At yesterday’s Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce debate, Rep. Barbara Comstock (Lifelong Republican Hack, VA-10) did what she always does – lied, evaded, dodged, misstated, tortured the truth, and pushed discredited far-right policies on just about every issue. Comstock also must have thought she came up with a super-clever slogan (“Results, Not Resistance”), because she repeated it over and over again, clearly very proud of herself. The problem is that, in fact, Comstock’s brief (and soon to be mercifully over with) tenure in Congress has been about the exact opposite of her stupid new slogan.
In reality, what VA-10 has gotten from Comstock is the toxic combo of NO results (at least not for regular people, as opposed the wealthy and powerful) and NO resistance (against Trump’s assault on our democracy, environment, rule of law, etc.). Below the video, which has Comstock’s insipid slogan on a loop, I’ll list some top examples of how Comstock has NOT achieved results, and also a bunch of things that Comstock should have but has NOT resisted.
First, in the category of NO RESULTS, since entering Congress in January 2015, Comstock has voted for crap like: Keystone XL Pipeline Act (anti-environment, pro-fossil-fuel-industry), Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act (ditto), Repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Health Care-Related Provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Comstock has shared her Republican colleagues’ obsession with trying to repeal the hated “Obamacare”), Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015 (this is also known as the estate tax, and it applies only to super-wealthy Americans; repealing it simply raises the deficit/debt for no good reason), Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (Comstock is virulently anti-choice; no wonder why she’s received ZERO ratings from Planned Parenthood and NARAL), Prohibits Listing Lesser Prairie Chicken as Endangered (anti-environment, pro-big-agribusiness; no wonder why Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund gave Comstock a ZERO score in 2017), Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act (anti-immigrant; note that Comstock received a 100% score from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a hate group!), Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 (against women’s reproductive health and freedom), A Joint Resolution Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title 5, United States Code, of a Rule Submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to “Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units” (again, virulently anti-environment), Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 (and virulently anti-“Obamacare”), Disapproving the Rule Submitted by the Department of the Interior Known as the Stream Protection Rule (anti-environment yet again), Proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (after she and her party voted time and again to explode the deficit/debt), Expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy, etc, etc.
In sum, Barbara Comstock’s record in Congress has been hard right, with absolutely no results for the people of Virginia’s 10th Congressional district…unless you are anti-environment, anti-choice, anti-immigrant, etc., in which case you love her I guess.
As for the “no resistance” part of Comstock’s idiotic slogan, that can be summed up as Comstock not resisting Trump’s, Ryan’s, McConnell’s, etc. assaults on our democracy, rule of law, truth, reason, the environment, civil rights, voting rights, the most vulnerable members of our society, LGBT equality, women’s reproductive freedom, healthcare, our standing in the world, you name it pretty much. As all this terrible stuff has unfolded, what has Barbara Comstock done to resist it? ABSOLUTELY N-O-T-H-I-N-G. To the contrary, she has voted 98% with Trump. So yeah, I guess that qualifies as “NOT resistance.”
In stark contrast, Jennifer Wexton will work hard to get RESULTS for the people of Virginia 10th Congressional district, while RESISTING the depradations of the Trump administration where they harm VA-10 and/or our country. Which would you prefer? The choice seems like the ultimate no brainer to me
Finally, just as a political strategy note, I’ve gotta say that Comstock’s mocking of the resistance is certainly not going to help her on November 6. To the contrary, it’s much more likely to piss off those of us resisting Trump and make us all MORE likely to work hard to defeat Trump’s BFF Barbara Comstock in six weeks. C’mon my fellow resistance, let’s do it!