Former Representative Joe Walsh (R-IL), the Republican candidate for President who opened his campaign by apologizing to the former President Obama for some of his comments during his time in the House, has closed up his campaign.
This is unsurprising, of course. Rarely does a sitting incumbent lose the primary, although some outstanding examples, such as that of Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) do come to mind – or, for that matter, Representative Joe Crowley (D-NY), upset by current Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
But Walsh’s comments are interesting in that they help confirm the pathology of the Republican Party. This comes from Walsh’s Op-Ed in WaPo, so, for my conservative readers ready to pull the liberal media lever at a moment’s notice, I’m afraid that Walsh, himself known as a far-right conservative, will not permit that interpretation.
It’s a fascinating – if morbidly so – guided tour by a conservative into what the conservative movement has become, and because of Walsh’s conservatism – naive it may be – his report has an air of authority that a journalist may not achieve, at least in the eyes of the suspicious reader.
More than anything else, what’s made this challenge nearly impossible — to a degree that I didn’t fully realize when I first hit the trail — is how brainwashed so many of my fellow Republicans seem to have become. I hate to say it, but the GOP now resembles a cult.
I was already sensing this, but I was slapped hard in the face this past week at the Iowa caucuses: Last Thursday, the president came to Des Moines for one of his narcissistic rallies. I was in Des Moines, too, so I tried to talk to some folks outside the event before they went in — makes sense, right? Here’s a captive audience of Republican voters. But it turned out to be one of the most frustrating (and frankly, sad) experiences I can recall. I asked dozens of people a very simple, straightforward question: “Has President Trump ever told a lie to the American people?” And every single person said, “No.” Never mind that thousands of his misstatements have been meticulously documented. No, they said, he’s never lied.
And this sure sounds like a cult, too.
Then came Monday night: I went to a caucus and gave a speech to about 3,000 Iowa Republicans. I’ve never been to a MAGA rally, but it sure felt like one. The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, spoke first and underscored the Trump bottom line: Perfect phone call; Democrats bad; keep America great. Crowd goes wild. I then got up to make my pitch, and — as you may have seen — it didn’t go well. I got booed for saying that our party needed to do some soul-searching. I said the party is going to be a party of old white men unless we become more inclusive. More boos. I said we shouldn’t be okay with a president who lies all the time. I said we need a president who’s decent, not cruel. I said, you might enjoy Trump’s mean tweets, but most people don’t. I said we must be better than a president who makes every day about himself. Boos. And more boos. One woman yelled that she loves the president’s tweets. The crowd cheered her.
It’d be interesting to sit down and figure out just why these people are reacting in such an irrational manner. Resentment? Hysteria? Conspiracy-theorists?
In any case, former candidate Walsh deserves thanks on several fronts, just as do Representative Amash (R I-MI) and Senator Romney (R-UT): he apologized for former radical behaviors, he challenged President Trump, forcing a number of state GOP parties to find ways to keep him off the ballot, thus exposing their sheep-like mentalities for our knowledge of who not to trust, and he’s brought this report, presumably truthful, of the swirling mass of irrationality that is at the heart of the current Republican Party.
Thanks, Joe. I may disagree with your policies, but at least you’re keeping it honest.
