The Old Bait And Switch
West Virginia voters have just been made the victims of a fraud — we were sold one thing by Jim Justice and he has now delivered another. It did not take him long to reveal the fraud, suggesting that it was intended from the beginning. In Huntington with Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, Justice announced that he was switching parties from Democrat to Republican. Recall that this is a man who switched party affiliations from Republican to Democrat in February 2015 so he could run for Governor on the Democrat ticket. He was elected in November 2016, a mere nine months before switching back to Republican again. In front of a cheering crowd who had booed him just moments before, Justice explained that “I just can’t help you anymore being a Democrat governor.” This bait and switch had far less to do with Justice’s desire to be an effective governor than with his lack of character.
It’s easy to dispose of Justice’s claim that being a Democrat governor limited his effectiveness during the recent budget fiasco. When his proposed budgets were first introduced to the Legislature they involved generating new revenues and preserving the spending necessary to retain the state’s social fabric. He got wide support for this from the Democrats but little support from the Republicans. As the debate wore on, however, Justice abandoned the progressive aspects of his budget and began caucusing with the far-right Senate Republicans in their effort to cut income taxes.
These income tax cuts were not only opposed by Democrats, but also by House Republicans. Since Republicans control the House of Delegates, it was Justice’s inability to deal with them that ultimately frustrated him. But actually being a registered Republican would not have improved his effectiveness. He had already taken up with the right fringe in the Senate and begun to act like a Republican. Instead it was his poor policy choices, frequent course reversals and shallowness that caused his ineffectiveness. He has poor political instincts and is simply not a leader.
There is no question, however, that Justice’s switch of party affiliation has damaged the already lame Democrat party. That party has been able to elect only one Democrat out of five Congressional representatives and now all in the state’s elected leadership are Republican. Sen. Joe Manchin, who is reputed to have recruited Justice to switch parties to Democrat and run for governor, looks like a fool. So does current State Democrat Party Chair Belinda Biafore, who claims that Justice duped her, not to mention former Democrat Party Chair Nick Casey, who is Justice’s Chief of Staff. Calls for a shake-up of Democrat party leadership have already begun. Former West Virginia Senate President Jeff Kessler, a respected Democrat who lost to Justice in the 2016 primary, said “It’s time for a change at the top . . . They need some new leadership at the Democrat chair.”
Nobody looks good in this. The Republicans have their own problems welcoming back to their party a governor they were happy to lampoon just days ago. The Republican Governor’s Association said in November 2015 that Justice was “a selfish businessman who consistently put his interests before anyone else’s, especially taxpayers.” The West Virginia Republican Party said in July 2017 that “Jim Justice embarrasses our state every single day.” These statements were catalogued by the Democratic Governor’s Association, who are now firing their own invective at Justice when formerly they embraced him. The hypocrisy on both sides of this sad event makes you want to take a shower.
Not all politicians lack character. One thinks immediately of Sen. John McCain on the Republican side and former President Obama on the Democrat side. But if character is the trait of steadfastness to principle when the going gets tough, Jim Justice has failed us miserably. It is hard even to see what he hopes to gain from this switch of party affiliations. Perhaps he expects larger campaign contributions from Republicans than he raked in from the Democrats whom he deceived in 2016. Maybe he wants to bask in the Mar-A-Lago sun. One thing is certain, though. The question of what he has to gain is the right question to ask.
