HILL: Revenge is a dish best served cold … or never 

FILE - The U.S. Capitol building is seen before sunrise on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

If Republicans take control of Congress and the U.S. Senate, they should take a little advice from French novelist Eugène Sue in his 1846 series “Memoirs of Matilda:” 

“La vengeance se mange très-bien froide comme dirait le vulgaire.” 

“And then revenge is very good eaten cold, as the vulgar say.”  

Many Republicans are dying to get control of Congress so they can spend thousands of hours investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hillary Clinton’s 32,000 lost emails, the 2020 presidential election, the Russian collusion conspiracy in the FBI and, quite possibly, the Kennedy assassination. They are white-knuckle outraged by the travesties of injustice conservatives have suffered at the hands of Democrats aided and abetted by liberal partisans in supposedly nonpartisan agencies such as the FBI, CIA and IRS. 

The Deep State Swamp. 

They should be outraged. However, they need to remember 95% of the American voting public just plain don’t care about Hunter Biden or Hillary Clinton for the simple reason nothing they do will ever affect their everyday lives in any way, shape, fashion or form.  

Serving a cold dish of revenge is a way of getting back at your adversaries in a way they don’t immediately recognize. Enough time might elapse so the original perpetrator of the misdeed might hang themselves with their own rope, to use another phrase. But serving a cold dish of revenge most assuredly means eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth retribution which can be found in the Old Testament. 

There is another option for Republicans in 2023.  

Do nothing.   

That’s right: no investigations, no subpoenas, no interminable marathon televised sessions with bloviating self-righteous politicians. “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9). 

The “greatest” revenge for House and Senate Republicans would be to act like mature, adult, seasoned statesmen and do the right thing for the people of America: Run the government and get things done. If Americans see Republicans pass legislation to balance the budget, repeal any and all of Joe Biden’s far-left progressive socialist Democrat agenda, pass a reasonable domestic energy program; enact comprehensive crime control legislation, protect our borders and rationalize our immigration system, they will reward Republicans with the White House and continued control of Congress in the 2024 presidential elections and beyond. 

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of unanswered questions Congress should address when it comes to Democrats getting away with what appears to be egregious abuses of power. These can, and should, be addressed by Congress but only after they have solved problems that matter to the average citizen. 

Republicans could do themselves and the nation a massive public service if they dedicated themselves to running the government properly and not lowering themselves to the base levels Democrats have done over the past 20 years. 

Cynics will say Biden will veto every Republican initiative they pass out of Congress. Of course he will. Biden is the most far-left progressive liberal Democrat America has ever had. 

So what?  

The onus will then be on Biden and incumbent Democrats in 2024 to defend their indefensible positions of why they did not want to balance the budget, provide cheap energy to the American people, lower inflation, secure the border and reduce crime. Every time Biden vetoes common-sense legislation supported by 85% of the public, and Democrats support his veto, they will just add more weight to their backs to carry in the 2024 elections.  

Performing such herculean leadership on major issues of concern to every American will be recognized and rewarded by voters in the next presidential election. With solid majorities in both houses of Congress; a Republican president and a conservative Supreme Court, perhaps then and only then would it be prudent to conduct in-depth investigations of malfeasance committed by Democratic officeholders. 

Revenge is not a winning long-term political strategy. Solving problems is.