Trump-backed Republicans lost some big races this year, but the leopard won’t change its spots.
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| By Michael deAdder |
Trump-backed
Republicans did indeed blow some critical races. But this hope suggests there
are reasonable Republican office-holders out there who are now ready to
liberate themselves from Trump’s orbit and re-make the GOP as a normal,
democracy-respecting party.
The
suggestion that there was an “extremist” fever that has run its course is
false.
The
reality: MAGA Republicans are the
Republican Party. Few Republican politicians who resisted Trumpism remain in
office, while Republican office-holders who supported Trump’s efforts to
overthrow American democracy remain the mainstay of the party.
Recall
that in 2020, even in the immediate aftermath of an insurrection that
threatened the murder of Vice President Pence and House Speaker Pelosi, a large majority of Republican representatives voted to
reject the results of a free and fair election.
These
democracy-defying Republicans remain the core of the party. A solid majority of the Republican representatives who
will assemble in Washington in January are the very same people who voted to
reject the 2020 election result. There is no reason to imagine they will be
more respectful of democracy in the future.
The
Republican Party long ago abandoned behaving like a normal party — one which
prizes democracy, accepts the verdict of the voters when it loses, and learns
from defeats.
Instead, the lesson drawn by the GOP has been to prevent its opponents from voting, gerrymander legislative districts to give Republicans power even when they lose, and pack the judiciary with right-wing judges who will rubber-stamp the results.
The
January 6 attack on Congress was not followed by bipartisan revulsion. Instead,
the Republican National Committee defended the assault as “legitimate political
discourse,” while Republican statehouses advanced a wave of restrictive voting laws.
In
response, Democrats proposed national legislation to protect our democracy.
The Freedom to Vote Act would have protected early
voting and voting-by-mail, made state voter ID requirements less onerous,
cracked down on voter intimidation tactics, protected voters from
discriminatory practices that made some voters (usually voters of color) wait
for hours before they could cast their ballots, protected election officials,
and prevented election sabotage.
All 50 Senate Republicans voted against even
debating the bill.
Since
his big reelection victory, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been touted as a
more palatable standard-bearer for the GOP. But DeSantis is just Trumpism
without Trump.
Under
DeSantis’s so-called Office of Election Crimes and Security, Florida minority voters faced arrest by DeSantis’s
voting police for “crimes” like helping relatives vote, giving water to voters
in long voting lines, or helping people register.
DeSantis’s
assault on voting rights aims not at voter fraud, for which he offers little
evidence. Instead, it’s an effort to make voting as burdensome as possible and
to intimidate likely Democratic voters.
A
federal judge struck down many of Florida’s anti-voting
provisions, noting the state’s “grotesque history of racial discrimination.”
But some voters were arrested anyway.
Beyond
voting rights, DeSantis has made plain that he is totally on board with the MAGA agenda that promotes white
resentment and grievance, limits free speech in schools, makes scapegoats of
gay and trans people, and attacks abortion rights.
With or without Trump, the modern GOP — with its love of guns and sympathy for violence, its contempt for free elections and hatred of a free press, and its embrace of white supremacy — remains an extremist organization that threatens American constitutional democracy.
Mitchell Zimmerman is an attorney,
longtime social activist, and author of the anti-racism thriller Mississippi
Reckoning. This op-ed was distributed by
OtherWords.org. Read Progressive Charlestown's review of Mitchell's book HERE.