Delaware's Three Stooges

Talk about a lack of representation.

I haven’t figured out which one is Moe and which one is Shemp. We definitely have Larry down, though.

This is what passes for constituent outreach in today’s Delaware: a “virtual” town hall held on a day and time most Delawareans are working (and they themselves are supposed to be.)

But I can’t say I blame them totally: back in the day when I lived in Maryland, my Congressman Andy Harris stopped doing in-person town halls after COVID, which was a shame because you could see how small the “traveling roadshow” was. In this case, the hosts control the agenda so there won’t be much for the most of us who have common sense to say.

Regardless, on Saturday I filled out the form and asked the question (definitely tongue-in-cheek) “Are there any DOGE cuts you support or is it just all “orange man bad” all the time?” It goes to my Gmail so now that will be on his mailing list.

But I still triple dog dare them to come out some evening to do an in-person meeting here in Laurel.

Anyway, I listened to about half of it after the fact. I wanted to do so on my lunch hour but somehow I misplaced my work earbuds (I generally don’t listen to music there) so I just watched it at home the last couple evenings on Youtube. It got tiresome listening to them complain about DOGE. But I did pick out the trend expressed by each of our Three Stooges, who were joined by state Attorney General Kathy Jennings, who made for a poor Curly.

Instead of proposing their own solutions to assist Americans who are worried about the price of eggs, the waste and overspending of government, and the powderkegs still smoldering in Ukraine and the Middle East, they are doing all they can to thwart the Trump administration that was just voted in. Since Congress has been more or less powerless in stopping executive orders, they’ve been counting on Jennings and her Democrat state AG ilk to run to friendly judges to get things stopped. Of course, that only lasts so long until we get to better courts.

Their second gambit is part of an old playbook: shut down the government and blame Republicans. Coons, for his part, has been trying to convince his Republican cohorts to go soft and embrace the big spending ways that led us into the $36 trillion hole we’re facing now.

And this is the problem with Delaware: we have one county that messes everything up and elects people like the Three Stooges. All three of them come from New Castle County, so that’s how they moved up the political ladder - Coons was the County Executive, LBR worked her way through the administrative side of various Democrat administrations, and McBride represented a Senate district hard along the Pennsylvania line in the liberal suburbs of Wilmington where Democrats outnumber the GOP 3:1. In reading the chat as the event went along, I could see who the unproductive people of Delaware were.

Speaking of the chat, one thing these elected officials all stressed was having people share their stories, which of course would be sob stories about how they’re losing something they’ve come to depend on from the government. But what about the people who have been barely keeping their head above water and finally have hope that things will improve because the government is being cut down to size? Fewer regulations will help with job creation, which we will need for all the government workers who took the buyout.

So here’s my story, and advice to my elected officials that I would give them if they ever had the stones to show up at a local town hall: lead, follow, or get out of the way. Since you have demonstrated no ability to lead and don’t listen well enough to follow, then get the hell out of the way and let DOGE do its work.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.