The Bard on Roskam, Hultgren defeats

The Bard on Roskam, Hultgren defeats

The Trib editorial 'Was Trump the undoing of Roskam and Hultgren?' tries to lay the blame for the ouster of these two previously bullet proof Republican warhorses in west suburban Chicago to Donald Trump instead of the real cause. What might that be? Let us count the ways. Both oppose reproductive choice for women. Both take money from the gun lobby while America's shooting gallery gets bloodier. Both deny global warming which most normal folks understand poses near imminent threat to our survival. Both oppose providing what every industrial country on the planet provides their citizenry; decent health care. Both offer nothing to solve the GOP manufactured immigration crisis. Both support endless tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, greatly expanding the worst income inequality in US history. Both ignore the impending deficit explosion to fund those tax cuts for the rich after previously using the deficit to oppose any help to the needy.

It took 12 years of Roskam and 8 years of Hultgren espousing these views to the detriment of their constituents for those constituents to rise up and boot them out. Yes, Trump was a factor, but nowhere near the factor of two shills for regressive Republican policies that prevented them from even engaging with their voters in a public forum. The Trib, which is in lockstep with those regressive policies, is incapable in admitting the truth of those bankrupt polices.

If Hultgren and Roskam were dissect their similar fate I can imagine this quote, paraphrasing the Bard, if they were honest:

"The fault, dear Roskam, is not in our Trump,
But in ourselves, that we lost Tuesday."