The fall of the Republican Party
Apparently, Republicans would rather cut and run than try to fix their party. So many are planning to leave the House that it’s a wonder they don’t step on each other on the way out. Ken Buck was one of the first, announcing his resignation on November 1, and he wasn’t shy about why. Buck said that if he stayed, he would have to deal with “the many Republican leaders [who] are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen.” So, instead of trying to appeal to his fellow conference members, he just wants to step out of the fray. That comes across as a bit cowardly, but he’s not alone in his cowardice. Buck predicted that others would leave, and he wasn’t wrong.
Kay Granger (R-TX), quit the day before Buck’s announcement. Granger was a leader in the charge to keep the speakership from Jim Jordan. Like Buck, she has no interest in election deniers. Neither did Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), who said: “Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken. It is hard to get anything done.” Let’s call it what it is. Washington, D.C. isn’t broken, the Republican party is, and it may be irretrievably broken. Unless and until some of the old guard Republicans stand up to the nuts, it will remain broken. The thought that someone like Vivek Ramaswamy is running for office under the Republican banner is enough to make anyone run, though Victoria Spartz (R-IN) at least had the decency to speak the truth aloud: “The Republican House is failing the American people again.” She called it a “theater full of actors in the circus” and further said that “our children will be ashamed of another worthless Congress.”
The nuts in the Republican party don’t see themselves as worthless. People like Marjorie Taylor Greene came to Congress to dismantle it, yet others are called un-American. Taking public office to try to dismantle the government is the worst-case scenario of an un-American person, and we are paying her to do so. People who vote for representatives like MTG should be ashamed, and heaven forbid that Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman” should receive enough votes to go to Washington. We need less of this type, not more. He’s running as a Libertarian, but we all know what he is. In the infamous words of Barney Fife: he’s a nut-a nut who participated in the violence perpetrated on the Capitol on January 6.
These are the people who continue to embrace four-time accused felon Donald Trump. They are the ones who show us exactly what’s wrong in this world. Consistently confronted with the truth, they continue to believe that Trump is being persecuted and is not the prolific liar that he has been portrayed to be. It’s not a portrayal, it’s the truth. The best hope we have is that last week’s election seemed to signal that people are growing weary of lies. The results of most of those elections show that people are turning away from the Republican party. Let’s hope it continues in that vein.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years