Groupthink, obedience, loyalty, and propaganda are the lifeblood of every successful cult trying to indoctrinate, retain, and strengthen its members. That’s why it was such a rare and strange sight to see Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly break with the Republican National Committee and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over the censure of Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
Don’t be fooled by this public theater. McConnell is desperately trying to put lipstick on a wild, savage pig before a contentious and pivotal 2022 midterm election. He realizes the aforementioned livestock he’s nurtured has transformed into a radicalized and weaponized death herd willing to violently tear down our democratic institutions.
Republican National Committee Chairperson Ronna McDaniel reflected the grievance of a wounded cult member when she said, “Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line” by choosing to join “a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in a legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with the violence at the Capitol.” Sen. Mitt Romney—McDaniel’s uncle— apparently “exchanged texts” with his niece over the RNC’s “inappropriate message,” but, alas, he was unpersuasive.
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Maybe he should engage in “legitimate political discourse” by arming himself with a variety of weapons like the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent riot that led to the deaths of five people, including a cop. They intended to engage in “discourse” with stun guns, bats, flagpoles, rope, and pepper spray. Many of these “ordinary citizens” were actively hunting for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence—who is now seen as a “traitor” for deciding to opt out of Trump’s coup and instead reflect the will of the American people and their voters.
Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju about the RNC’s controversial statement last week, McConnell replied that Jan. 6 “was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next.”
But it would be a grave mistake to assume that McConnell and other Republicans—such as Sens. Romney and John Thune, who support his sentiment—are “moderate Republicans,” an oxymoron that should have been retired in 2016. They are walking dinosaurs soon to be replaced by the true base of the GOP, which increasingly believes in the Big Lie, entertains the “Deep State” conspiracy theory, and wants to model itself after Hungary’s authoritarian, ethnoreligious nationalism.
If anything, their distancing is perhaps motivated by self-interest with an increasing realization that the Department of Justice and the House Select Committee are ramping up their investigations, which might implicate many of their colleagues and place them in serious legal jeopardy. At any rate, their words are hollow when compared to their actions, which are in full support of the GOP’s radical agenda against voting rights, climate change, income inequality, gun control, police reform, and any meaningful attempt at addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Recall that McConnell similarly had harsh words for Trump after the failed coup attempt, but he still voted against impeaching him. In 2021, McConnell warned of a “death spiral” for democracy, yet he has done almost nothing to rein in the extremists of his own party. His legacy will be defined by being an obstructionist who made the Senate into a legislative graveyard and surgically packed the courts with right-wing hacks—most notably the Supreme Court, which just oversaw a 5-4 decision that will suppress Black voters in Alabama.
Another top Republican who is doing his part to accelerate the death spiral of U.S. democracy is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who rather than answer questions about the RNC’s “legitimate political discourse” madness, ran from reporters like he was practicing for an upcoming track and field competition.
Much like McConnell, McCarthy initially blamed Trump, publicly saying, “the president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” A year later, after realizing his base was fully radicalized by the Big Lie, he did a 180 and said, “I was the first person to contact him when the riots were going on,” adding that Trump promised to “put something out to make sure to stop this. And that’s what he did; he put a video out later.”
When asked if he supported the RNC’s resolution, McCarthy declined to respond. However, he defended the use of “legitimate political discourse,” and did a remarkable Jedi mind trick by suggesting the RNC was actually referring to subpoenas sent to RNC officials who were allegedly part of Trump’s false electors scheme. Nobody believed him. Nonetheless, House Republicans did emerge from a closed-door meeting agreeing that Rep. Cheney, who voted with Trump 93 percent of the time and used to be the third highest-ranking Republican, should not be re-elected.
Both Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger were targeted by the RNC for simply putting loyalty to the country and national security above the GOP’s interests. Their punishment is permanent exile. They were not guilty of antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, allegations of sex-trafficking, or palling around with white nationalists. Those are the acceptable sins, respectively, of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebart, Matt Gaetz, and Paul Gosar. None of them have been publicly condemned by the RNC for their vile behavior nor reprimanded by the party’s leadership.
Instead, the RNC has decided to focus explicitly on Cheney and Kinzinger, because they were the only two Republicans who chose to sit on the House Select Committee. As a result, Rep. Kinzinger has announced he’s no longer running for re-election. In November, Wyoming Republicans voted to stop recognizing Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP. (Her last name… is freaking Cheney.)
For his brief dalliance with democracy, Pence now also stands condemned and joins Kinzinger and Cheney in the small cast of villains and traitors to the right-wing cause.
Despite spending four years utterly debasing himself and prostituting his dignity and ethics in servitude of Trump, Pence was recently thrown under the bus by none other than former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who still nurtures hopes of becoming president one day. Pence’s crime? He said Trump was “wrong” to claim that the vice president could have overturned the results of the 2020 election. Haley jumped on Fox News to praise Pence as a “good man” and an “honest man,” but nonetheless revealed her true loyalties when she admitted, “But I will always say, I just, I’m not a fan of Republicans going against Republicans.”
Ironically, Haley did just that against Trump last year when she said, “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him.” Now? Haley says, “We need him in the Republican Party. I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump.”
Haley, perhaps unintentionally, revealed a painful and sad truth about the modern GOP that many within powerful institutions, especially the media, are still unwilling to hear. It is no longer a normal political party with sober adults who are able and willing to form guardrails that protect democracy. The movement is so beholden to its radicalized base that it must abandon its own legacy star, Liz Cheney, simply for refusing the Big Lie.
Where are the moderate Republicans and why can’t they condemn this violent extremism? They’re too busy applying lipstick to a pig, but sadly they can’t hide the true face of this ravenous herd coming for our democracy.
