There was a short but interesting lesson on the effective use of political power over the weekend. When ICE sent two planeloads of illegal immigrants back to Colombia on Sunday, Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia, refused to allow the planes to land and sent them back to the US. Faced with this decision, Donald Trump responded with immediate and overwhelming punitive actions against Colombia.
Trump gave an ultimatum: accept illegal immigrants back, or he would take actions that would destroy their country’s economy, including harsh escalating tariffs, visa restrictions for government officials, and financial sanctions. Colombia quickly gave in to his demands.
This incident is a lesson for every other country in the world. They just learned that the new leadership in Washington, D.C., is serious and not messing around. This incident also contains a lesson for the Alaska GOP, should they wish to learn from it.
To understand this situation, let’s look at the relative importance of the economies of these two countries to each other. Where does the USA rank among Colombia’s trading partners?
Yes, that’s right. The United States is Colombia’s top trading partner, purchasing almost four times more of its exports than the next country. So, where does Colombia rank as our trading partner?
I didn’t show the entire list of US trading partners because Colombia is so far down it that it takes up an entire page to show where they rank, but Colombia is number 28 in importance to our economy. If the United States had placed crippling tariffs on all imports from Colombia, the American consumer would hardly realize it, while Colombia’s economy would suffer. The lesson from this is that they need us much more than we need them.
Donald Trump knows this, and he also knows that the Colombian government would have no choice but to give in to his demands, which they quickly did Sunday evening. The president of Colombia announced that he was unconditionally accepting all of Donald Trump’s terms for repatriating illegal immigrants and even announced that he would be sending his presidential plane to help fly them back to Colombia.
This exercise was important from the standpoint of removing illegal immigrants from the US, but more importantly, it was important to set an example for the rest of the world contemplating similar actions.
The presidents of every other country in the world now know that if they oppose America, there will be a punishing response, and like Colombia, they have much more to lose than we do.
So, how is this situation important to the AK GOP? I have written several articles documenting their inability to deal with seven Republicans who have joined Democrat-governing coalitions in both houses of the Alaska legislature. So far, the GOP leadership has done nothing to prevent this from happening.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Supporting a liberal governing coalition goes against everything the Republican party stands for, but by their inaction, the AK GOP leadership is giving tacit approval to the seven political traitors. By allowing this betrayal to go unpunished, they have also betrayed the minority caucus Republicans in Juneau who remained loyal to the party. That is not all; the AK GOP has betrayed the voters who thought they were voting for Republican governance, and they have betrayed Donald Trump’s version of Republicanism.
The AK GOP leadership needs to understand that Donald Trump and Republicanism are ascendant. Trump is the center of political power in this country, and that power also extends to them. Just as Colombia is weak when negotiating with the United States, the seven traitors in Juneau are also weak. They will all want to run for future political office and will need the GOP’s endorsement to do so effectively. They need the GOP brand behind their names much more than the Republican party needs them, especially with Donald Trump as popular as he is now.
The AK GOP is in control of this situation and has the power to punish the seven traitors. Donald Trump has shown them an example of how to use political power. The AK GOP needs to learn from this example and act soon, and yes, Chairman of the ARP Carmela Warfield, I’m talking directly to you.
The views expressed here are those of the author. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
3 Comments
it’s called a veto pen for anything and everything these rinos want. kinda like a no rewards for Rino’s program.
dunleavys too stupid! Trump places an executive order for alaska. Why? because dunleavys abdicated his responsibility as leader! Trump is our leader, dunleavys irrelevant! His red pen has effectively become his personal enema! SIT DOWN DUNLEAVY, RAM IT!
I agree with the premise, but judging by the actions of much of the Alaska GOP, they are actually just uniparty politicians, not small government conservatives. Sadly the Ak GOP seems to have been fine with that as long as they identify as “R”.