It is reported that it took just 16 minutes for the Republicans in the US House of Representatives to remove Elizebeth Cheney from the ‘Conference Chair’, a status which gave her the No.3 position in the Republican Party’s leadership in the House. She was in the dock for being one of the 10 Republicans to have voted to impeach former US President Donald Trump; and for repeatedly calling him out for what is now called the ‘Big Lie’—that the 2020 election was stolen.
The Wednesday meeting of Republicans was clearly with Trump. Some of them booed Cheney. North Carolina’s Representative Madison Cawthorn tweeted: “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney”. The removal of Liz Cheney, daughter of the Gulf War hawk and former vice president Dick Cheney, is a watershed moment in American politics. It represents the complete and final control of Donald Trump over the post-election Republican Party.
For liberals the world over, it raises the frightful possibility of meeting Trump again as presidential hopeful in 2024. The only glimmer of hope is if the party’s old conservatives manage to force a split and form a new Republican Party.
Donald darling
In post-poll America, the old realty show anchor has lost some ground. An NBC poll after Joe Biden’s 100 days in office showed 44 per cent Republican voters said they are more supporters of Trump than of the party, while 50 per cent said they were more supporters of the party than of Trump.
His overall approval ratings among all sections have also slipped to just 32 per cent. But the brazen way in which Republicans swept away Liz Cheney is the clearest signal that for now Donald Trump and the Republican Party are in lockstep; and those that thought Trump would retire to playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago estate at Florida after the elections are in for a rude shock.
The grassroot Republican supporter has firmly bought the Trump rant that ‘the elections were stolen’. Trump continues to be darling of core Republicans who think it is only Trump that can speak tough and act tough; and can make America Great Again! At the grassroots, the Republican party has swung culturally to the right becoming a White Nationalist, semi-racist party, dominantly male and standing for US Supremacy.
That is why Republican senators and House representatives, even if they are against their country’s institutions being torn apart by Donald Trump, know they cannot face their local constituency in opposition to Trump. Republican senator Mitt Romney, who broke ranks and twice voted for Trump’s impeachment , was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on May 1 and called a “traitor” and a “communist”. Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader in the House and a reluctant Trump supporter earlier, has now allied himself completely with Donald Trump.
With Republicans just five seats short, he realizes Trump is his ticket to becoming House leader after the midterm elections, scheduled for 2022, when the GOP is likely to go into majority. Republican states meanwhile are moving swiftly to tamper with the election machinery to exclude those who they see as long-term opponents. Georgia has just passed a bill that makes it an offence to provide food or water to voters queued up. Tacitly it is to discourage black majority groups to support their constituents.
Conservative rebellion
Trump’s demand for loyalty to supporting his myths has triggered traditional conservatives fighting for space. More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, have signed a letter demanding the Republican party clean up or they walk out and form a third party. “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,” the preamble to the letter declares.
Many of the big names include former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and former Transportation Secretary under George W. Bush, Mary Peters. Former Trump press secretary Anthony Scaramucci and official Olivia Troye also signed the statement. Liz Cheney hopes to be one of the leaders of this ‘reformist’ group. But considering what Trumpism is about, there is little chance of internal reform.
The Grand Old Party (GOP) is moving swiftly rightwards, transforming itself into a White Nationalist Party, something in the image of the Marine Le Pen’s French semi-fascist ‘National Rally’? “Liz Cheney is the GOP of the past. We are not going back,” CNN quoted House Republican Boebert after the vote against Cheney. For Joe Biden, having succeeded in making his vaccination programme the uniting force for America, a Republican split will make the Democrats stronger. On the hand, a frenzied Republican Party under a re-energized Trump may become a difficult challenge in the future.