Grafton County Commissioner Wendy Piper and Grafton County Register of Deeds Kelley Monahan have decamped from the Democratic Party to take up political residence in what Piper described to our colleague John Lippman as the Republicans’ “big tent,” which in her telling accommodates dissenting voices.
We doubt that the disaffected county officials will find shelter from the storm in that venue. If in fact the GOP has a big tent, it is of the circus variety, featuring a clown car full of state and national leaders running the show.
As to dissenting Republican voices, the few that exist are consigned to political Siberia because they do not hew to the Trumpian line. We suspect that Monahan will find that out if she persists in believing in women’s reproductive rights and disbelieving in Christianity, as she indicated to Lippman that she does. But the expats are certainly entitled to nourish their own grievances and delusions.
Piper and Monahan told Lippman that their change of hue from blue to some shade of red was occasioned by the Democrats abandoning their commitment to working class families in favor of identity politics, in particular gender identity. They are not the first to make that argument, and it is not without some merit. We only point out that Democrats focus on identity in order to secure the rights of minorities. Republicans are no less focused on identity; their project is to circumscribe the rights of minorities and poor people to, for instance, vote.
And if the Democrats have lost sight of their working class roots, it is an absurdity to assert that Republicans have those interests at heart, unless by working you mean managing a hedge fund or an investment bank. Congress recently passed legislation that, among other things, will deprive an estimated 12 million Americans of their health coverage under the Medicaid program as well as slash food stamp benefits so that the wealthy can enjoy further tax cuts. No Democrat voted for this bill; virtually all Republicans did.
At the state level, in recent years Republicans in Concord abolished the interest and dividends tax, which was paid mostly by the wealthy, and this year instituted premium payments for those who get their health insurance through Medicaid. So much for honoring the hard working people.
Let’s step back a little further in history than last month. Democrats gave the country Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare, foundations of working class life that Republicans have consistently sought to undermine over many years, including at present. We infer that in this matter the two ideological pilgrims have either been blinded by the right on their road to political epiphany or are simply posturing, possibly to stick it to Grafton County Democrats who annoy them.
What does appear to be an honest difference of opinion between Piper and Monahan and their former party is immigration. Both officials take a hard line on undocumented immigrants and embrace deportation raids by ICE, with some caveats. Piper believes that the process should reflect “moderation and due process” — maybe such as refraining from having masked agents snatching people, including legal residents, off the streets and holding them incommunicado while denying them access to the courts?
For her part, Monahan told Lippman that while she supports ICE enforcement actions, she would allow undocumented immigrants who work as farm laborers, restaurant and hotel workers and at other jobs vital to the American economy to remain in the country. We guess that exempts just about everybody from deportation except those who express pro-Palestinian views.
And say this for Piper, she at least doesn’t have the courage of her new convictions — she has already decided not to run again.
While we’re at it, we revisit some lyrics from the Rolling Stones’ version of “Salt of the Earth”:
“Raise your glass to the hard working people/
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads/
Let’s think of the wavering millions/
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead.”