Thursday, July 4, 2019

Justin Amash declares his political independence on July 4th, leaving the G.O.P.


Last month, I reported that Justin Amash quit Freedom Caucus amidst call for impeachment.  Today, he took matters one step further by announcing that he was leaving the Republican Party in an op-ed in the Washington Post.  CBS This Morning broke the news on network television in Only Republican to accuse Trump of impeachable acts is leaving the GOP.

The only Republican in Congress to accuse President Trump of impeachable acts says he's leaving the Republican Party. In a Washington Post op-ed Rep. Justin Amash said he's becoming an independent. He said he’s leaving the GOP because "modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral."
WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids included a comment from Amash himself in its report, Rep. Justin Amash quitting Republican Party.

Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, the only Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, said Thursday he is leaving the GOP because he has become disenchanted with partisan politics and “frightened by what I see from it.”
ABC 13 in Grand Rapids covered much of the same territory then added reporting on the Republicans competing for the nomination to run against Amash and whoever the Democratic nominee will be in Amash announces departure from the GOP.

The only congressional Republican who publicly argued that President Donald Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct has announced he is quitting the GOP. Rep. Justin Amash made the announcement in an op-ed in the Washington Post Thursday morning.
Amash's Washington Post op-ed is currently the most-read page of the online version of the newspaper's Opinion section, so it's making a splash.  For those of my readers who aren't registered or subscribed to the Washington Post or don't want to use up their free articles, the Detroit Free Press has article that summarizes Amash's piece and quotes extensively from it as well as including reactions.  I recommend reading it, either in place of or in addition to Amash's own article in the Washington Post.

Note that the ABC 13 clip reports that Amash has not ruled out running for the Presidency as a Libertarian.  Because of that, I will likely analyze his ideology at both Voteview and On The Issues, as I have for the Democrats, but that will only happen after I report on the latest scores for the Democrats at On The Issues, which have changed just since last month.  Stay tuned.

6 comments:

  1. This exemplifies why I say there are no good Republicans. Given what the party has become, any Republican with a detectable level of decency would leave it -- and so he wouldn't be a Republican any more.

    Mind you, Amash is still a Republican at heart in the sense of being a coward and a denier of reality -- identifying the problem as "partisanship" rather than the Republican party specifically being batshit insane.

    I kind of hope he does run. He might pull a few votes from Trump. Certainly not many, but it might be enough to flip a close state or two. Libertarians tend to be ideological purists and not pragmatists. They might be persuaded to vote for a no-hope third candidate even if it helps Trump to lose.

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    1. I'm not convinced that he will campaign to run against Trump, although the Libertarians might draft him. That written, I'm sure he would have his people check the election laws in Michigan to see if he can run for both President and Congress on the same ballot. I'm not sure he can.

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  2. Pinku, did you know you can get around the paywall limits at the WaPo and other papers by having one browser that you clear all history from regularly? That's what I do with my Firefox browser. Every time I come to a limiting news site with a clear history, cookies gone, it's just like the first time they've ever seen me! Have another browser that you use for things where you don't want to keep re-signing in, like when one wants to post comments using their Blogger avatar.

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    1. Thanks for the tip! I've been told that, but never seem to remember it.

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  3. I'll say one good thing for Amash, who I consider to be a hyper-libertarian dickweed: he stands up for at least some of his dickweedish principles. The rest of the Republikkkan Party easily fell into becoming a KKKult of Personality centred on its narcissistic personality disordered leader. Even if his view of constitutionalism strikes me as daft, Amash is willing to call out a would-be king who goes against what the Constitution specifies.

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