It's Civil War in the GOP
As Republicans grapple with a second impeachment, they face a widening divide
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This week, Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), Chair of the House Republican Caucus, has shown her mettle as the Speaker of a future Republican House majority by whipping votes to impeach President Donald Trump. It wasn’t overwhelmingly effective, but it was a good start. Television journalists projected that seven GOP votes would cross the aisle to support the resolution: Cheney whipped ten, which is ten more Republicans than voted to impeach the first time around. Four Republicans were present, not voting, which—under the circumstances—also took skill on Cheney’s part and courage on theirs, given that the Trump wing’s iron grip on the national party has survived both his defeat and the president’s post-election lunacy.
Photo credit: Office of Representative Liz Cheney/Wikimedia Commons
Cheney, the eldest of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s two daughters, is now being hailed by Democrats for her principles. Predictably, she is also facing bitter blowback from many congressional Republicans who, as we all know, stand for free speech and independent thought.
Rumor has it that outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not ruled out that he would vote to impeach Trump. This may have something to do with why visible fissures among Republicans are starting to appear. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who voted no on impeachment, is now backing Cheney’s play. This reveals a split between McCarthy and Trump sycophant Jim Jordan (R-OH) and the Freedom Caucus. Led by a group of former Tea Partiers (Justin Amash, Mark Meadows, and Ron DeSantis were also founding members), the Freedom Caucus may have inaugurated the Trump era in 2015 by deposing Republican John Boehner as Speaker of the House, in favor of Paul Ryan (R-WI), because they viewed Boehner as too conciliatory towards Democrats.
So the anti-establishment Freedom Caucus is now taking on the Cheneys. But they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Liz Cheney is, as William Powell said to Myrna Loy in The Thin Man (1934), “a girl with hair on her chest.” And, as Mark Sanford, a former governor of South Carolina (who was successfully primaried in 2018 because he failed to be thoroughly Trumpy) noted, there is “some degree of risk-reward” in Cheney’s stance. The Vice President’s daughter, who turned down an easy Senate seat, has her eye on the Speaker’s gavel. Given the Democrats’ razor-thin majority and poor down-ballot showing in the 2020 election, she could realize this dream as early as 2022.
And the only candidates ahead of her are McCarthy and Steve Scalise, both of whom will be thoroughly tarred, should an investigation be held into the events that led to the insurrection, by supporting Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
At least one of Cheney’s colleagues has compared her to Margaret Thatcher. Comparisons to the Iron Lady also invoke a possible future for the party in Reaganism, which Never-Trumpers and disaffected Republicans view as a route to restoration. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan actually voted for Ronald Reagan, as a write-in candidate, in 2020.
Like Thatcher, Cheney is not easily intimidated by the intellectual lightweights who have been carrying water for Trump. Drawing a contrast with colleagues who left Congress rather than oppose the president, Cheney has announced that she “isn’t going anywhere.” And she is clearly staking out her territory as the party’s moral conscience. Cheney’s support for Wednesday’s impeachment resolution was “a vote of conscience,” she said. “It's one where there are different views in our conference. But our nation is facing an unprecedented, since the Civil War, constitutional crisis."
It should also be noted that, although she is making a shrewd bet that the Republican party will decide not to blow itself up, unlike the rest of the GOP leadership, Cheney has been calling for Trump to put up or shut up since November.
Wyoming is one of four states with only a single representative, and Cheney won her third term by 44 points. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, her own Twitter account has plenty of positive energy. But Twitter is generally awash with calls for Cheney to be expelled from the party leadership, Congress, and the GOP. Cheney is being attacked as a “swamp snake” and a socialist— which would be funny if it were not so deeply crazy.
On a final note, numerous sources are citing domestic terror as the reason so few Republicans were willing to vote their conscience on Wednesday. Reporting by Politico and Vox establishes that the death threats and violent harassment, routine for Democrats on Capitol Hill, now target Republicans who either do not back Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election or do not back it with sufficient vigor. Fear that they, or their families, will be wounded or killed has driven numerous Congressional Republicans into a terrified, defensive, and obedient crouch. At least one unnamed source told a reporter for The Hill that many in the GOP are “weighing whether remaining in Congress is worth the risk.”
There is an alternative, and Liz Cheney is showing the way. As the GOP regroups, they may wish to be honest about who made serving in government so risky and expel them instead.
Honestly, I think I called it:
The day after the 2016 election, I wrote: “In order to save our own lives, we must come to terms with, and fight back against the new reality.” My analysis was based on a classic 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure. (Public Seminar, November 9, 2016)
What I’m reading:
“Queens Man Inpeached—Again.” (Queens Daily Eagle, January 13, 2021)
At Taki’s Magazine, versatile Holocaust-denier David Cole spreads anti-Soros conspiracy theories and tells Trump’s insurrectionists that they are ”fucking idiots.” Attempts to blame left-wing groups for the violence, Cole writes, only amplified a “disaster,” a “clusterfuck,” and a “shitshow.” (January 12, 2021)
Journalist Robert Kuttner advises left activists to leave the defense of state capitols this weekend to the police. (The American Prospect, January 12, 2021)
You have heard about The Turner Diaries, but what do you know about this 1978 novel that now represents a set of prophecies for white supremacists? Alexandra Alter read it, so you don’t have to. (New York Times, January 12, 2020)
Claire Bond Potter is Professor of Historical Studies at The New School for Social Research, and co-Executive Editor of Public Seminar. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020).
Civil War: I'm chilled by admissions this week that Republican Congressmen vote out of fear of violence to their families and themselves. Do you believe it?
May the GOP heed your words.