The Republican civil war is long overdue
The Republican civil war is long overdue
And it's about time decent Republicans started fighting back
There were two interesting internal decisions made by Republicans this week. The two choices focused on two very visible Republican women who stand for very different things.
The first vote on the question of whether Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) should be stripped of her leadership position in the House Republican caucus. Going into the vote, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was confident that the Trump allies had the votes needed to strip Cheney of her position.
Then reality intruded. When the dust had cleared. Cheney retained her position in a vote that wasn’t even close. The defeat was an embarrassing blow not only for Gaetz but for Donald Trump, who had personally backed the effort.
But the good news for traditional Republicans didn’t last long. The caucus next refused to take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who never seems to have found a conspiracy theory that she didn’t like. Greene reportedly issued a private quasi-apology for her wild behavior and remarks to her fellow Republicans.
The message here seems to be that most Republican elected officials seem to be more loyal to the party than to either faction. There is a traditional Republican wing and a Trumpist wing, but the biggest faction seems to be those in the middle who don’t align with either side and plead Rodney King-like, “Can’t we all just get along?”
The problem is that one of the factions is bat-poop crazy. How can a rational conservative faction coexist with a Marjorie Taylor Greene who believes in false flag school shootings and Jewish space lasers that start forest fires? The boundaries of Greene’s wackery go way beyond even the now run-of-the-mill wackery of QAnon.
The Republican attempt to play it both ways now results in a vote by the full House on whether to strip Greene of her committee assignments. The vote on Liz Cheney was a secret ballot, but Republicans will now be forced to take an open stand on Greene. Given her past behavior, it is more than possible that a vote to protect Greene will become an albatross around the necks of vulnerable Republicans over the next two years.
It would have been much better for the party to handle its dirty laundry quietly in another secret ballot vote. Moderates and independents would like to see the party rein in its crazies and justice dispensed by the party would have defused the attempt by House Democrats in their attempt to discipline Greene.
The problem for the party traditionalists is that Greene is much more popular than Cheney. An Axios poll recently found that Republicans favor Greene over Cheney. And it isn’t even close. Greene had a 38-point edge. The same poll showed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump loyalist, also outperformed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by a 37-point margin.
This is a problem for the whole party because the Trump loyalists like Greene are leading the party into oblivion. Even though the Trumpists have an intraparty edge, there is a definite ceiling for a party and politicians who preach conspiracy theories and espouse nutjob beliefs.
Trump supporters like to point out that Donald Trump received a record 74 million votes for an incumbent in the 2020 popular vote. The bad news for Republicans is that a record 81 million people voted against Trump and for Joe Biden. The conundrum is that Donald Trump is extremely popular within the GOP and extremely unpopular outside of it.
So, what is the solution? A Republican civil war is a likely answer. If decent and traditional Republicans mount challenges against the Trumpists and the fence-straddlers, it may help to draw disaffected (and possibly former) Republicans - people like me - back to the party. The apparent advantage held by the Trumpists may disappear when more competent and less crazy Republicans challenge them, something made more possible by Trump’s ban from Twitter.
The more the Trumpists lose, both in primaries and general elections, the less likely they will be supported by the rank-and-file grassroots Republicans who aren’t sold on Trump but want to ensure that Democrats are checked. People who can’t get elected because their beliefs are way out in right field can’t be a check on the Democrats.
Either way, a party split is likely. The Republicans who aren’t sold on Trump, especially after the insurrection, are unlikely to rally behind a second Trump run or a campaign behind one of his proteges like Josh Hawley or Don Jr. or (heaven forbid) Jim Jordan. Even Ted Cruz’s presidential aspirations are probably dead at this point.
The reverse is also true. The traditional Republican wing of the party is now derided as “establishment” or RINOs,” which is interesting because both slurs are somewhat contradictory. How can one be a Republican in name only if they are the party establishment? Nevertheless, the Trump wing of the party would be unlikely to get behind anyone who doesn’t have Trump’s blessing and the traditionalists, who have either opposed the former president or been insufficiently loyal in Trump’s eyes, are unlikely to get it.
Given the extremely close nature of recent elections, if either faction deserts the party, the fracture would hand victory to the Democrats. Recent polling showed that about a third of Republicans would prefer a hypothetical Patriot Party while another third prefers the Republican Party. Most of the remainder is made up of fence-sitters who aren’t sure.
If you need more convincing, Exhibit A for this lesson is the presidential election in which Donald Trump underperformed Republican congressional candidates. Exhibit B is the Georgia runoffs in which Trump supporters stayed home.
It’s difficult to see anyone who could bridge the divide between the Republican factions. Nikki Haley is one of the few possibilities that I can think of, but even she might be a long shot.
I don’t know how the Republican civil war will turn out. Many Republicans seem content to be a big fish in an evaporating pond. As long as they can keep their authority and position and continue to generate soundbites on conservative media that keep their campaign coffers full, these Republicans might be quite happy to continue to lose. After all, losing means the Democrats will be in charge and there will be plenty of things to keep the base angry about, which keeps the dollars coming in.
On the other hand, I keep hoping that sanity will break out and that Republicans will disembark from the Trump train. Traditionally conservative ideas often make a lot of sense and can be good for the country, but Republicans - or candidates from some other conservative party - first have to get elected to implement them.
I don’t know where the struggle for the soul of the Republican Party will lead, but, for now, I’m at least happy to see some signs of fight returning to the traditional wing of the party. Traditional Republicans have too often rolled over and let the Trumpists have their way over the past four years. Maybe some are finally getting tired of losing.
Addendum: After publication, the House voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments. Eleven Republicans voted against Greene compared to the 61 who voted against Cheney.
In another interesting story, CNN reports that Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has requested that Donald Trump testify in his impeachment trial before the Senate. The former president escaped testifying before the Mueller investigation and at his first impeachment trial last year.
Trump might be tempted to testify. The former president loves to talk and has been out of the public eye for weeks now. The problem is that Trump also loves to lie and lying under oath could bring more serious consequences.
Both testifying and refusing to appear hold different risks. If Trump refuses to tell his side of the story, it could lead to questions from voters about why he was afraid to face Congress. If he does testify, he might say something damaging or incriminating (not that he has much to fear from the Republicans on the “jury”). Showing up to plead the Fifth would make it look like he has something to hide.
For now, Trump’s lawyers say that he won’t testify, but Trump and his lawyers have had differences over strategy before. I’m not going to say that Trump would overrule his lawyers and show up to sit in the spotlight (or hot seat), but I’m not going to rule it out either. An unwanted Twitter fast can do strange things to someone who has lived by the tweet for years.
If Trump does testify, it would definitely be must-see tv. Get your popcorn ready just in case.
In case you’re wondering, Steve and Jay haven’t locked me away in the basement of Major Blake’s Hotel. This week I’ve been in recurrent training on the corporate jet that I fly. I should be back with more to talk about next week. I did catch a glimpse of the Lincoln Project’s Josh Hawley billboard though.
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Democrats removing her will have future consequences, I wish they would have opened up a way for her to get them back. So many people are buried under Q we have to give them a way out or they will just sink deeper. So I would havee preferred if they had explained how she could get reassigned. Just a detailed come back to reality and be a productive member and we will gladly welcome you back to committee.