By Aunt America
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinions on ScoonTV
Lindsey Graham did not die this month so much as contribute to the extinction of a sub-species of neo-Republicans. It would have been far better, of course, if his exit from the Senate took place via stepping down from the office instead of staying put until the Lord called him. But that’s not how the Senate works, and his form of conservatism is likely leaving feet-first with the likes of him.
By most accounts, Graham as a person was a delight– funny, thoughtful, and tough, acting as both mother and father to his little sister when they were orphaned when she was 13. It sounds odd to say that Graham was orphaned as well, but asking a 22-year-old to face down the world with little more than his parents’ pool hall and his little sister is a mind-numbing challenge, especially when most college students ask Mommy to intervene with their resident assistant when their roommate hogs the XBox.
Graham served in JAG all the way to Colonel, and a gentleman airman does not rise to such heights without being awfully good at glad-handing. Those skills served him well in the Senate, particularly as a South Carolinian.
I once lived in South Carolina for a grand total of six months, and I’d already realized by Week Two that I had never lived within such a knotted skein of good ol’ boy politicking. I include in this statement almost three years in Washington, D.C. Only the slipperiest survive.
The fact that Graham’s seat was filled by his sister, who had zero political experience outside of campaigning for her brother, is the finishing touch to peak Southern logrolling.
But for all his infuriating positions on foreign policy and immigration, Graham became the unexpected hero for even the rockiest of the rock-ribbed conservatives when he stopped the rolling circus that was the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings dead. By the time he dropped the mic, Graham had slaughtered at least three senatorial sacred cows and a firstborn calf of righteous fury, and the moment deserves a slow-motion replay.
In case you have memory-holed this debacle for the sake of your own sanity, Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Trump in 2018. Kavanaugh was the sort of guy who was captain of the basketball team, maintained extensive calendars for every aspect of his life, and then saved them. This, of course, meant he must be a serial rapist.
The accusations came from at least four directions, and the hearings lasted, off and on, for seven days. At one point Kavanaugh was grilled about the meaning of inside jokes found in his high school yearbook. The annual was a bridge too far for Lindsey Graham.
“What you want to do,” Graham said to his honorable colleagues, “ is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020.”
There: He’d said The Thing, The Thing which one Senator must never say to another, and that is plain unveiling of appointee political games. Lindsey Graham, Republican friend to the Democrats, was not cooperating.
“When you see Sotomayor and Kagan,” Graham continued, “tell them that Lindsey said hello because I voted for them.” Oh. This was the next unspeakable Thing: It was not a signal, but a reminder, that he had played ball with Senate Democrats in approving two leftist nominations, and now they weren’t just taking their ball and going home– they were immolating the referee.
“I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy,” Graham said. “This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.”
Which, coming from a native South Carolinian, is quite the statement.
He still wasn’t done. “This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap. Your high school yearbook,” he said incredulously to Kavanaugh as the chamber went silent, referring to Sheldon Whitehouse’s imperious line of questioning involving the word “boofing” in his Georgetown Prep annual, forcing a future member of the Supreme Court to enter the word “flatulence” into the Congressional record.
“To my Republican colleagues,” said Graham, “ if you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.”
“Are you a gang rapist?” he asked Kavanaugh.
“No,” he said.
Graham then fixed his gaze on his fellow Senators across the aisle.
“Boy, you all want power,” he said. “God, I hope you never get it.”
And he still wasn’t done. Later, Graham was, like nearly all of his Republican colleagues during that glorious era, screamed at by a protester as he attempted to enter his car.
“I WILL VOTE YOU OUT,” she shrieked.
“Yeah,” beamed Graham, straightening his tie, “please move to South Carolina. I hope you come.” A serendipitously placed photographer captured the aftermath– Graham having a 007 moment, looming into the frame, as the protester hung in open-mouthed fury behind him. Trump supporters, who long since had no use for Lindsey Graham, made it their profile picture for months and months.
But that was the high water mark for Graham amongst Trump conservatives. Although a reliable pro-life vote, his Conservative Review Liberty Score was a whopping F, dooming him to the scorn of the New Right with his support for gun control, spending, and interventionist policies.
Graham’s leanings, however, are a vanishing breed. Gone are the days of conservatives gritting their teeth and accepting not repealed taxes, but lower taxes, and watered-down cultural language kowtowing to establishment liberals. Trump has shifted the Overton Window with his bare hands, and there’s not room for squishy Republicans in the frame at the national level anymore.
Today’s Republican wants the Department of Education gone and the likes of the TSA with it, but first the last firmly established center-right establishment titans must fall– the likes of McConnell, Thune, Tillis, and everyone’s favorite deeply purple Sisters of the Coasts, Collins and Murkowski.
If voting trends keep leaning red, they aren’t apt to return in other forms. They are poised to take the likes of Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and the entire editorial board of National Review with them, swept away into the history books like the Bull Moose Party.
Graham left his seat in a way no decent person would wish. But he takes the trailing edge of an era with him, and no matter how charming the man, the old spending bill Republican is no longer welcome in it.
Curtis Scoon is the founder of ScoonTv.com Download the ScoonTv App to join our weekly livestream every Tuesday @ 8pm EST! Support true independent media. Become a VIP member www.scoontv.com/vip-signup/ and download the ScoonTv App from your App Store.
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