Jennifer Rubin Makes it Plain

Some Republicans can atone for their betrayal of U.S. democracy

by Jennifer Rubin

The Washington Post

February 16, 2024 

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) announced on Saturday that he would not run for reelection — just days after voting against the meritless impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Though some pundits praised Gallagher as the sort of Republican the country needs, he has a long record of appeasing four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump. He endorsed Trump in 2020, even after Trump ridiculed late Arizona senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), whom Gallagher apparently held in high regard. He voted against both Trump impeachments and against an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection (though he did say he would not support Trump in 2024). Gallagher was not one to denounce Trump’s rabid racism, his association with antisemites or his denunciation of the justice system. Worse, he joined in Trump’s attacks against the FBI. He declined to vote to hold Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon in contempt of Congress. He fanned the flames of the baseless assailing of critical race theory. For his weak-kneed approach, he earned a C-minus grade from the Republican Accountability Project. That this guy should be lauded as a profile in courage says much about the state of the MAGA-intoxicated Republican Party. Gallagher was, as I have described, among those who chose to accommodate evil rather than resist it. After a brief show of independence with his Mayorkas vote, he has joined a stampede of departing House Republicans — many outside the core MAGA group — including Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Michael C. Burgess (Tex.), Larry Bucshon (Ind.), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), John Curtis (Utah), Greg Pence (Ind.), Patrick T. McHenry (N.C.), Kay Granger (Tex.) and Kelly Armstrong (N.D.). Well, now that most of these Republicans have nothing to fear from a primary challenge, why not show some spine? They could, for example, join Gallagher and refuse to support Trump. Furthermore, they could vote to discharge any Ukraine aid bill to get it to the floor, defend judges and law enforcement from baseless MAGA attacks, and repudiate Trump’s betrayal of NATO and his unconstitutional vow to use the military to suppress dissent. Freed from the bounds of party loyalty — which never stopped former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney from putting country over party — they could belatedly join Cheney’s anti-Trump crusade to protect the United States from a fascist onslaught. That might not erase their original sin in refusing to impeach Trump and ignoring his anti-democratic actions as president, but it would be a step in the right direction. Yet I sense that is a bridge too far for most of them. I hope I am wrong. I will be watching to see whether Gallagher and others find their decency and pro-democracy bona fides. It is not too late to do the right thing.