Fourth of July: Trump Demands Loyalty!
Justin Amash, the Michigan congressman who, completely against recent congressional protocol and tradition, apparently decided that turning himself into a spineless, hypocritical yes man for his party’s agenda of the moment was too high a price to pay, has gone a good distance toward fulfilling my prediction of a month ago, namely that he would seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination in 2020.
Amash has quit the Trump Party in a cutely-timed statement, citing George Washington’s “Farewell Address,” and specifically its warning about the danger of allowing national politics to devolve into a contest of party allegiances.
No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.
To which, as if to put an exclamation mark on Amash’s plea, the Dimwit-in-Chief (Surrender and Parades Division) responded (why?) with this:
Great news for the Republican Party as one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress is “quitting” the Party. No Collusion, No Obstruction! Knew he couldn’t get the nomination to run again in the Great State of Michigan. Already being challenged for his seat. A total loser!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2019
On Trump’s view, then, unsurprisingly, you are “dumb” and “a total loser” if you are “disloyal” to Trump — because after all, the whole point of the separation of powers is to make sure each branch of government supports the President with blind party loyalty.
Go ahead, Republican voters, keep telling yourselves this man isn’t dangerous. No, he is not the grand-schemer kind of dangerous. But he most certainly is the drunk-on-power-and-fame kind of dangerous. Put simply, i.e., in words his millions of followers can understand, he is the dumbest president of all time, the president most constitutionally disloyal to the spirit of the U.S. Founding (yes, I know that’s really saying something), and, frankly, a total loser.
As for what my assessment implies about the Republican Party, and in particular the congressional wing of it, which has chosen to throw even the pretense of principles to the wind, in blind fealty to this loser, I frankly don’t know any words small enough for them.
“But he loves America!” And Mao loved China.
“But Hillary!” You mean Trump’s old friend, political beneficiary, and wedding guest?
“I like a lot of what he’s done.” I doubt that. I suspect you are just getting tired of being in the minority and hated by old friends, so you are grasping for excuses to soften your criticism. But even if you are being honest with yourself, I reply with this anecdote: In my grad school days, I lived in a house owned by an old-fashioned, blue collar German immigrant, a friendly and good-natured man, who once told me, matter-of-factly, that although Hitler turned out to be crazy and destructive in the end, he did achieve some good things for Germany: infrastructure, transportation, national pride….
