“If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”
Matt Gaetz
Trump still has the power to shape the GOP. So does Matt Gaetz. It's a one-two punch.
The GOP House looked at a fork in the road and swerved right.
Readers who are not on the GOP list of donors and rally attendees are missing an important factor in American politics. I am on the lists. Donald Trump thinks I am a supporter, and therefore a "Patriot" and a "Friend." Trump is relentless in enforcing loyalty within the GOP. He is communicating to me by e-mail, by TV, by rallies, by conservative media, and by social media. His supporters re-distribute and amplify his message.
Matt Gaetz and a few of his Freedom Caucus allies also enforce loyalty within the GOP. They have policy goals: Cut spending including Social Security and Medicare, and shut down the government if necessary to get that outcome. Impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Find goods on Joe Biden and then impeach him, too.
Gaetz pushes right on policies. Trump pushes orthodoxy on personal loyalty. To be a Republican in good standing one needs to have been loyal to Trump in supporting his effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump's power to punish heretical Republicans doesn't "just happen." He is vigilant. He is relentless. Nuanced or qualified support isn't enough. I got 11 separate emails from Trump in the past 24 hours. The subject lines show the target is within the GOP.
"While the RINOs play right into Crooked Joe's hands, you and I will. . . .
"The RINOs were just dealt their greatest failure of all. Patriot. . . ."
"Not a PEEP out of them. They're nothing but wolves in sheep's clothing, Friend. . .
"Who knows what desperate, closed-door deal the RINOs will. . . .
Officeholders have reason to be afraid of opposing Trump. Everyone saw what happened to Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker and to U.S. Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
There are limits to Trump's power to advance a career. Trump was 100% in favor of Jim Jordan this week, but that didn't overcome the Appropriation Committee Members with an agenda to build. They knew Jordan was a destroyer. Nor did Trump persuade moderates who got elected in purple Districts who knew Jordan would tank their re-elections. Trump's power to oppose is more evident. He stopped Tom Emmer's bid to be Speaker. Emmer had voted to confirm the electoral votes for Biden. Trump called him a "globalist RINO." Trump phoned Representatives. He posted on Truth Social. Trump bragged, "He's done. It's over. I killed him." And he had.
With Trump blessing, and Gaetz's, yesterday the House GOP elected a Speaker, Mike Johnson, a friendly-looking and very conservative Louisiana representative. He is little-known but affable, and therefore had no entrenched enemies. Prior holdout votes from Republicans representing purple Districts like Oregon's 5th were in a hard spot. Either continue the immediate story of GOP dysfunction or be part of a GOP that will be undeniably far-right extreme. They chose to go along with Johnson and delay the pain.
Johnson helped organize the GOP House's effort to stop certification of Biden's election -- the Trump litmus test. He is on board with the Gaetz agenda on government spending, plus he opposes aid to Ukraine and he supports a federal ban on abortion -- the new orthodoxy for the GOP.
There was an alternative available the GOP. Eight moderate GOP members might have allied with the Democrats and then picked a moderate Republican "Problem Solver" to be the Speaker. There probably is a majority of "normal" Republicans, quietly hiding in the House. Their sentiments appeared in the secret ballots on proposed Speakers Jordan and Scalise. Half the members said "no" in the secret ballot but then switched to "yes" in public. They are more afraid of being accused of being a RINO than in suffering the criticism of a Party that advocates cutting Social Security and Medicare, or letting Russia swallow Ukraine.
There is still a broad center in American politics. Under the leadership of Trump and Gaetz, the GOP has drifted far, far outside of it. They made their choice.
The GOP is a lost cause. They have allowed a fringe nutzo segment of their own gerrymandered majority to ascend to power, essentially providing an opportunity to stall legislative effort that a vast majority of the nation supports. Like keeping the federal government functioning.
We can not continue to be governed by the worst among us. I hope that November 2024 shows the GOP the error of their ways and shocks the more moderate voices among the party to rethink their fealty to the crazies. At least if we want the "United" of the states to survive.
Now is the time for all Good Americans (especially those in the Republican Party) to do what all Good Germans did not do almost a century ago.