not prudent. It’s not smart. And those very steelworkers will find out that things will cost more and what they will buy will not be good. So I hope the administration will back away from this policy.
. . . It’s not just my state that is involved here. It’s our nation. It has significant consequences for us here at home, not only just economically but geopolitically. When did it ever make sense for anybody powerful, rich or famous to say, I will just go it alone? And that’s what we’re doing and it’s very, very concerning. And frankly, my party, the Republican Party, has been in favor of free trade as long as I can remember.
MARGARET BRENNAN: . . . So how do you convince people that that Reagan-era free trade isn’t a relic of the past?
KASICH: Well, because when we take a look at what free trade has done for us, it’s lifted more people out of poverty all over the globe. It’s produced better products for us here in the United States because of competition, and it’s lowered the prices for consumers. But walking away from free trade and going to protectionism is going to yield, again, products that are not as good, products that are going to cost more. And it’s not going to lead to kind of the ingenuity that the American worker is capable of.
In other words, the way to convince people that the policies that economists and business leaders nearly unanimous favor is, well, to explain it to people. It’s not hard. It just takes a modicum of integrity.
Likewise, when it comes to checking Trump, Republicans would have us believe they are Trump’s supplicants. Kasich cried foul on that too:
I have been frankly shocked at the fact that our leaders think they’ve got to, they have to ask permission from the president to do anything. This is very foreign to me. It’s alien to me. When you are elected to the United States Senate or the United States House of Representatives, you have a duty to represent your district, but most important, represent your country, not to just be thinking about your political party. . . .
You know it’s like, “Well, we don’t want to pass an immigration bill because the president might veto it.” Well, send it to him. Let him veto it. I mean, that’s your job as a congressman. And I have to tell you that I’m very proud of this group of Republicans who are saying that they’re going to do everything they can to get a vote on immigration reform and protecting the dreamers.
Oh, just like it says in their oaths of office. Again, this is not complicated stuff, but it is rarely said by Republicans these days because they operate in a sealed information zone where the same excuses get repeated over and over again without serious challenge.
Likewise, a clear, unapologetic case for legalizing the dreamers is rarely made anymore by Republican leaders on the Hill or in their right-wing media cocoon. Kasich provides the overwhelmingly persuasive argument in the dreamers’ favor. “We have 800,000 people who came to this country as children. They violated no law,” Kasich said. “They are innocent people who came to this country who are great contributors to what is happening in this country. They’re part of our fabric. And now we’re going to turn around and ship them out?” Well, when you put it that way . . .
Kasich also sounds the alarm on two items Republicans are skittish about discussing: the mammoth debt the GOP has rolled up and the danger of a debacle at the North Korea summit. (“If you let the pressure up, I am very, very fearful that we will just find ourselves in this same situation or a worse situation [as past broken agreements] down the road.”)
Many Republicans used to sound this way; in fact, the majority of elected Republican leaders and every modern GOP presidential nominee has hit similar notes. Now, however, it sounds like Kasich is speaking a foreign language. He says he wants to be part of “creating a network of people who seek the truth, who are objective and rational.” That “network” used to be the Republican Party; now one has to find something entirely new to preserve truth and maintain objective and rational political discourse.
Democrats should pay attention — there are a whole lot of people who still believe what Kasich does but haven’t voted Democratic before. Smart Democrats will sound rational and roll out the welcome mat. If they don’t, the field is wide open for a truth-seeking, objective and rational political party that serves as a responsible counterweight to the Democratic Party.