Congressional conservatives just showed Republican hand-wringers that, contrary to Swamp Logic, standing firm on conservative principles really does work.
The most recent proving ground of this fact was this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the massive bill that sets U.S. military and security policy every year. As soon as President Biden’s released his leftist defense budget in the spring, conservatives began preparing for an NDAA fight this summer.
As usual, Republican leaders cautioned against picking fights on “controversial” issues. As you know, “controversial” is just the word the corporate media uses to describe popular conservative ideas. They are usually the issues Republicans should be fighting on — the Left uses that word to scare us off.
But for the first time in a long time, we have a group of House conservatives who don’t scare easily.
They put up amendments:
-
Rescinding Joe Biden’s abortion travel reimbursement policy for military personnel. (That’s the fight Sen. Tommy Tuberville is waging in the Senate, too.)
-
Keeping Chinese influence out of the U.S. movie business.
-
Blocking spending on programs that help Iran’s criminal regime and their terrorist proxies.
-
Defunding woke diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the Pentagon.
Democrats warned that each one would kill the whole bill. Each one passed. And so did the final bill. Conservatives didn’t kill anything except bad Biden policies.
In basketball, you miss every shot you don’t take. Likewise, in Congress, you lose every amendment vote you don’t force.
The lesson here — that House Freedom Fund takes to the campaign trail as the House Freedom Caucus takes to Congress — is simply that standing boldly on principle works.
Fighting for the unborn, for national security, and for fiscal sanity is good. That should be the conservative playbook. It won’t work every time, but it works more than The Swamp thinks.
That’s why they don’t want us to fight — and why we should. It’s certainly why HFF will continue to do so until, with your help, the fight is won.
