Tip of the hat to Thom

“I think we fall into the trap if we just simply say, sight unseen—we fall into the trap of being obstructionists,” Sen. Thom Tillis  (R-NC), on the Tyler Cralle Show

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say at the start that I love how words click together, have decades of experience in writing & am particularly enthralled with subtext of words & phrases.


This statement by Sen. Tillis, unusual in that it comes a freshman senator from a southern state, especially caught my eye.  He speaks of falling into "the trap of being obstructionists."  Got me realizing that he's talking about a trap of his party's own making, because no Democrat is setting one (although they can be forgiven their gaffaws at watching the trap being laid). 

My guess is that the subtext under the artfully constructed words - taken on face value, they give the impression that others have set this cunning trap - would read along the lines of, "Are you kidding me?  Are we really setting ourselves up to be seen as putting the nation's best interests second to our rigid ideology that has said from Day One of this administration, 'No how, no way will be consider passing without a huge fight anything this president puts forward?  Are we so politically stupid that we can't see that we are at risk of being hoist in our own petard if we reject the constitutional right & duty of a president to name someone for the SCOTUS bench when if how the opportunity arises?  Are we, as a party, that DUMB??"

 

By the way, mega kudos to Sen. Tillis for his wording.  As I said, it gives the whiff of an impression that some other entity has laid a trap & he is warning off his fellow patriots Republicans from pitching forward into it.  Nicely done.