Back in 2016, there were a lot of folks (including many friends) who left the Republican Party over the nomination of Donald Trump. “This isn’t the party I joined!” was the cry of most of those folks, and to be fair, the party was changing in many ways, not all of which were desirable changes.
For completely unrelated reasons, I was already not a member of the Republican Party, but I decided to stay largely aligned with it because they are still the party that best represents the conservative values I hold. Several of their elected officials I agree with, like, and hold in high regard.
These include Ben Sasse (Senator, Nebraska), Ron DeSantis (Governor, Florida), Brian Kemp (Governor, Georgia), Mike Lee (Senator, Utah), Dan Crenshaw (Representative, Texas), and a few on the local level for me (State Representative Julie Emerson and, School Board Member Justin Centanni, and BESE member Holly Boffy are three I absolutely adore).
But, as the Great Election Conspiracy has dragged on, I feel about Donald Trump and his supporters now like I felt about Hillary Clinton and her supporters four years ago. At some point, you have to let it go, realize you/your candidate sucked, and move on to the next issue.
And before any Democrats jump on this paragraph and scream “WELL HILLARY DIDN’T FILE ONE HUNDRED DIFFERENT LAWSUITS!”, you’re absolutely right but the Democrats proceeded to launch a federal investigation into the Trump campaign and Trump associates that not only led nowhere, there is actually now a decent body of evidence the basis of that investigation was itself Russian disinformation, so… yeah, y’all are just as bad.
Anyway, there is no further evidence that Trump’s people have lost the plot than yesterday’s hearing in Michigan.
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Keep in mind, this isn’t in a courtroom. This is a legislative hearing. Why? Because (as mentioned in the first tweet), a judge already ruled this woman wasn’t a credible witness. This is an absolute clownshow from Giuliani, who appears to realize too late this woman is insane. Then again, he was once aligned with Sidney Powell, and she’s so far gone it would take a few columns to even review.
This hearing isn’t the only awful thing. When pro-Trump lawyers show up to court, they are making the most basic mistakes the whole way through. They are filing incomprehensible lawsuits, publicly declaring one thing and in court saying “Well, that’s not actually what we’re arguing,” and making just basic mistakes that no seasoned/respectable lawyer would ever make.
All of this makes it very hard to say “Yeah, I’m gonna stick with this party.” When the party’s leadership is in on board with the conspiracy theory, and several of its elected officials are publicly on board with it, you have a problem.
And it is not like I can say “Well, I guess I’m a Democrat now,” because I fundamentally cannot vote for a federal Democrat (or a statewide one like John Bel Edwards here in Louisiana), and the Democrats have made it pretty clear that certain views and beliefs (of which I have many) aren’t welcome.
A bunch of notable Republicans like “The Lincoln Project” decided that was the way to go, but they largely just made money for themselves in a time when they couldn’t get hired by Republicans. Others declared they would vote for Joe Biden as though there was any way to justify being a conservative and voting for someone who is likely going to push a lot of anti-conservtive policies and agendas. I can’t violate my own beliefs by switching sides like that, so that’s out.
You’ll probably find me voting for Republicans a lot more often than Democrats, but at this point, I can’t find myself truly aligning with them for the foreseeable future. They have hitched themselves to Trump and Trumpism in a way that is unhealthy, and this is despite the fact that there is substantial evidence that Republicans made gains in 2020 despite Trump, not because of him.
I will give the party some credit and argue that they really can’t “drop” him until he’s out of office, but going out with full-throated defenses of the conspiracy theories and the like is not something I find really defensible. It should be beneath a major party, but for four years now, both have been complicit in this behavior.
Can’t really take the Libertarian Party seriously when they don’t take themselves seriously. None of the other center-right parties are really able to make the kind of headway the libertarians do. So, it’s pretty obvious there is no party for me and people who are in the same position I’m in.
For some reason, the Lee Marvin song “Wandering Star” comes to mind. The answer to the question “Where do I go from here?” is that there is no answer.