100 Republicans Are Not Enough
In the midst of another secret-ballot vote that will likely remove Liz Cheney as the chair of the House Republican Conference, some members of the GOP threaten to create a third party.
Just ahead of the silent vote by Republicans today, that will determine whether to strip Representative Liz Cheney of her leadership post in the House as a result of her criticisms of former President Trump and his baseless 2020 election claims, more than 100 Republicans are now threatening to abandon the GOP permanently.
Over 100 former Republican officials intend to sign and publish a letter on Thursday declaring that if the Republican Party does not break with former President Donald Trump and the party platform he has established and change course, they will form and back a new, third party.
One of the predominant organizers of this latest protest move is Miles Taylor, a former member of the Trump administration who wrote an anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times in 2018 headlined: "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration."
“This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option,” said Miles Taylor.
Part of the protest includes a plan to release a full letter on Thursday to outline the ongoing threat that Trump continues to pose. According to two organizers, the letter "A Call For American Renewal" is an exploratory move toward forming a breakaway party. The goal is to express how many conservatives are watching in dismay as the modern Republican Party is driven off a cliff by Donald Trump.
"The Republican Party is broken…It's time for resistance of the 'rationals' against the 'radicals,'" the pre-released preamble to Thursday’s statement begins. The statement continues: "When in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice."
According to Reuters, the protest group includes former Republican Governors Tom Ridge, Christine Todd Whitman, George W. Bush-era Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and former House members Charlie Dent, Barbara Comstock, Reid Ribble, and Mickey Edwards.
There are currently no top-level government employees who have signed the statement that pledges revolt within the Republican Party. Still, one of the signatories confirmed that former officials, members of Congress, ambassadors, cabinet secretaries, and party chairs are expected to sign after the vote on Wednesday.
High-ranking Republicans in the House want to replace Cheney with Rep. Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally, as GOP Conference chair. Stefanik is seen as a rising star in the party, in large part because of her vocal support for Mr. Trump and her efforts in recruiting female Republican candidates, despite her own sexist tactics.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is unwilling to vacate her leadership spot, so the conference will be forced to vote on whether to remove her, and the vote will be anonymous, which could help Cheney’s cause. Her current position gives Cheney the third-highest position leadership rank among House Republicans, behind Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise.
The House Republican Conference is the organizational body for all the GOP members in the House of Representatives. As conference chair, Cheney is currently responsible for scheduling meetings to discuss issues and legislation within their own party. The chair's most important role is in party messaging — Conference Chair plays a huge role in coordinating media interviews with members who will get airtime and represent the caucus.
In a defiant speech on the House floor Tuesday night, Cheney said she would not "watch in silence," amid Mr. Trump's baseless claims about a stolen election. "This is not about policy, this is not about partisanship, this is about our duty as Americans," Cheney told her colleagues last night.
"Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,” said Cheney, “I will not participate in that — I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade…to undermine our democracy."
Cheney also faces an uphill battle in her upcoming primary race — of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January — nine in total now face primary challengers from within their party to unseat them from Congress next year. At least five Republicans have filed paperwork so far with the Federal Election Commission to run against Cheney for Congress in 2022.
Donald Trump continues to hint he may run for the White House again in 2024 — polls indicate he would easily recapture the Republican nomination for a rematch against US President Joe Biden, should a re-match occur.
This also looks to be the last opportunity for those within the party who have denounced Trump’s continued leadership in the GOP to take a stand for the future of the party. Whether 100 Republicans denouncing Trump will have any real effect after successfully removing a conservative staple like Liz Cheney remains to be seen. But, a solid tell for this hand appears to be those within the GOP who are distraught by the current state of things but still cagey about coming out against Trump before the Cheney vote even happens.
Finally, putting Trump down may not be as much about numbers as it is about sheer leadership skill; a few hundred tentative conservatives trying to muster up the will to speak out is nothing compared to a few women with lots of guts — the last several years has proven that.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC Radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter at @mamasreallyrule.
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On one hand, I want to praise Liz Cheney for standing up to 45 and his blindly-obedient supporters/followers, but on the other, she and others like her enabled his rise in the first place. So, my sympathy for her is limited.
That said, it's pretty scary what is happening to the Republican Party right now. While I agree with it on just about nothing, I do believe that it's important to have competing views of this country's future because that is what causes parties to evolve and adapt. Right now, the Republican Party stands for nothing except one man and his despicable lie about the last election (which just followed his despicable lies about almost everything else). That is not a good thing for the United States specifically or the world in general, given the role we play in it.
I agree, 100 Republicans are not enough. Not unless they get the marquee names like Bush, dad Cheney, Romney, and others who did not choose to drink the Trumpade. Without them and the heavy hitters of the donor class, any splinter party is going to have a tough time of it. Of course, the more upheaval all this creates in the GOP, the happier *I* am, but that's just me. ;)