Mary Miller's Dissociation From the Truth
In five months in Washington, Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-Oakland) has caused a firestorm for quoting Hitler, refused to admit Donald Trump lost the election, and now refuses to get funding for necessary projects in her district.
OPINION
Mary Miller is one of the least qualified candidates to be elected to Congress from Illinois in decades. Likely the least qualified since Charlotte Reid, who was appointed to the ballot following the death of her husband, Frank, who died a few months before the 1962 election. Reid went on to serve four terms in Congress from 1963-1971 and even became the first woman to give the State of the Union response in 1968.
It’s unlikely Miller will have such a distinguished career in Washington.
Miller ran her first campaign devoid of any policy, ideas, or talking points that boiled down to anything other than “I like Trump,” basically. When asked by a reporter if she supported repealing and replacing Obamacare, a core Republican principle, she froze, asked her communications guy for help, then whispered into the microphone “I can’t answer that.”
Sadly, blind loyalty to Trumpism, funded by Jim Jordan and the “Freedom Caucus,” is exactly what Republican primary voters were asking for last year.
And, they’re getting what they asked for.
On her third day in Congress, Miller gave a speech January 6th (yep, that January 6th), seemingly praising Hitler. If not praising, quoting in a positive fashion is still bad enough.
What policy is she promoting so far? The “Finish the Wall” Act and co-sponsoring a Marjorie Taylor Greene bill to fire Anthony Fauci and ban “vaccine passports,” which don’t even exist top her list so far. There’s also the bill she says will protect girls from a “radical gender ideology.”
It’s like I’m living on a different planet from the same voters I spent a decade trying to court.
Needless to say, Miller’s priorities are less about getting things done for people and more about getting things done for Donald Trump.
It’s kind of funny that she is throwing proven conservative Liz Cheney under the bus for Rep. Elise Stefanik, who had a positively moderate voting record before she sold out to the cult of Trumpism.
Now, Miller is costing her district, literally.
My old friend Tom Kacich had a column in the Champaign News-Gazette Sunday that said Miller is the only member of the Illinois delegation to pass up member projects, or earmarks, in an upcoming appropriations bill.
If you want to have a conversation about opposing earmarks, I’m down for that. It’s a perfectly acceptable position. But, in an instance where earmarks are happening, Nancy Pelosi isn’t just going to not appropriate money from Illinois’ 15th District. That money will get spent and it won’t get spent on projects in central or southern Illinois.
If Rantoul is in need of a new school, if Eastern Illinois University needs a new building, or Effingham needs a new exit off of Interstate 70, they’re out of luck. Don’t bother calling a neighboring member of Congress, they’ve got projects to fund in their own districts.
Sometimes, it’s smart to take a stand. Sometimes in government, you need to take what’s given to you. That’s how a legislator benefits their district.
The Republican Party won’t come out of the wilderness by lying to voters and presenting an image of the world where the election was stolen from Donald Trump and he’ll somehow miraculously ascend back into the Oval Office like the Jesus Christ with a spray tan. It’s time for the GOP to remember what it supports, like jobs, farmers, infrastructure, and freedom. Donald Trump’s priority is Donald Trump. Mary Miller’s priorities should be her district, not Donald Trump.
