Betting on LaMalfa in 2018

After watching a recent network news show, I commented to my wife, “If I were 20 years younger, I’d think about running for Congress.”

She laughed and said, “You’d never get past the nomination for primaries!”

I asked why.

“Two reasons,” she said. “First, you would answer questions based on your knowledge of the facts, not on what you believed the questioner wanted to hear.

“And secondly, when they asked you what church you attended, you’d tell them that was not a political issue.”

I guess she’s right. But I’m still mystified as to why many of those we do elect get by with never answering questions or voting in favor of the people they purportedly represent, as opposed to following the party line.

A good example is our esteemed congressman, Doug LaMalfa. His motto is, “He’s one of us!” Really? I guess I have to wonder who “us” is. Is it the 17 percent of the public that supports the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? LaMalfa has repeatedly voted to eliminate it. Or maybe it’s the 34 percent who approve of Trump’s handling of the Oval Office? LaMalfa tends to support everything done by the president.

Maybe it’s the 35 percent who support a wall between the U.S. and Mexico that President Trump also wants us to pay for? Or perhaps it’s the 29 percent who want to reduce taxes on the wealthy and increase them for the lower-income groups?

Then there’s his brave stand beside the 3 percent of climatological scientists who question whether we are experiencing global warming, as opposed to the 97 percent who say we are.

Quite a guy, that Doug. But I’ll bet he hangs on in 2018. Because, you know, “He’s one of us!”