Republicans in Congress have gotten plaudits for their recent opposition to President Donald Trump's DOJ "slush fund," which may be temporarily stalled now, but according to a new breakdown from MS NOW, the achievement reveals something more damning about the "feckless party."Last month, the Justice Department attempted to settle Trump's lawsuit against the IRS by pitching a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, to be paid out to victims of so-called "lawfare" by the federal government for their political beliefs. The plan quickly stalled out in the face of bipartisan backlash in Congress, particularly over the possibility that Jan. 6 participants might be among its beneficiaries, though all but a few Republicans have been hesitant to block it outright.Writing for MS NOW on Friday, reporter Zeeshan Aleem observed that this "slush fund" episode was definitive proof that the GOP-controlled Congress is capable of reining in Trump's worst impulses — when they want to.I"t’s not hard to see why lawmakers from a party would push back against a fund whose sole discernible function would be to reward the president’s friends and political allies — potentially including those who tried to violently overthrow the government," Aleem wrote.He noted further that this successful rebuke of Trump raised another question about Congress's conduct, one with a damning answer: "Why doesn’t the GOP act like this more often?"Doing so more often, Aleem argued, might actually help the party in the coming midterm elections, which they are currently on track to lose badly."Trump is wildly unpopular, hostile to addressing the country’s affordability crisis, mired in a war that he began on a whim, and fixated on turning Washington into an autocrats’ paradise," he argued. "Even if I were a sincere MAGA ideologue, I would be angry that my egoistic party leader was clearly making policy decisions that hurt voters and the party’s chances in the coming midterm elections."While Trump has proven very much capable of crushing his GOP dissenters with primary challenges, the slush fund defeat shows that if the entire caucus moves in unison against him, they can force him to back down, and protect themselves from retribution, as he "an’t launch a primary against his entire party." Instead, they are further exposing how much they are willing to go along with Trump's destructive agenda in nearly every other instance."Republican lawmakers aren’t held hostage by Trump’s power," Aleem concluded. "They choose to enable it by refusing to take a stand collectively. Whether they’ve come to this position through approval of his behavior or acclimating to it, their choice shows they are full participants in American decline."
