Adding to the list of similarly sycophantic efforts, a GOP congresswoman unveiled an actual bill to make Donald Trump’s birthday a federal holiday.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republican-bill-make-trumps-birthday-federal-holiday-rcna192443
It’s also, coincidentally, Donald Trump’s birthday. Evidently, as HuffPost noted, this gave one of the president’s more sycophantic congressional allies an idea.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) wants President Donald Trump’s birthday to be a federal holiday. On Friday, the New York congresswoman introduced in a news release what she called “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act,” which would “permanently codify” June 14 as a federal holiday called “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day,” according to the release.
In case there are any doubts, this isn't intended as satire. The New York Republican really did introduce an actual bill, H.R. 1395, which does not yet have any cosponsors, though it seems safe to assume other far-right GOP lawmakers will soon follow suit.....
As The New York Times recently summarized, “A competition of sorts has broken out for whom the Republican base will see as the most pro-Trump member.” From the article:
The rush of flattering legislation, some of which even the lawmakers concede is unlikely to pass, stands apart from merely carrying out Mr. Trump’s agenda. ... “It shows the power that Donald Trump has within the Republican Party these days, and that Republican members want to stay on his good side,” said Sean M. Theriault, government professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “A lot of these people are in really safe districts, but they’re also thinking about what their next step is. And so if they have designs on being in the Senate or running for governor or even a position in the administration, then there’s no better way to get on his good side than to do these over-the-top moves toward him.”
This was published before a New York congresswoman pushed her proposal to make Trump’s birthday a federal holiday.
I’m reminded anew of the response to the Ogles bill from Filipe Campante, a professor at Johns Hopkins University: “
The reason why this is bad is the very fact that it’s transparently ridiculous: It shows how this is becoming a Kim Jong-Un-style cult of personality, where the sycophants try to outdo one another in their groveling to get the attention of Dear Leader.”
That competition, alas, appears likely to get worse.
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