Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()
Subscribe: Android | RSS | More
U.S. Representative Justin Amash, the libertarian-minded Republican who thinks President Trump should be impeached, has quit the GOP.
Amash, who represents Michigan’s 3rd District, announced his decision in a July 4 op-ed for the Washington Post that laments the “partisan death spiral” of American politics and declares his independence from partisan politics.
Amash might be well be upset about the state of American politics, a distinguishing feature of which is the smear tactics of the hard Left, but he might also be worried about something else. A poll from the Strategic National consulting outfit has the Amash losing to his leading primary opponent.
I’m Outta Here
Amash opened his goodbye letter by noting that his Palestinian refugee father’s arrival in the United States “was the greatest blessing of his life,” and observing that both of his parents were Republicans. So, too, was Amash; he believed the GOP “stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty — principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family.”
Yet Amash is now “disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.”
Quoting George Washington’s admonition about partisanship as “the people’s ‘worst enemy,’” Amash wrotre that “Americans have allowed government officials … to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law. The result has been the consolidation of political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy.”
Amash correctly wrote that the “parties value winning for its own sake, and what whatever cost,” a sentiment that explains what Americans have witnessed in the threats and promises of Democratic presidential candidates and the refusal of Democrat leaders on Capitol Hill to help the president stop the illegal-alien invasion from Central America and beyond.
Instead of acting as an independent branch of government and serving as a check on the executive branch, congressional leaders of both parties expect the House and Senate to act in obedience or opposition to the president and their colleagues on a partisan basis.
In this hyperpartisan environment, congressional leaders use every tool to compel party members to stick with the team, dangling chairmanships, committee assignments, bill sponsorships, endorsements and campaign resources. As donors recognize the growing power of party leaders, they supply these officials with ever-increasing funds, which, in turn, further tightens their grip on power.
Congress entertain “little genuine debate” on policy he wrote, and “party leaders distract and divide the public by exploiting wedge issues and waging pointless messaging wars … leading millions of people to take to social media to express contempt for their political opponents, with the media magnifying the most extreme voices.”
Modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape. …
Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.
Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. 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.
Polls Show Him Behind — Way Behind
However sincere Amash is about his disdain for partisan politics, another incentive to leave the party might be the news that he could lose his primary — and lose big — to Republican James Lower, who represents Michigan’s 70th district in the state’s House of Representatives.
Amash is 10 points behind Lower in a poll of 400 likely GOP voters in Michigan 3rd, Breitbart.com reported. Strategic National, a GOP consulting firm that uniquely and correctly predicted Donald Trump’s victory in Michigan in 2016, was behind the poll.
Lower, who “announced his candidacy as Amash revealed his support for impeaching Trump,” Bretibart noted, received the support of 27 percent of those polled. Amash’s low poll performance might be connected to his imprudent alliance with the president’s enemies, Breitbart opined.
As for Trump, he’s happy to see Amash leave the party. Tweeted The Donald:
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!
Trump’s view of Amash is undoubtedly skewed by Amash’s call for his impeachment. But regardless of what one thinks of Amash’s position on impeaching the president, Amash has proven to be a strong constitutionalist in Congress, earning an impressive 94-percent cumulative score (to date) in this magazine’s “Freedom Index.”
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash: AP Images
