The GOP is playing an incredibly dangerous game
Donald Trump and his political allies want you to think there’s some danger that they can somehow magically overturn the election. That’s not even a real thing. Trump’s hooligans want you to think there’s some danger they can somehow overthrow the government with their assault rifles. That’s not a real thing either.
But January 6th is shaping up to be incredibly dangerous – for the Republican Party. Certain far right Republicans like Ted Cruz are forcing a House and Senate vote on whether to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory. Although this vote is completely meaningless and will not delay certification beyond January 6th, the vote is essentially a death knell for the careers of certain other Republicans.
Sure, Ted Cruz scores points with far right traitors back in Texas by carrying out this laughable stunt. But what about Republicans who come from less extremist states and districts? For instance, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski just announced that she’ll vote to acknowledge Biden’s win. Again this, vote means absolutely nothing in terms of Biden taking office. But Murkowski probably just lost her seat. In fact she was going to lose it no matter how she voted.
If Murkowski were to cast a meaningless vote pretending that Trump won, it would be used against her in Alaska when she’s up for reelection in 2022, and she’d likely lose her seat to the Democrat. Instead Murkowski is planning to admit Biden won, which means she’ll face a far right primary challenger, meaning she’ll probably never make it to the general election. Either way, the odds just went up sharply that the Democrats will take her seat in two years.
Extremists like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Louie Gohmert don’t care that their January 6th stunt will cost a number of comparatively moderate Republicans their seats. Keep in mind that traitors like Cruz were originally elected to the Senate to carry out a Tea Party plot to overthrow the government anyway. So they’re all for driving out the comparatively reasonable Republicans, as long as it gives them a chance to run a psychotic Republican candidate instead, win or lose.
We’re watching the Republican Party destroy itself in real time. What’s remarkable is that even Mitch McConnell, who has long ruled the Republican Senate with an iron fist, doesn’t appear to have the power to stop his party from imploding. This January 6th vote will go down as one of the most destructive days in the history of the Republican Party – and in fact may end up being the end of the party. And this is all for no gain whatsoever, beyond some opportunistic thugs like Cruz trying to make themselves captain of a sinking Republican ship.
