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If 'moderate' QOP reps want attention so badly, why don't they use their votes for once? [1]

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Date: 2025-04-12

I nearly choked with laughter and anger when I read this article from The Hill, all about QOP “frustrations” with “conservatives” have risen after the far-far-far-right freaks caused budget drama again this past week. Two House Republicans voted against the budget, so it barely passed and some other House R’s (I refuse to call them “moderates”, which they are NOT) are upset that the lunatics get all the attention, while they have to take “tough votes”. Get a load of this:

One moderate House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said members are “annoyed with the attention this small group gets.” “These guys get all the attention, meanwhile the people who actually have vulnerable situations in terms of races, you know, we take tough votes,” the lawmaker added.

I just cannot get over that they are complaining about being powerless victims here, although I guess I’m not surprised coming from these soulless, morally bankrupt people. For starters, they NEVER actually take tough votes! So-called "moderate", "centrist" Republicans never actually vote to block legislation even after decrying the substance of it, many times in dramatic terms, right before falling in line. Their spineless hypocrisy makes my blood boil, as their votes in Congress are the only thing that can directly stop these laws from passing.

It happens every time with “moderate” congressional Republicans — with one of the lone exceptions being when the late Arizona Sen. John McCain shockingly voted to kill the Affordable Care Act repeal in 2017. Ironically, that’s probably the reason they are always ignored by their leadership (especially in the House): unlike the Freedom Caucus, they never back up their threats, they always back down & vote for the final bill. For example:

That dissatisfaction rose to the surface this week when Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) briefly voted “no” on the budget resolution before switching to “yes” — a move that he described as a symbolic “shot over the bow” at the House Freedom Caucus. He vowed to “personally sabotage every single thing the Freedom Caucus does until they get their mind right.” “When they’re doing the reindeer games, they’re disenfranchising my voters, and I will not tolerate that any longer,” Van Orden said. “I don’t care if I get reelected if we can’t be effective.” Asked if any of his frustration is directed at Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for heeding their demands, Van Orden said: “That’s none of your business.”

Congressman Van Orden & his worthless crew are jokes of human beings at this point. If these congressional R’s truly want their leadership to start paying attention to them in the same way as the Freedom Caucus, they need to stand up and actually vote against important bills (not just temporarily) until their alleged “concerns” are addressed in the bills — and make the Freedom Caucus swallow the final bill or tank it with Democrats. Not only would that make their leadership pay attention to them for once, but it would probably be a good look for their re-election campaigns.

The upcoming budget votes are the perfect opportunity. “Centrist” R’s are supposedly against cutting $800B in Medicaid or Medicare funding? Well, the bill is about to be written & voted on with specifics, so here’s their chance to make clear to leadership that they absolutely will not vote for those cuts as they’ve said all along. And if they start getting raucously positive reactions at town halls at home for defying leadership & opposing the cuts, that opens up lots of possibility to save our republic.

My hope is that the next few months of infighting & budget negotiations are more damaging for Republicans than the drawn-out Affordable Care Act legislative debate and ongoing town halls were for Democrats in 2009-2010 (final passage of the ACA was nearly derailed by this). That, leading to blue wave elections in 2026 & 2028, is the only way we can gain concrete progressive power to pass a “Second Reconstruction” or “New New Deal” type of federal agenda as others have suggested. Unified Democratic control of the federal government is our only path forward to expanding the Supreme Court, granting statehood to DC, PR & potentially others, passing constitutional amendments to prevent Trumpism 3.0, etc.

Fasten your seatbelts, but we CAN win our country back. VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/12/2316070/-If-moderate-QOP-reps-want-attention-so-badly-why-don-t-they-use-their-votes-for-once?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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