It goes without saying that Republicans cannot always be trusted to serve their constituents’ interests. History has shown Republicans to be an unreliable force when it comes to upholding their voters’ interests and rolling back unrestrained government.
Let’s look at the bipartisan infrastructure bill. This bill was passed on November 5, 2021 with strong Democratic support. Democrats weren’t alone in passing this bill. 13 Republicans joined most Democrats in voting for this infrastructure bill and sending it to Joe Biden’s desk.
The bill was known formally as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It went through a notable back-and-forth over the past few months due to infighting between moderates and progressives.
However, the ruling class was able to cobble together a compromise version of this bill in the Senate. According to Business Insider, centrist Senators, 10 of them to be exact, were able to negotiate a compromise bill in the Senate that brought 19 senators onboard, including Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. Texas Senator John Cornyn told reporters before the vote took place that McConnell “wanted to help to try and demonstrate the Senate isn’t completely broken.”
However, it took several months before this infrastructure bill was finally passed. One of the reasons why there were so many delays with this bill’s passage is that House Republicans were able to effectively link the infrastructure bill to Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social spending bill, which they are in strong opposition to due to its many non-infrastructure related proposals.
Progressive Democrats did not vote for the infrastructure bill until congressional leaders came to an agreement on a social spending bill. Six progressive congressmen, especially New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voted against this bill.
However, Republican elected officials helped provide the crucial crossover votes to pass the infrastructure bill.
Despite pressure from President Donald Trump and admonitions from Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who described any Republican who voted against this bill as a “traitor”, 13 Republicans still voted to approve this infrastructure bill.
Business Insider provided a list of the House Republicans who approved this bill:
- Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska
- Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
- Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York
- Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio
- Rep. John Katko of New York
- Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
- Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York
- Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia
- Rep. Tom Reed of New York
- Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey
- Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan
- Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey
- Rep. Don Young of Alaska
It doesn’t take a genius conservative mind to recognize that all of these Republicans need to be primaried in the 2022 election cycle.
The good news is that several of the Republicans on this list — Adam Kinzinger and Anthony Gonzalez — will be retiring in 2022. These Republicans became controversial for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump and will likely be defeated handedly during the Republican primaries should they have decided to stay in office. They ultimately want to avoid the humiliation that comes from losing against an upstart primary challenger.
Nevertheless, liberty conservatives should always remember that bad political actors must always feel pain for their improprieties.
