Sharon Kennedy: Republicans nix southern border bill

By now some readers know the bipartisan bill that would have provided funding to Ukraine and Israel as well as money for the U.S. southern border is dead due to House Speaker Mike Johnson, “falling in line.” The brakes were applied when Trump instructed Republicans to kill the bill. If the House and Senate had passed it, his bluster about Biden’s inability to secure the border would have deflated as fast as a pin-pricked balloon.

Border chaos is a main pillar of Trump’s campaign. It’s unthinkable that bipartisan legislation would knock down that pillar. It’s also outrageous that an ex-president — who is a convicted rapist, has 91 felony charges against him and is looking at spending time in prison if convicted of stealing classified documents — is controlling Republican members of Congress, but that’s the way it is. Corruption in politics is not new, but it has sunk to a new low.

“The pattern of Republican presidential candidates intervening in foreign policy to win elections started in 1968,” said Thom Hartmann during his program on Free Speech TV. “President Johnson had reached a tentative agreement with North and South Vietnam for a lasting peace deal to be signed in Paris in the fall of that year. Nixon knew if he blocked it, Johnson’s Veep, Herbert Humphrey, would have no chance of winning the election.” Older voters will remember LBJ decided not to run for re-election. Nam had worn him out. Richard Nixon was the Republican candidate.

In true Nixon fashion, months before the election he sent an envoy from his campaign to South Vietnam. Their mission was to get corrupt leaders to ignore the peace talks. In return, Nixon promised they would be personally enriched once he won the election. The gamble worked, the peace talks were boycotted, Nixon became president and the war continued for another five years. Those of us who lived during this time became aware of Tricky Dick’s sabotage a decade ago when the LBJ library released tapes implicating Nixon in what amounted to treason.

Twelve years later, in the 1980 general election, Ronald Reagan ran against President Carter. There was no Vietnam then, but there was the Iranian hostage situation that had dragged on for a year. Once again the Republicans saw a way to stop Carter’s second term by elbowing in on negotiations that had been reached with the new Iranian president. Working behind the scenes, Reagan promised an arms deal if the Ayatollah would keep the hostages captive until after the election. Once again it worked.

According to Hartmann, “The same day Reagan took the oath of office — to the minute as he put his hand on the Bible — the American hostages were released. Keeping his side of the deal, Reagan began selling weapons to the Iranians in 1981 and continued until he was busted for it in 1986, when the Iran/Contra scandal surfaced.”

Why is this little history lesson important? What bearing does it have on politics today? Why bother to remember that politicians have always done everything in their power to win the Oval Office? Well, I ask. Why not? Why not dig into the past and expose corrupt U.S. presidential candidates? Young people can’t change deals made by these slimy men, but they can try to prevent them when they take over.

Allowing disgraced Donald Trump to kill a bipartisan border bill because it might work in favor of Biden, continues to expose the cowardice of terrified Congressional Republicans. If I were aware of equally nauseating conduct by Democrats, I wouldn’t hesitate to mention it.

— To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at sharonkennedy1947@gmail.com. Kennedy's new book, "View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peninsula Stories," is available from her or Amazon.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Sharon Kennedy: Republicans nix southern border bill