The Trump Resistance Olympics

By Jacob Vandever

In recent days it seems that our beloved elected official is in a competition of sorts to see who can oppose President Trump the most. So let’s take a look at the participants and see if we can predict who will take home the gold in the “Resistance Olympics”.

Senator Merkley currently advertises on his Facebook page for folks to “Join the Resistance” against President Trump. The good Senator has voted against five out of the seven cabinet nominees who have gone before the full Senate. That includes voting against Elaine Chao for Transportation Secretary. Chao was the first Asian-American woman to be appointed to the President’s cabinet when she served as Secretary of Labor under President George W Bush. Prior to that Chao served as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation under George H W Bush, but apparently, those qualifications weren’t good enough for Senator Merkley and his “resistance”. Senator Gillibrand from New York is the only person who has voted against more nominees than our dear Senator. Additionally, before President Trump even announced his nominee to the Supreme Court, Senator Merkley pledged to Filibuster that appointment.

Governor Brown recently made headlines with the formation of her “Social Action Team” intended to oppose President Trump’s actions and expand Governor Brown’s reelection campaign email list of course. In reaction to Trump’s executive orders, Governor Brown also doubled down on Oregon’s status as a Sanctuary state and directed the Attorney General of Oregon to fight against the travel ban from the Trump administration.

Finally, let’s take a look at Senator Wyden. Wyden voted against four of the seven nominees that have gone before the Senate. In his role as the ranking Democrat on the Senate finance committee, Wyden led a walkout intended to stall the confirmation of Steven Mnuchin for Secretary of the Treasury. Then on his Facebook page, Wyden has up petitions to tell the Senate to reject Scott Pruitt, Trump’s nominee for head of the Environmental Protection Agency and one telling President Trump to release his tax returns.

Those are just a few of the Oregon politicians vying for the gold. Remember three of our congressional representatives Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader refused to attend the inauguration of President Trump.

So while our leaders are busy fundraising and building up their email list off of opposition to President Trump, Oregon is being left off the list of infrastructure projects being prioritized by the Trump Administration and federal funding is being put in jeopardy because of Oregon’s status as a “sanctuary state”.

We will see who ends up being the winner in the “Trump Resistance Olympics”, but I highly doubt it will be the people of Oregon.

Jacob Vandever is the editor of Oregon Upstart, the newest conservative blog on the Oregon political scene.