My good friend Congressman Chip Roy was one of the few Republicans who attempted to hold his own side accountable for the massive government spending bill that passed on Friday. The bill prevented a government shutdown but increased the size and scope of government after it was passed through the two-seat majority House.
I don’t think he’d mind me saying that he texted me over the weekend perturbed that I had settled into the position that there’s not much we can do given a two seat majority. After reflecting on this, I think he may be right.
When conservatives negotiated for Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker of the House, they did so by extracting significant concessions from the moderates. The transactional nature of McCarthy’s leadership along with relentless pressure from principled conservatives like Chip Roy and others resulted in tangible wins for those of us on the right.
When McCarthy was ousted by the ethically challenged gentleman from Florida, the moderates wrote off all of the conservatives and went back to their nominally right-of-center position. Chip’s point is that if the conservatives wait for this super-majority of fellow conservatives, the time will likely never come. It’s time to fight now. But, right now, conservatives are not showing up. They are not organized. They are distracted by shiny objections. They are willing to say we only have a two-seat majority and are not even contemplating how to change the dynamic now with outside conservative movement pressure. In fact, I dare say, a lot of the conservative movement is willing to cash in on outrage over culture wars as we run off a fiscal cliff.
On this Holy Monday when Jesus cleansed the Temple by throwing out the money changers nearly 2,000 years ago, I think it is time to cleanse the conservative movement.