In 2017, my congressman, nominal Republican Charlie Dent, 1) announced he will not run again and then, in 2018, 2) ditched office early.  His last day in the House was Friday, May 11.

Dent deserves a proper goodbye.

Dent is emblematic of what's wrong with Washington.  What Charlie calls "bipartisanship" and "cooperation," reasonable people call collusion.  In his time in Congress, Dent voted for every spending bill that helped to drive the national debt to $21 trillion-plus, or nearly $70,000 for every American, regardless of age.  Generations of Americans will be saddled with Dent's debt.  

Charlie has spent nearly his entire adult life taking paychecks from the same taxpayers he's been hosing.  In less than five years, Dent will receive a full congressional pension.  Had he been there for 20 years, he'd get it immediately.  Since Dent spent time in the Pennsylvania Legislature, too, he'll have a second full pension from the Commonwealth – one he voted to increase by 50 percent in 2001.

Although personable, Dent is a lecturing, hectoring, sanctimonious, self-interested, liberal phony.  Charlie is political mistletoe – a "pretty" parasite that thrives in oak trees until it eventually invades the heartwood and destroys its host.  Sadly, Dent is far from the only congressional parasite.  At least his departure means one less – for now, at least.

Self-righteous Washington insiders like Dent, himself an embodiment of every establishment GOP stereotype, chirp incessantly about "compromise" and "governing" while ignoring that compromise has produced public debt greater than the nation's gross domestic product.

Insiders feign "pragmatism" while undermining America's fiscal well-being.  Their affectations of "getting things done for the American people" are belied by the legislative actions – and inaction – that highlight their incompetence, a condition, along with a deficit of integrity and humility, they attempt to disguise with self-importance and a sense of entitlement. 

But when genuine congressional conservatives resisted the institutional misconduct of establishmentarians, Dent arrogantly accused them of "reckless demagoguery," called them "jackasses," and openly advocated "marginalizing" representatives specifically elected to correct the establishment's lousy legislative record.

Dent's record is especially grim.  He was one of just eight Republicans to vote against a debt ceiling contingency plan, one of only six House Republicans to vote against a bill restricting post-viability abortions, and one of 26 Republicans who joined House Democrats to refuse to block funds for the lawless Obama directive granting amnesty to young illegals.  In 2015, Dent opposed bringing a religious freedom bill to a vote.  In 2016, Dent joined Democrats to vote for the Obama transgender agenda.  Dent was also committed to corporate welfare.

President Donald Trump has opposition in all three branches of government.  In the Legislature, though, Trump is opposed not only by Democrats, but also by some Republicans, including by Dent.  Last year, Charlie comically accused the president of "taking the 'fun' out of dysfunction."  Nowhere in America has dysfunction been so apparent as in Dent's Congress.   

Now Charlie is reported to be leveraging the notoriety gained through elected office to score a bigger paycheck from left-wing media.  Unnerved by a hostile primary electorate, Charlie has abandoned his elected responsibilities, reportedly to join one of two unhinged, little viewed  cable "news" outlets, where he's auditioned, pro bono, so often that he probably already has designated make-up artists.  When or if a deal is announced, one of Washington's most determined publicity hounds will be paid to blubber, on air, to other liberals about how awful America's president is. 

Dent was appalled by practical GOP voters' preference for a flawed, combative winner over another dignified establishment loser, and he was appalled that Americans are getting the results Trump promised rather than the big-government, open-borders globalism that passes for conservatism among Republican insiders.

Over the years, key defense industries – steel, electronics, among others – moved offshore.  Our trade imbalance widened. Americans intuitively recognize those circumstances as threats to national security, critical industries, and workers.  President Trump's agenda is designed to restore and fairly balance American trade in world markets.

Lost since the Reagan years, Trump's "new" Republicanism aligns more closely with the party's roots.  It's reviving the national economy; shrinking unemployment, including record low minority unemployment; stimulating markets; and inspiring record consumer confidence.  "New" Republicanism has revived a moribund Republican Party that too often ignored the interests of regular Americans.  In doing so, it has turned Dent and other insiders into political fossils.  Unsurprisingly, Dent and other establishment Republicans have thrown in the towel.

One doubts that Charlie Dent has ever valued or even understood America's fundamental conservatism.  Good riddance.