On the day Charlie Crist was sworn in as a member of Congress, I saw a video clip of him saying he was eager to work with Republicans in the House. Crist ought to know better.
Crist left the Republican Party in 2010 when it was clear that he would lose the primary race for United States Senate to Tea Party darling Marco Rubio. In 2012, a few months before formally joining the Democratic Party, he said that he left the GOP because it had moved “so far to the extreme right … that they’ve proven incapable of governing for the people.”
What has changed in the intervening four years? Only that the Republicans have become even more extreme than the party Crist left. The GOP agenda seeks to destroy Social Security, dismantle Medicaid, and defenestrate the ACA. On which of these issues does Crist think he can find common ground with Republicans?
Or perhaps it is one of the many other items on the Republican wish list—crippling environmental protection, wiping out protection for workers, and reverting decades of civil rights progress. Are any of these issues that Crist feels he can “work with” Republicans on?
There are no “moderate” Republicans in the halls of Congress. There are only extremists determined to enshrine one-party rule for the sole benefit of the economic elite. You can’t work with them. This is not the time for accommodation. This is a time for resistance.
Sam Falco 