I love how conservatives so often express their short-term political cynicism in a language of principle. Here is US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) explaining why he would oppose fellow-senator Bernie Sanders becoming a Labor Secretary:
I think that is somebody who we know is an ideologue and, well, it would be very unlikely he would be confirmed in a Republican-held Senate...
Really, now, an "ideologue"? Wasn't Steve Mnuchin an ideologue for corporate capitalism? How about Eugene Scalia, who is Trump's Labor Secretary, a man who, besides being the offspring of a judicial ideologue, Antonin Scalia, is deeply and ideologically opposed to labor rights and labor unions from his significant experience as an anti-union lawyer for a large law firm? How's that for being an ideologue? Oh, and there is the matter of Cornyn voting for The Handmaid to ascend to the US Supreme Court a few weeks before the election, when he refused to give Merrick Garland a hearing in 2016, nine months before the election. We know, if the current position was reversed, and it was a Republican-elect president coming into office, we would hear about the principle that senators should support a fellow senator out of professional senatorial courtesy, as was the line to allow John Ashcroft to become Bush-Cheney's Attorney General. And let's recall Ashcroft had just been defeated in Missouri as an incumbent senator.
Really, Cornyn, how dare you abuse language in this manner?
Sadly, it is important in this moment to remind ourselves that the essence of conservatism, whether political, economic, or cultural, is the defense of privilege. It is the only real principle such people often have. Everything else for conservative politicians especially boils down to their other "principle," which may be expressed as "Heads I win, Tails you lose." Conservative politicians, and here Cornyn is typical, will, depending upon the moment, switch out any previously stated principle for the one goal of gaining and maintaining power.
Let's be clear: Cornyn's statement is not about the principle of opposing someone who is an ideologue. What Cornyn means is he won't allow President-elect Biden to choose anyone for labor secretary who would actually be pro-labor.
