July 21, 2023 05:15 AM
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is in the swamp but, as he strives to make clear, not of the swamp. In fact, the Texas Republican has been in the swamp, Washington, D.C., for about 20 years now. He began by working for various Texas politicians, first with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and then as chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). But with each passing year, he said, he loathes it even more. “The reason I’ve never absorbed the town is I’m inherently hostile to the town,” the three-term congressman told the Washington Examiner while sitting in his Cannon office on Capitol Hill.
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“And that’s what people around here don’t understand,” he said. “They don’t get how I can — and I think I’m a little unique in this way — where I’m friends with these people: Let’s grab a beer. Sure. I’m going to agree with you. I’ll strategize with you. But if you get out in a lane that I think is hostile to what I believe is important for the republic and where we’re headed and limited government and the preservation of our freedom and values, I’m going to punch you in the nose, even if you’re my friend. And I think that’s what people don’t understand. They’ll see one day, ‘Oh, he’s on the team.’ And then the next day, I’m like, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ And I call it out, and they go, ‘Wait a minute. I thought you were on the team?’"
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Roy’s policy position in the Freedom Caucus is partially, or perhaps wholly some days, a crusade against what he’s dubbed the “Uni-Party.” “The Uni-Party is a collection of individuals who find their way towards continuing to advance the town [D.C.] and the interests of this town over the interests of the country," he said. “And they do it even while they yell at each other saying how much they’re different. It’s like the omnibus bill last December. We just had an election. Republicans took the House, and these sons of guns passed a $1.7 trillion monstrosity because they could, nothing more, nothing less … to the detriment of the American people.”
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Many conservatives in Washington are there to represent their constituents and don’t mind exchanging a little of this for a little of that. Negotiations and deals are part of the game that’s been played for decades — some would even say this is fundamental to political coalition building. This, too, Roy views as part and parcel of the entire problem with Congress. And he blames Republicans as much as Democrats.
“The question is, are you going to break the back of the inner party? Are you going to change the trajectory? Are you going to drain the swamp? Trajectory shifts are hard, and breaking the back of the Uni-Party in Washington is hard. And so, you have to just be deliberate and go at it and go at it.”
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“I love everything that we do around here, but it doesn’t mean crap if we’re not actually living free,” he said. “So, I wake up every day thinking, Well, God’s got me on this planet for some reason. We’re only on this planet for a blip in the history of mankind. I want to preserve liberty for my kids and grandkids.”
