When GOP Cowardice Governs, Everyone Suffers

Just this week, I saw a video that captured one of Colorado’s elected US representatives, Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, happily dodging questions about the huge Medicaid cuts he supported with his vote for President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” I found it especially offensive because I’ve always thought of the US House of Representatives and the people elected to serve there as having a constitutional duty to actually represent. Running away from questions about your vote that will injure one-third of the people you are elected to represent is cowardice.

While Gabe Evans described his vote for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (and the Medicaid cuts it included) as “cost saving” during another video, the lives in his district damaged by horrific Medicaid cuts have value far beyond the bottom line. They are his constituents, his neighbors, his friends—the disabled, children, seniors, pregnant women, veterans. Evans’ disregard for the suffering caused by his actions—his vote—is cowardly.

Then I started to wonder if Republican US House members from Colorado are trained to dodge questions and avoid accountability. Some will remember a decade ago when Rep. Mike Coffman ducked out of a town meeting at the local library because 150 of his constituents showed up to ask questions about—guess what?—healthcare and losing coverage. Coffman is now the mayor of Aurora, Colorado—the third largest city in Colorado. It seems cowardice runs in his Republican extended family as hurting people in your own community—town, city, county, state, nation—is not in any oath of office he has taken in a long political career.

Wondering what happened to some of our leaders to create this sense of power devoid of compassion toward the most vulnerable people in our communities? I wonder. How does a person divorce themselves from the reality that a vote that cuts healthcare access is barbaric and people will suffer? Maintaining program integrity would surely have included keeping people covered who need the healthcare social safety net the most. When fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program is uncovered, it is almost always for-profit providers at the core of greedy schemes, yet it is the Medicaid-covered individuals whose integrity is sullied, not the profit takers. It is fascinating and sickening that as a society brainwashing is so pervasive that we label our Medicaid program as something bad rather than the program that has saved millions of lives from descending into illness, isolation, and despair.

Gabe Evans governs from his own cowardice. He’s afraid of rocking the Republican power boat more than he is afraid to hurt tens of thousands of his constituents.

Both men asked us to celebrate their military service to the country. Yet, I find myself angered by that. The men and women I know who served in the military forces are not apt to allow community members to suffer and die as some badge of honor. Most I know who have served hold themselves to a sometimes impossibly high standard of being. They are courageous in ways it is hard to define. It does not involve inflicting pain and calling it something else—or worse. A person of honor would face people with differing views as still worthy of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Gabe Evans governs from his own cowardice. He’s afraid of rocking the Republican power boat more than he is afraid to hurt tens of thousands of his constituents. When tough questions come his way, he ducks and runs. He learned his lesson well from other Republican leaders around him about ignoring his constituents when his boss says so. And though the Constitution says his constituents are his bosses, cowardice makes that impossible.

Problems in the healthcare industry have only grown in post-pandemic America, and it will take a very long time to right a ship that was already sinking. Taking access from people who most need it is so wrong, and Gabe Evans knows it. When cowardice governs, there is no room for reason or for explanation. When cowardice governs, we all lose trust in one another. And we must not stand for that. While some run from painful problems, governance must be courageous and protective of those who have given their trust and vote to make sure that it always will be governance for us all.