The Internet is awash in hot takes about what is perniciously, existentially wrong with the Trump-era GOP and the party’s disturbing willingness to embrace the Big Lie of election fraud as its new purity test.
But what is missed almost entirely in the diagnosis of what ails the party are not the symptoms, but the root cause driving all of it: Our broken election system is empowering a small fraction of voters to wield an outsized influence in party primaries and push our leaders to the extremes.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy knows that former President Trump’s incitement of violence on Jan. 6 was an affront to our democracy. He said as much days after the attack: “The president bears responsibility for [the] attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
How Purging Liz Cheney From Leadership Will Backfire for the GOP
The conventional wisdom that the GOP can survive only by further appeasing Trump is wrong.
(Photograph by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images.)
If House GOP leaders move forward with their plan to purge Liz Cheney from leadership, they won’t solve any problems but will instead create even bigger ones for themselves, former President Trump, and the entire GOP.
The drawn-out and ham-fisted public campaign to humiliate Cheney for the crime of refuting Trump’s lies has gratuitously insulted not just Cheney, but, by extension, millions of Americans who are permanently unsettled by the events of January 6. The message to conscientious objectors uncomfortably hanging around the GOP is this: You’re not welcome, get out. Even Peggy Noonan is calling the move “cowardly.” She writes, “It will make the party look stupid and weak, as if it can’t tolerate dissent.” Is President Reagan’s premier speechwriter no longer
Liz Cheney, who was the No. 3 Republican in the House, has repeatedly bashed Trump for spreading the lie that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
She said Mr. Trump, who refused to accept the election outcome and the rejection of his ballot fraud claims by more than 60 courts, was undermining democracy and the Constitution.
“Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution,” said Ms. Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a rising star in the GOP until she crossed Mr. Trump.
“Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar,” she said.
Former president posted to his site, From the desk of Donald Trump, Tuesday
Sharing his thoughts on voting laws, he said all States should pass Voter ID laws
That would mean the US would never again have an election rigged, he added
Trump pointed to the UK s example to ensure the integrity of elections
Republicans mounted an aggressive case Tuesday against Democrats’ election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back a number of proposals
Republicans are fighting a national campaign against it rooted in state battles
In the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been forced to defend his plans which will require voters to prove their identity before casting ballots