Congressman Fitzpatrick’s recent statement on Venezuela demonstrates what an impossible position he finds himself in. He has completed 9 years in Congress, and for every one of those years he has presented himself as a moderate, thoughtful, caring Congressperson. He has followed Republican orthodoxy for the most part, but has taken periodic, independent stands as “proof “of his commitment to doing what’s right, as opposed to what is politically comfortable.
As the Republican party descends into simply serving as the obsequious followers of Donald Trump, it has abandoned any semblance of being guided by an overarching, consistent political theory or platform. It would be very difficult today to state what the Republican Party stands for — personal responsibility/fiscal conservancy? Hardly.
As the party descends deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of Donald Trump’s arbitrary and capricious presidency, Brian Fitzpatrick finds himself in a more and more difficult and, increasingly, untenable position. It is my prediction that his ability to walk a substantive, reasoned middle path is vanishing quickly.
His statement on Venezuela highlights this difficulty, as it follows a sequence that is ultimately, and painfully, contradictory. In his first paragraph, Fitzpatrick says that Maduro’s ouster and prosecution are long overdue. Around the world there are, sadly, leaders of many nations who fall into the same category of brutal dictatorship as Maduro. Is Congressman Fitzpatrick suggesting that it is now the role of the United States to physically remove all such leaders? 80 people who were alive before the attack on Venezuela are now dead. Is there some acceptable number of people being killed? I do not have confidence that any kind of analysis like that is being undertaken by the Trump Administration. After all, Trump put a tariff on vanilla, when there is no vanilla industry in America to protect.
In his second paragraph, Brian makes an observation that nullifies his first paragraph. Yes, Maduro’s ouster may have been long overdue, but what have we left in the vacuum of his removal? His party is still in control, and Venezuela’s legislature just reconvened. Logically, Brian confirms that the only country we should be “running” is the United States. That certainly sounds like we should stay out of the internal business of other nations — the exact opposite of what we just did.
Fitzpatrick idealistically and naively suggests that we should enlist the International Community to be sure that there are free and fair elections in Venezuela and that it has a pathway to a true democracy. Really?! Is there any indication that Donald Trump has ever convened an effort to pull together the “International Community” to do anything? The answer to that is obviously, “No.” Also comical is that Fitzpatrick talks about the importance of free and fair elections, when his president has made significant effort to try to rig the 2026 election by asking Governors of Republican states to get him more Republican Congress members. It would be very difficult to imagine any action by a President that is in more direct conflict with the concept of caring about free and fair elections.
We just experienced the 5th anniversary of the horrific events of January 6th, 2021. At the time, Fitzpatrick identified that action as an attempted coup by President Trump. Free and fair elections? Are you kidding me?
In his third paragraph Fitzpatrick talks about making sure that this nation follows a lawful process and its constitutional responsibility. Again, one has to ask whether he is kidding. Donald Trump has demonstrated that he believes he has absolutely no responsibility to adhere to the rule of law, and his choice about whether to uphold the Constitution is one that he makes on a daily basis.
I believe that if Congressman Fitzpatrick were suddenly President of the United States, he would act in a much more reasonable, thoughtful manner than Trump. However, as a congressman, in a congressional session currently controlled by Republicans, his voice is both contradictory and, unfortunately, useless — without power or impact. Congressman Fitzpatrick is now languishing in some purgatory of seeking a reasoned middle path when the Republican Party has made sure that no such path exists.
