Autry Pruitt Column in TownHall: CLICK HERE TO VIEW ORIGINAL SOURCE
With Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the verge of confirmation, Democrats are showing utter disdain for their constitutional duties and the American people.
While the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended Barrett for a full Senate vote, anti-Trump Democrats boycotted in protest, taking their #Resistance to a whole new level. This is unprecedented: Despite finding no legitimate flaws in Barrett’s nomination (because there are none), the Left decided to grandstand anyway, sending a clear message that bipartisanship is dead. Today’s Democrats want Americans to know that they are not interested in sharing power, just consolidating it.
The Left’s strategy is two-fold, the first one being more obvious than the second. The lead strategy is for Democrats to press healthcare reform—read: health insurance—as the key message heading into Election Day. Republicans, the Democrats argue, don’t care about the sick and they’re actively working to strip Americans of the health insurance secured under Obamacare. During their recent boycott, Democrats placed large posters of insured Americans on Obamacare, framing them as victims under attack.
The Left’s ultimate goal is to frame all non-Democrats as heartless and hostile to Americans, who need health insurance to survive and thrive—particularly in the age of COVID-19. The mainstream media peddled Democratic talking points that Republicans are so heartless and hostile, in fact, as to secretly appoint and approve a judge whose sole purpose is to kill fellow Americans—particularly Black ones—by striking down the Affordable Care Act. In the words of Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI): “People are going to be without health care in the middle of a pandemic, no less.”
Of course, Barrett believes in health insurance just like any American. As the mother of seven children, she is obviously compassionate. She is obviously not waging a war against the sick or Black Americans.
The Left’s duplicitous strategy is to box Barrett in by either putting her in a position to prove them wrong when she is confirmed or guilting her into making liberal decisions when that day comes. If Barrett were to rule against Obamacare, Democrats would immediately come out and say “we told you so,” accusing Barrett of viciously attacking health insurance—and, by extension, putting American lives at risk. In the Left’s worldview, ideology is more important to Republicans than people.
This fallacy will then prompt Democrats to pack the court—or, at least, go down swinging. Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), essentially suggested as much by urging Barrett to recuse herself from Obamacare-related cases. Guilt into submission.
When the Left fights dirty, Republicans must commit to fighting back with the same energy. There are millions of Obamacare victims, and Republicans should promote examples of these horror stories to circulate the pictures of their pain far and wide. Millions of Americans lost their health insurance because of President Obama’s partisan push for socialized medicine. Millions more detest the law. Their stories need to be heard, and Republicans must share them with the masses. This falls on President Trump, Senate Republicans, and all Obamacare critics.
As President Trump often says, the Republican Party must learn to “get tougher and fight.” Republicans cannot allow Democrats to paint them as heartless and hostile to American lives, when it’s so clearly not true. As parents and as children, we should find it disrespectful for the Left to turn politics into a showdown between good and evil.
The Supreme Court fight is just the latest example. By promoting their people—the many millions who oppose Obamacare—Republicans will be able to protect Barrett from the Left’s attacks, but they will also set themselves up for electoral success in 2020 and beyond.
If and when the Republicans retain control of the Senate, they must ignore all precedent and mercilessly snuff out the Democrats’ hope. The Republican Party should never surrender.
The age of compromise is over—the war is here.
Autry Pruitt serves as CEO of the New Journey PAC, which is dedicated to improving the lives of African-Americans and exposing the lies of the Democratic Party.