Republicans Have No Shame
No need to apologize, when you’re committed to winning at all costs.
Screen shot of an ad by the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare.
Republicans don’t apologize. It’s their superhero strength, or rather supervillain weapon.
They will not self correct.
When the video from 2005 surfaced in 2016 of Donald Trump saying, “Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.” he did not apologize. And since President Trump has become the leader of Republicans, the Grand Old Party has fully embraced his approach.
On Friday, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst sarcastically quipped, “Well, we’re all going to die…” when being challenged by her constituents that cuts to Medicaid passed in the US House’s reconciliation package would lead to deaths. This was at a town hall in Parkersburg, population 2000. You can watch the entire town hall on KCGN here. She starts answering the question at 40:30 and makes the viral comment starting at 42:25.
We can’t shame them. We can’t change them.
What we must do is build power. We have to be clever. We can be funny and deadly serious. We have to be bold and willing to make some mistakes. The consequences of MAGA’s agenda requires us to take some risks and show the nation we’re all in.
And when we misstep, as we will, we need to double down on our values. We are hopeful people committed to the values of representative democracy and using smart government to make the world a better place.
Republican strength now is with billionaires. Joni Ernst understands this. She rode to the US Senate on the dark horse of big oil.
All a person like Joni Ernst has left is to keep riding that horse. She’s gotta dance with the one who brung her.
Republicans are counting on Democrats to apologize. To back down. To meet them in the middle. To be more interested in finding middle ground than in punching back.
We have a track record of backing off instead of doubling down.
In 2008, then Senator Barack Obama, made these comments as reported in the Guardian.
Obama was caught in an uncharacteristic moment of loose language. Referring to working-class voters in old industrial towns decimated by job losses, the presidential hopeful said: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Hilary Clinton attacked him for being an elitist. Instead of leaning in, he backed off. But the values he was talking about turned out to be rather spot on as Republicans fed this running horse of political identity, whipping up these voters.
In 2014 then US Senate candidate Bruce Braley called out Senator Grassley’s lack of legal experience and then back peddled into an apology as reported in The Hill.
Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) apologized on Tuesday after a video surfaced of him mocking Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for being a “farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.”
“I apologize to Senator Grassley and anyone I may have offended. I respect Senator Grassley and enjoy our working relationship even though we disagree on some issues,” Braley said in a statement, provided by his Senate campaign.
After watching Senator Grassley at the end of the Obama Administration abuse legal precedent to block a Supreme Court nomination, reverse course to empower President Trump to appoint a third Supreme Court Justice weeks before the 2020 election, and now providing Trump essentially no legal oversight from the Senate, Braley was onto something when he noted that Senator Grassley would become the first non-lawyer to be chair of the committee.
After going after Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton did her own apology tour after calling Trump supporters a basket of deplorables. You can read coverage and see the transcript at TIME.
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
And Trump has lifted them up. Indeed he has rebuilt the Republican Party into his own MAGA image. No need to apologize. In fact cutting Medicaid by falsely claiming to drop millions of illegal immigrants from the program supports the case that Clinton was acknowledging.
Today we still see some Democrats arguing that we have to back away from calling out MAGA identity politics. And that is what Senator Ernst and other Republicans are counting on.
I’m not suggesting to never apologize for a mistake. But we should never apologize for our values. Never apologize for standing on the principled difference between Democrats and Republicans. Never apologize for fighting for our democracy. Never apologize for commitments to the greater good.
We must never let anyone re-frame our commitment to our shared values as hysteria. This is a common defense by Republicans when they are not apologizing for their own mistakes, be it on the campaign trail or in the consequences of the policies they enact into law. True to form, Ernst immediately accused her voters trying to hold her accountable as exhibiting “the hysteria that’s out there coming from the left.”
How do we get to a clearer understanding of what we stand for? No consultant can focus group our way into the winning message. Candidates need to be out among the people fully engaging with them. Like at the town hall where Ernst was trying to hold court over an angry electorate.
Democrats and their big donors need to invest in the groups working with these folks. We need to double down rather than back away from the value of civic life, educational institutions, multiculturalism, and diversity.
Creating off ramps from MAGA and on ramps to Democrats isn’t about meeting moral depravity with permission. It’s about committing to our shared values with confidence and patience.
We can learn from Republicans. They will never compromise or apologize for defending their team, no matter how ridiculous and corrupt that team has become. To do so is to enable the house of cards to fall. They all know that no one can blink.
While that is their strength, it is also their weakness.
When Democrats do the work of elevating voters and fighting for our shared vision of the future, Senator Ernst will be truly vulnerable. Not because she made a mistake, but because people will want what Democrats are advancing. But we have to be clear what it is and not just that it isn’t what Republicans are doing.
Nathan Sage has already announced his candidacy to take her on. He’s got some serious clarity. He’s painting a vision about who Democrats need to fight for and why. Here he is on MSNBC after the town hall in Parkersburg.
Other Democrats are lining up to run as well against Senator Ernst. The ensuing primary will be an enormous opportunity to expose the values gap between Democrats and Republicans like Ernst.
Laura Belin does a deep dive into the Republican strategy here. Ernst knows who she stands with and her marching orders. She won’t be apologizing any time soon as she embraces and elevates the poll-tested lies the Republicans are using to cut Medicaid, SNAP, and other popular benefits.
Democrats need to have a similar clarity about what we should never apologize for. We need to spend the time and resources to listen deeply to the people. We can’t simply fight back against Ernst and Republicans, we have to be fighting for something.
People are speaking. They’re talking about health care. Talking about people having enough to eat. Concerned about retirement, housing, and good paying jobs. People are also talking about due process and the security of our personal data after Elon Musk and the Republicans have blown up nearly all the safeguards that the federal government once used to protect it. There’s also talk about all the firing of federal workers and the spending cuts to things like cancer research.
It all ties together. Many will argue that Senator Ernst’s comment that “we’re all going to die” is the mistake that will undo her. Her follow up “sorry, not sorry,” video response in the cemetery indicates she’s banking on leaning in and defending her comments is a better strategy to hold onto voters.
Our work can’t simply be about replaying her mistake. Instead, we must dive deeper into the shared values that she offends and that we will defend.
We must never, ever apologize for standing up for those values.
I’m a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please take a look at this amazing group of Iowans publishing their work on Substack who are keeping community-based local journalism and commentary alive. It’s an honor to be among this group.
I have long said that the rise of Trump has been the death of shame. Gary Hart was shamed from the 1988 race over accusations of an affair. Joe Biden was shamed from the same race over allegations of plagiarism. Howard Dean lost steam in 2004 after the so-called "Dean Scream" that followed his loss in Iowa. Those times seem so quaint today. You are correct, Matt, that we have to do more than simply remind voters of Republican flaws. We need to offer an alternative. Or else, voters may not vote for the GOP, but they may just stay home.
In working class parlance, Dems need to grow a pair. Oh wait, that might offend somebody! And that's where they start watering down what they want to say. And that's where they lose us...