But I can’t help but take note of the following. First up: The Hill’s report on Republican voters, entitled Tens of thousands of voters drop Republican affiliation after Capitol riot:
More than 30,000 voters who had been registered members of the Republican Party have changed their voter registration in the weeks after a mob of pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol — an issue that led the House to impeach the former president for inciting the violence.
The massive wave of defections is a virtually unprecedented exodus that could spell trouble for a party that is trying to find its way after losing the presidential race and the Senate majority.
It could also represent the tip of a much larger iceberg: The 30,000 who have left the Republican Party reside in just a few states that report voter registration data, and information about voters switching between parties, on a weekly basis.
And that report is almost two weeks ago. It leaves me wondering: if we reran the Presidential election today, would Trump’s losing count of 71 million votes be reduced to below 50 million?
Next up: the price to be paid for voting for the Articles of Impeachment for Rep Tom Rice (R-SC):
The South Carolina Republican Party’s executive committee formally censured Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) on Saturday over his vote to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.
“We made our disappointment clear the night of the impeachment vote. Trying to impeach a president, with a week left in his term, is never legitimate and is nothing more than a political kick on the way out the door,” said SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick in a statement Saturday.
“Congressman Rice’s vote unfortunately played right into the Democrats’ game, and the people in his district, and ultimately our State Executive Committee, wanted him to know they wholeheartedly disagree with his decision,” he added. [TPM]
A spectacularly dishonest statement by McKissick, as the size of the balance of the term in office does not legitimize any action that might not be otherwise legitimate. I suppose McKissick should draw an Earl Landgrebe Award Nomination for the absurd loyalty, and lack of intellectual integrity, he’s demonstrating in that statement.
Fellow voter for the Articles of Impeachment, and #3 in the House GOP leadership ranks, Liz Cheney (R-WY) has also drawn fire for doing the obviously right thing:
One of former President Trump’s top supporters in Congress held a rally Thursday in Wyoming to blast the state’s sole House member – Rep. Liz Cheney – the most high-profile House Republican to vote two weeks ago to impeach Trump.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, standing in front of a boisterous crowd gathered at the steps of the Wyoming state capitol, delivered a populist speech as he repeatedly slammed Cheney as a member of the Washington “establishment in both political parties have teamed up to screw our fellow Americans for generations.” [Fox News]
Yep, Pretty Boy Gaetz traveled from Florida to interfere in Wyoming politics, no doubt to win more points with his Master, former President Trump. Cheney has also been promised a primary challenge. It’s not as if Rep Cheney is a moderate Republican, either, as she ends up with a TrumpScore of 92.9%, and has a reputation as a hard line conservative Republican.
But also one from a Republican dynasty, as her father, Richard, was also a Representative, as well as holding other roles in Washington, DC, such as Vice President for eight years. Incidentally, her father’s possibly best known for shooting a hunting partner in the face with a shotgun; perhaps those who’ve been allegedly threatening other Republican House members to keep them in the Trump drum line would rather not go up against a tough old gunner like Cheney. Either one.
But that didn’t stop the Wyoming GOP from censuring Rep Cheney today:
In the motion to censure Cheney, who easily survived a House Republican Conference vote to remain in her leadership spot earlier this week, the state Republican Party also called for her to “immediately” resign. The party intends to “withhold any future political funding” from her, the motion said. It also called on her to repay donations to her 2020 campaign from the state GOP and any county Republican Parties.
The beat goes on in Arizona. The Arizona GOP voted to censure Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, as well as former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and the current governor Doug Ducey (R-AZ). In Ducey’s case:
Ducey is being targeted for his restrictions on individuals and businesses to contain the spread of COVID-19. While it’s not mentioned in the proposed censure, he had a high-profile break with the president when he signed the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory. [CBS News]
Ducey does the right thing, and his Party throws a shit fit.
Incidentally, the Arizona GOP Chairman, Dr. Kelli Ward, barely won the race for that position recently. When calls for a recount emerged, she, apparently without a sense of irony, refused to allow it to go forward.
And the the other House Republicans who voted for the Articles of Impeachment are also facing political challenges from the far right fringe, as this Newsweek article makes clear. Meanwhile, moderate Republicans continue to abandon their party because of its accelerating race to the right, as Steve Benen summarizes:
To a degree without modern precedent, the Democratic presidential ticket enjoyed considerable support from prominent Republicans in the 2020 elections. As regular readers know, former RNC chairs backed Joe Biden. So did former Republican cabinet secretaries and some Republicans who worked as members of Trump’s own team.
The list included former GOP governors, former GOP senators, former GOP House members, and several dozen Republican national security officials — from the Reagan, Bush/Quayle, and Bush/Cheney administrations — all of whom endorsed Biden.
And way more, as Benen makes clear – basically, any Republican who has held a position of responsibility is faced with the question of whether or not they want to be associated with the Republican Party any longer – and many are saying No.
I think, most inadequately on my part, that the reason I’m writing this post is that impulse to say I Told You So. Not that there’s a reason to do so, of course. But the mad race to the right that I’ve noted, and predicted would continue over the years, has resulted in state GOP Parties that are throwing their most principled members under the nearest bus, while indulging in behaviors which may bring shame down upon them. Or as Catie Edmondson pithily notes:
Republicans fighting over their party’s future face a turning point on Wednesday as House leaders confront dueling calls to punish two members: one for spreading conspiracy theories and endorsing political violence, and the other for voting to impeach former President Donald J. Trump. [The New York Times]
Much of the apparatus is in the hands of people whose notion of principle is to cling madly to Trump’s genitalia. Will the moderate Republicans win the day? I don’t think so, at least not before the 2022 elections. Why?
Former President Trump’s attempt to foment insurrection, whether he denies it or not, will result in an opening for the Democrats. For every member of Congress who failed to repudiate the riot, for every member of Congress who, in the wake of the riot, still voted to repudiate the Electoral votes of the States, for every Republican who fails to apologize for these monumental failures, the Democrats can respond to their reelection races with simply this:
Seditionist!
Trump tried every legal tactic to refute his failure at election, and failed. While his approach of spreading misinformation and doubt was reprehensible, it’s not clearly illegal.
But to foment insurrection is to set himself outside of Democracy, outside of how America conducts itself. Every single Republican who followed him in the riot’s aftermath is now also outside of Democracy. They are no longer fit for their elective offices, to hold any position of influence.
To even be considered Americans in good standing.
That’s the label the Democrats can pin on them. If it is successful, if the current speculation that the Democrats will lose seats at the midterms, as is traditional, is shown to be false, then the Republicans may suffer monumental losses which will discredit whatever passes for Republican governing offerings in 2022.
Add in stable governing, boring communications, and investigations into everyone who ran around spreading false information concerning the election, and the Republicans may face political extinction.
At least those fringe-right extremists who are currently in charge of much of the Party apparatus.
The results of the 2022 elections will depend, in large part, on how well the Democrats execute on their current governing plans right now. And if the Democrats are successful, the moderate Republicans who are currently disengaging from the Republican Party may have a chance to reassert control.
Or they may start their own Party. If the new Party were to become large enough, we might see calls for Ranked Choice Voting appearing from the right. That would be a turnaround and a signal of worry by the extremists.
Stay tuned.
