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The Republican Party is getting closer to the goal that former President Donald Trump has long sought: the legitimization of violence as a form of political expression.
The Republican National Committee’s rebuke of GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for investigating the January 6 insurgency’s “legitimate political debate” cemented that notion in the party’s policy orthodoxy. The move on Friday highlighted the unbridled radicalism of huge elements of one of America’s main political parties, as well as the ex-still President’s malignant, overwhelming influence, with a $122 million war fund.
The RNC’s proclamation coincided with the release of fresh footage from the Department of Justice depicting the horrifying realities of the insurgency: a Trump mob high on his electoral falsehoods beating up cops and threatening to pull politicians through the streets. But the RNC’s authoritarian tone clashed with anti-Trump sentiments elsewhere in the party, most notably from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, who called his ex-boss’s demand last year that he steal the election by rigging the Electoral College vote “un-American.”
The possibly irreversible rupture with Trump encouraged Republicans who are fed up with their party’s desecration of truth and democracy, and it came amid maybe wishful whispers among some strategists that the ex-grasp President’s on power is slipping. These might be the beginnings of a discussion over whether Trump should be the party’s nominee for a third time, in 2024.
But Trump’s dark influence is also manifesting itself among a bigger number of Republicans who despise his strongman extremism but are scared to come out against him because they believe allegiance is the only way to save their political skins. Most Republicans’ complicity has long facilitated Trump’s assaults on the rule of law, and there is no indication that they are hardening in their resistance to the ex-President.
In addition, a Republican victory in the November midterm elections might result in a House majority controlled by Trump’s minions and women, giving Trump’s extremism a fresh lease of life in the run-up to the 2024 presidential race.
