Republicans working hard to be right wing creepy

Echo opinion letter published in The Columbian newspaper.

Ever since Ronald Reagan declared that “government is the problem,” the Republican Party has been hard at work to make it so. The attempted insurrectionist coup on January 6, 2021, and the fiasco in the House of Representatives trying to elect an extremist right wing speaker are two glaring illustrations about the Republicans' determination to undermine and, eventually, destroy democracy.

The conspiracy theories and accusations that Democrats are “the enemy” and not so subtle urging to their right wing fringiest members to take action inserts a whole new level of creepy to their cause. They embrace white supremacists, nationalists and anarchists as tools to wield against the government and blatantly idolize dictators the likes of Hitler, Putin, Erdogan and Pinochet. It appears the goal is to become exactly that.

The incoming legislators — if they can ever agree on a leader — have only one agenda: to investigate the Biden family, the January 6 committee members and anyone else they can scapegoat while doing nothing to improve the lives of Americans. 

Plans to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, public schools and all social safety nets are the next extremist targets.

The Republican Party may not be dead yet, but it certainly seems to be breathing its last breaths.

By Sandra Edmonson, Vancouver

MAGA Trumplicans: Three points "Trumpziism 101" Trumpism

An echo opinion about the dangers of supporting right wing extremist MAGA candidates, written by Jennifer Rubin, published in The Washington Post: 

As the noxious dust settles from the August 2022, GOP primaries, some big storylines are coming into view: The "Trumposity Trumpist Trumplicans" are ascendant, and in their hands, the threat of Trumpziism will far outlast (orange man!) Donald Trump himself.

The Trumpists #Trumplicans in question are the right wing extremist Republicans that won nominations for positions such as governor and secretary of state in critical swing states. 

This is the alarming truth: Many of them deny the legitimacy of President Biden’s 2020 victory, even as they are seeking positions of control over the certification of future presidential elections.

Nevertheless, the reality of the threat this poses keeps getting lost in euphemisms. There’s an unwillingness in the media to state the true nature of their project in plain, blunt, clear terms.

These "Republican-Trumplicans" include the following:

In Arizona, Kari Lake, who’s closing in on the gubernatorial nomination, has said she wouldn’t have certified Biden’s 2020 victory in the state. Mark Finchem, the nominee for secretary of state, was involved in Trump’s fake-electors scheme and has pushed for the state legislature to have the authority to reject election outcomes.

In Nevada, secretary of state nominee Jim Marchant participated in the fake-electors scheme and has said he wouldn’t have certified Biden’s victory.

In Pennsylvania, gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano is a full-blown insurrectionist who helped lead Trump’s effort to overturn his loss and endorsed the appointment of presidential electors regardless of the popular vote, based on lies about fraud.

In Michigan, gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon has flatly declared Trump won the state, though she has sometimes moderated that position. Kristina Karamo, the GOP candidate for secretary of state, has spread all kinds of lies suggesting Trump won the state in 2020.

Here are three reasons to fear these candidates that should help clarify the real nature of the threat.

1. They run on a promise to nullify future election losses.

These candidates are often described with mealy-mouthed language, such as “election denier” or even “election skeptic.” The implication is that they genuinely believe Trump won, or harbor sincere suspicions about our elections and can’t accept “reality,” as if they’re hostage to delusions about some mythic event rapidly receding into the past.  But, that soft rendering won’t do.  Let’s be clearer: They are essentially running on an implicit vow that, as long as they are in power, no Democratic presidential candidate will ever win their state again. No Democratic victory in their state will ever again be treated as legitimate.

Can it be conclusively proved that this is their intention? Perhaps not, but many are running on the explicit claim that they would not have certified Biden’s win, or that the certification process could legitimately disregard the popular vote, based on fictions about the voting.

Given that they are simultaneously running for positions of control over that same process, their meaning is plain: They would use that control to ensure that Democratic victories aren’t binding and are subject to nullification.

Former GOP operative Tim Miller recently suggested some GOP candidates pledge “fealty to Trump’s delusions” without believing them. That’s undoubtedly true. But it’s also a reason to be clearer that their implicit promise is to nullify future losses. If these candidates are willing to nourish those delusions, why wouldn’t they act on those delusions next time? They’re telling us they will.

2. Trump’s grip on the GOP might be slipping, but that’s beside the point.  "Trump’s grip on the GOP is slipping”- but this discourse misses the point entirely. Trump the man can lose altitude, but the forces he unleashed have overtaken the whole party. Trump can go away, but a GOP full of cranks and conspiracists will be his enduring legacy.  (Tweeted by Sarah Longwell, who runs focus groups of Republican voters).

These GOP primary outcomes illuminate the true nature of this development. Loyalty to the “big lie” isn’t some eccentric obsession that these candidates inexplicably won’t relinquish. Nor is it merely a cynical trick designed to gin up turnout among angry Trump voters. Instead, it seems to be morphing into a clear, forward-looking political project.  One way to understand this is with writer John Ganz’s formulation: Like other political myths, the myth of the stolen 2020,election is a statement of intent to act. Here, the intended future act would be to refuse to acknowledge future Democratic victories as legitimate. We don’t know whether this will happen, but these candidates are declaring this intent, and it has taken on a life of its own.

Republicans are the stupid party

3.  The promise of future election sabotage is linked to the abortion wars. When the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, it claimed to be returning abortion to democratic control in states. But as Adam Serwer argues, conservatives who gerrymander state governments and suppress votes are simultaneously working to constrain democracy from allowing the majority pro-choice position to prevail, revealing the hollowness of that claim.  

Something similar can be discerned in these gubernatorial candidates.  Notably, they have far-outside-the-mainstream positions on abortion. Mastriano and Dixon favor a ban with no exceptions. Mastriano is a Christian nationalist who believes God wants him elected governor to serve as an instrument of God’s will. Lake saw the demise of Roe as a providential sign of God’s will that women are “meant to be” mothers.

In a forthcoming essay, political theorist Matt McManus argues that politicians who take their cues in this fashion from a transcendent order sometimes treat that order as the only necessary source of their rule’s “legitimacy.” That leads to authoritarianism.

If you believe such things, it’s a short step to telling yourself that subverting elections is not only justified, but also affirmatively good. You can’t disentangle such positions on abortion from these candidates’ declaration that democratic outcomes should be nonbinding when the “wrong” side loses.

GOP Governor Christie and Democrat Governor Elect McAuliffe Deliver Blow to Right Wing Tea Party

"...the (election) night's big winner, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the night's big loser, Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli..."
Pundits are calling Governor Christie's gubernatorial win in "blue state" New Jersey a victory for control of the Republican Party.  In fact, the decisive Christie victory is a rebuke of right wing extremism as well as an endorsement for his brilliant response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. Even 32 percent of New Jersey's Democratic voters supported Christie's re-election.

After the election victory hoopla settles down, I suspect a realistic analysis will show how Christie's landslide was a firm rebuke of right wing extremism. In fact, Governor Christie wisely opted not to campaign with Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Cuccinelli, thereby pushing back on right wing pressure to back an extremist candidate.

Americans must dunk the extremist right wing Tea-Party!

Likewise, while Republican Ken Cuccinelli came close to upsetting Terry McAulliffe in Virginia's gubernatorial election, the Tea-Party was unable to garner enough support to defeat the Democratic candidate, McAuliffe. I suspect Cuccinelli didn't appeal to women voters for several reasons, led by his snake-oil association with a dubious political gifting scandal implicating the current GOP Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife. 

Of course, Cuccinelli supporters are claiming the close margin of defeat (45 percent for Cuccinelli at 48 percent for McAuliffe) was due to the public's disapproval for the health care reform known as Obamacare. It's difficult to believe the Virginia voters would choose their new governor based upon one issue alone, especially when it's a federal health care law. Undoubtedly, the Tea-Party is obsessed with the Obamacare law and would rather blame something outside of their own right wing extremism for their candidate's defeat. In fact, McAuliffe's election victory is a "W" for Democrats and another Tea-Party dunking.

Less reported is the result of the Alabama run off election to fill an open Republican Congressional seat. In this election, the Tea-Party was dunked by establishment Republicans. Bradley Burns defeated Tea-Party supported Dean Young. The runoff was the first of what is likely to be many battles to come over the direction of the GOP, and it proved, to the relief of many in the Republican leadership, that a strong showing by the establishment can win tough races. But it also underscored just how difficult and costly such victories may be going forward. “If you’re in the minority, as we (Republicans) are in Washington, you’ve got to be unified or you can accomplish nothing,” Mr. Byrne said in a brief interview after his victory speech. Yet, in an ominous sign of the entrenched right wing position, the defeated Young said he would not vote for Byrne in the general election.  It's a sign of how difficult GOP unity may be, when Mr. Young, a conservative businessman who unsuccessfully ran for this same seat last year, said again at his election night gathering that he would not vote for Mr. Byrne in the general election, and would not even call him to concede defeat.

Completely under reported was the New York Mayoral win by Democratic Bill DiBlasio. He'll be the first Democrat in two decades to serve as the mayor of New York City, defeating Republican Joe Lhota, a longtime adviser to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for the job.  Having seen DiBlasio's interview on Up Late with Alec Baldwin, I'm pleased to see such a liberal candidate win so decisively. I suspect Mr. Baldwin's "Up Late" show won't be branded as "boring" (as in the Los Angeles Times) when he opened his programing with such a harbinger of change in New York City politics.  

In all the above races, the Tea-Party was dunked and, in the New York City race, the liberals made a return to mainstream politics.  

Therefore, the outcomes of Tuesday's election results analyze as a resounding defeat for extremism and the potential resurrection of liberalism.

Evidence of How the Right Wing Governs - Extremism Causes Extreme Responses

North Carolina's Governor Pat McCrory is ignoring his responsibility to lead all of his state constituents.  

McCrory's right wing agenda is only favoring those constituents who voted for him. Meanwhile, he's creating turmoil with minority populations and progressives in his state.  

Unfortunately, Governor McCrory isn't the only governor misusing his power.  Maine's Governor Paul LePage is trying similar uncompromising political tactics, but his damaging momentum stopped when his party lost both houses of the state's legislature to Democrats, half way though his first term. 

Although Governor McCrory still has a right wing legislature to back up his extremist policies, he'd do well to take a look at what happened in Maine, where the governor is, now, nearly powerless.

Republicans controlling the legislative branch of North Carolina's government, for the first time in more than a century, have forced through a wide range of conservative change.  Just this week, McCrory signed into law strict voter identification requirements, prohibiting same-day registration and cutting early voting. Requiring onerous proof of North Carolina citizenship is among many initiatives that are simply rubber stamped by the governor's legislature, without regard to how passing these and other laws impact on all constituents.

There's a tired cliche about how people who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Well, it seems North Carolina Republicans don't "get" how to govern, so they're eventually doomed to failure. Rather than become benevolent leaders, after sweeping into the executive and legislative branch of state government, they're acting, instead, like the Morisi government in Egypt. Sure, Morisi won the most recent Egyptian election, but he sure didn't make many political friends. Likewise, North Carolina's Governor McCrory received a rare political gift in having his right wing agenda rubber stamped after his election. But winning elections is also about governing. McCrory won't sustain the long term goals of Republican leadership in the wake of the turmoil he's causing as a result of ignoring the constituents who are fed up with his leadership. 

As a matter of fact, if it weren't for American Flags portrayed in the New York Times picture (below), showing North Carolinians in Raleigh, protesting Governor McCrory's policies, the picture could be mistaken for rebellions in Cairo, Egypt.  

McCrory's opponents are creating a North Carolina Spring. They are taking to the streets and risking jail time to oppose the Governor's right wing public policy initiatives.

What can Americans learn from Governor McCrory's tumultuous Republican leadership?  It's evident from the New York Times photograph.  Right wing leadership eventually leads to rebellion.

Right wing political leaders, like Governor McCrory, Governor Paul LePage, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and their extremist colleagues, just can't govern.  These right wing politicians lead their right wing extremists, but they don't govern.

In the sad event that more right wing extremists are elected to state or federal government, the responses to this extremism will eventually generate more turmoil.  

In Maine, the state's voters finally woke up, half way through Governor LePage's term, so the state hasn't seen many street demonstrations.  North Carolinians, who oppose Governor McCrory, on the other hand, are taking to the streets, like the citizens protesting in Egypt. 

Americans who are enlightened and progressive will hearken whenever the late President John F Kennedy's inaugural quote is broadcast: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

Right wing Republicans who are entrusted with political power should learn from history.  Extremism of any sort just doesn't work. In fact, political extremism leads to extreme opposition.  

On the other hand, those who rise to the inspiring message by President Kennedy will build successful coalitions and garner confidence in their competence to govern. 

A non-partisan leadership oath, taken after elections, could even be built into the swearing in ceremonies.  

"I pledge to ask what I can do to help all of my constituents," is a nice phrase to consider adding to public swearing in pledges.

Meanwhile, right wing extremism is severely polarizing government and this is absolutely and definitely no way to govern.