McCain needs to start showing my constituents more respect

On August 26, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) once again grabbed an opportunity to criticize many of my Arizona constituents and our nation’s leader, President Trump. McCain is angry that Trump, just like President Obama before him, exercised his constitutional power in granting executive clemency to former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arizona’s senior senator appears to have forgotten Obama’s record-breaking 1,927 acts of clemency. He also seems to have ignored the fact that Arpaio was convicted for merely following state and federal laws when he turned illegal immigrants over to federal officials.

The 85-year-old Arpaio was not convicted of breaking narcotics laws, financial fraud laws or of revealing our nation’s secrets, all of which were crimes included in Obama’s numerous pardons. Arpaio was convicted of a simple misdemeanor in what many believe was a politically motivated show-trial in the Obama era.

{mosads}McCain tweeted: “POTUS’s pardon of Joe Arpaio, who illegally profiled Latinos, undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law.”

We will forgive the senator for slandering Arpaio by pushing the false narrative that he was found guilty of profiling Latinos. We cannot forgive him for his failure to protect Americans from those who have not shown respect for the rule of U.S. laws. Remember Kate Steinle, Jamal Shaw, and so many others who have died at the hands of illegal immigrants. Please do not forget these murdered Americans, just as McCain has forgotten his 2016 campaign promise to “build the danged fence.”

The truth is that Congress has disregarded the rule of law for decades. Under tort law, Arizona’s unsecured border could be considered an “attractive nuisance,” encouraging children, workers and even families to venture north across the harsh desert, where they risk injury or death while making the perilous crossing. 

Just last year, while on a tour of Arizona’s southern border, I was able to help rescue an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Like so many others, he had been left to die in the heat of the desert by his exorbitantly-paid coyotes.

Did he or his human traffickers respect our rule of law? No, but he did receive compassionate care from us. He was turned over to federal authorities for needed medical attention, just as he should have been.

It’s a shame Congress has so far refused to secure the border. One of the reasons the American people soundly elected Trump was his promise to do so, as required by Section 4, Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution. But he is still facing opposition, mainly from the Senate. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) described the situation, saying, “Democrats are the opposition, but the Senate is the enemy.” Recent events certainly validate Gosar’s statement.

During eight painful years of President Obama, the Republican Congress hardly ever behaved like the loyal opposition. So why are they acting like obstructionists now that we have a Republican president?

In a melodramatic reversal of his earlier votes, McCain in July condemned the American people to continued suffering under unaffordable health insurance premiums and unattainable deductibles. Just like his promise to build the “danged fence,” his promise to repeal and replace the failing Obamacare appears to have only been hyperbolic campaign rhetoric.

If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other congressmen and women want to keep their jobs, they need to start behaving like statesmen, keep their campaign promises, and work overtime on behalf of the American people.

President Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Congressmen who constantly grab headlines by attacking our Republican president and conservatives, and who are oblivious to the many campaign promises that got them elected, are destroying my constituents’ confidence in our Republican Party.

Radical, violent mobs seeking to destroy our history have been taking their toll on our republic. But so are the elected officials who encourage them, as well as those in our Republican Congress who don’t want to do the job we elected them to do, who instead spend their time defying the president and his agenda. 

The situation just might be enough to convince us that Lincoln was right.

Bob Thorpe (@AzRepBobThorpe) is an Arizona state representative and chairman of his chamber’s committee on Federalism, Property Rights and Public Policy.

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