At last: 100+ traditional Republicans threaten to form third party

[Thomas Veil]

More than 100 Republican former officials to seek reforms, threaten new party

More than 100 Republican former officials to seek reforms, threaten new party

The group will call for the GOP to "either reimagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation of such an alternative."

www.nbcnews.com

The move was first reported by Reuters, which cited some of the people involved: former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security; former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters; and former GOP Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma. Evan McMullin, a former CIA agent who ran for president as an independent in 2016, is also involved.

Those are some moderately big hitters in the traditional GOP field. Add to them, potentially, support from people like George Will, Steve Schmidt, Ben Sasse and others, and you may have a revolt on your hands—a good one, not the Jan. 6 kind.

I really, really hope this comes to pass. No one’s under the delusion that at first they will act as anything but spoilers, but at least that’s a start. And they will be giving genuine Republicans someone to vote for.

I also have no delusions that any of the reforms they will ask for will be taken up by the GQP.

 

[Alli]

The GOP keeps the name and is headed by Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger. The QNP (Q New Party) takes all the losers who still feel the former guy is the rightful king. They eat their own.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The GOP keeps the name and is headed by Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger. The QNP (Q New Party) takes all the losers who still feel the former guy is the rightful king. They eat their own.

And may they suffer serious indigestion as a consequence.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I’m watching the 5:00 hour of MSNBC and it’s frightening. Nicole Wallace and her guests, including at least one Republican, sound bewildered by the ever-heightening level of hate and propaganda in the GOP, including:

• Marjorie Taylor Greene’s screaming fit at AOC
• The January 6 insurrection was like a “normal tourist day”
• Biden wanting to reach out to the GOP, and Kevin McCarthy tweeting about just having met with “Corrupt Joe Biden”, rambling about socialism, communism, etc.
• Tucker Carlson telling his viewers astonishing crap like the left wants the Colonial Pipeline shut down because it’s our dream come true.

It’s hard to convey in print how totally unhinged it sounds like the right is becoming. I think they’re either having a collective psychotic break or they’re trying to stir up a civil war, or both.

I’m now convinced. A third party is coming. Too many Republicans are frightened by their party and saying it is out of control. The same ones don’t want to belong to this elephantine insane asylum anymore.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1392579732928032777/​

 

[lizkat]

I’m watching the 5:00 hour of MSNBC and it’s frightening. Nicole Wallace and her guests, including at least one Republican, sound bewildered by the ever-heightening level of hate and propaganda in the GOP, including:

• :Marjorie Taylor Greene’s screaming fit at AOC
• The January 6 insurrection was like a “normal tourist day”
• Biden wanting to reach out to the GOP, and Kevin McCarthy tweeting about just having met with “Corrupt Joe Biden”, rambling about socialism, communism, etc.
• Tucker Carlson telling his viewers astonishing crap like the left wants the Colonial Pipeline shut down because it’s our dream come true.

It’s hard to convey in print how totally unhinged it sounds like the right is becoming. I think they’re either having a collective psychotic break or they’re trying to stir up a civil war, or both.

I’m now convinced. A third party is coming. Too many Republicans are frightened by their party and saying it is out of control. The same ones don’t want to belong to this elephantine insane asylum anymore.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1392579732928032777/​

"Corrupt Joe Biden" ??? Someone please show Kevin McCarthy how to tune into CNBC sometime and then show him the piece about the shell corporations set up by a former Trump tax lawyer. I mean it's a pretty neat trick to be able to rack up less than $40k annually out of a deli and yet the shell company that owns it (and only it) is valued at a hundred million bucks over the counter stock market.

$100 million New Jersey deli: Ex-Trump tax lawyer owned shell company created by mystery investors

A mystery New Jersey deli company has investors who created a shell company later bought by a former tax lawyer for Donald Trump.

www.cnbc.com

Not saying it's crooked or anything,

Jes' sayin' McCarthy is an idiot to keep thinking he can call Biden names and paper over the slime pit that the GOP stepped into by supporting Trump.

 

[SuperMatt]

"Corrupt Joe Biden" ??? Someone please show Kevin McCarthy how to tune into CNBC sometime and then show him the piece about the shell corporations set up by a former Trump tax lawyer. I mean it's a pretty neat trick to be able to rack up less than $40k annually out of a deli and yet the shell company that owns it (and only it) is valued at a hundred million bucks over the counter stock market.

$100 million New Jersey deli: Ex-Trump tax lawyer owned shell company created by mystery investors

A mystery New Jersey deli company has investors who created a shell company later bought by a former tax lawyer for Donald Trump.

www.cnbc.com

Not saying it's crooked or anything,

Jes' sayin' McCarthy is an idiot to keep thinking he can call Biden names and paper over the slime pit that the GOP stepped into by supporting Trump.

Statements like this show McCarthy has no desire to work on any legislation. Read Manchin the riot act, end the filibuster, and pass the agenda we voted for when we voted Democrat.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Corrupt Joe Biden?

Good grief.

They are pure poison, deranged, delusional, insanely entitled, monstrously corrupt and morally rotten.

Yesterday, I attended a talk (an online talk) hosted by a think tank I am a member of, given by Lawrence Summers, who argued that Mr Biden's first 100 days will easily rank (in historical terms) with those of FDR, or the transformational tenure of Lyndon B Johnson.

And I agree.

 

[Huntn]

More than 100 Republican former officials to seek reforms, threaten new party

More than 100 Republican former officials to seek reforms, threaten new party

The group will call for the GOP to "either reimagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation of such an alternative."

www.nbcnews.com

Those are some moderately big hitters in the traditional GOP field. Add to them, potentially, support from people like George Will, Steve Schmidt, Ben Sasse and others, and you may have a revolt on your hands—a good one, not the Jan. 6 kind.

I really, really hope this comes to pass. No one’s under the delusion that at first they will act as anything but spoilers, but at least that’s a start. And they will be giving genuine Republicans someone to vote for.

I also have no delusions that any of the reforms they will ask for will be taken up by the GQP.

About damned time. However, I bet you when you look at their self analysis of the prospects for winning future elections as a split party, my bet is they won't have the balls to do it.

 

[Thomas Veil]

They would have to be motivated by two factors: the conviction that they just can’t be a part of this anymore, and a realization that they would have to play the long game. In the short run, they would probably be ceding some political power to the Democrats, but in the long run I think they’d draw enough membership (and support from independents) to regain a semblance of their former status and reduce the Trump party to third place status.

 

[lizkat]

They would have to be motivated by two factors: the conviction that they just can’t be a part of this anymore, and a realization that they would have to play the long game. In the short run, they would probably be ceding some political power to the Democrats, but in the long run I think they’d draw enough membership (and support from independents) to regain a semblance of their former status and reduce the Trump party to third place status.

Yep. Some of the anti-Trump faction do get it that there's a penalty phase for how the GOP has operated in the past 12 years particularly. It's getting harder to keep the voters dumbed down. Some may have figured for awhile that they could put off 40 years in the desert by just suppressing the vote, but this bunch of anti-Trumpers sound like they realize a lot of that's not going to fly in the courts, and there's not much point in putting off their time in the penalty box, so they figure to get it over with and yeah, play the longer game.

The sound and fury of the likes of Gaetz, Cawthorn, Jordan, Boebert, MTG... are a passing storm that will not forever distract conservative voters from the fact that their erstwhile "conservative" party is rudderless as a policy-free party of "NO" and as the hijacked party of a twice-impeached lying sod of a former President who got there by a fluke, and proved it was a fluke by handily losing control of House, Senate and Oval Office in four years flat.

The other thing about the pro-Trump faction of the Rs nowadays is that they're so obsessed with doing away with the power of voters to throw them out of office that they're writing voter suppression laws likely to hurt their own traditional base. How much sense does it make to tighten rules on mail-in voting when elderly people, many of whom are conseratives, do seem to like that convenience?!

Can't always fix stupid, and the anti-Trump faction does realize that. I think that awareness dawned on some at the RNC winter meetings. There were both sotto voce and some public remarks that seemed to question the RNC's wisdom in underwriting Trump again, under all the then current circumstances back in January. Those meetings were held just two days after the Trump-incited incursion into the Capitol.

Henry Barbour, an influential Mississippi committeeman and the nephew of ex-RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, stood before the group at the closing session to say that the party needed to take a clear-eyed look at itself if it wanted to get back into power.

“These are tough times,” Barbour told fellow members. “It hurts because there are no medals in politics for second place.”

Still the RNC went ahead and re-elected its chair (and Trump supporter) Ronna McDaniel, and installed a pro-Trump deputy chair... it may have been the last straw for the hundred-plus notable Republicans now taking a stand against such folly.

 

[Huntn]

Yep. Some of the anti-Trump faction do get it that there's a penalty phase for how the GOP has operated in the past 12 years particularly. It's getting harder to keep the voters dumbed down. Some may have figured for awhile that they could put off 40 years in the desert by just suppressing the vote, but this bunch of anti-Trumpers sound like they realize a lot of that's not going to fly in the courts, and there's not much point in putting off their time in the penalty box, so they figure to get it over with and yeah, play the longer game.

The sound and fury of the likes of Gaetz, Cawthorn, Jordan, Boebert, MTG... are a passing storm that will not forever distract conservative voters from the fact that their erstwhile "conservative" party is rudderless as a policy-free party of "NO" and as the hijacked party of a twice-impeached lying sod of a former President who got there by a fluke, and proved it was a fluke by handily losing control of House, Senate and Oval Office in four years flat.

The other thing about the pro-Trump faction of the Rs nowadays is that they're so obsessed with doing away with the power of voters to throw them out of office that they're writing voter suppression laws likely to hurt their own traditional base. How much sense does it make to tighten rules on mail-in voting when elderly people, many of whom are conseratives, do seem to like that convenience?!

Can't always fix stupid, and the anti-Trump faction does realize that. I think that awareness dawned on some at the RNC winter meetings. There were both sotto voce and some public remarks that seemed to question the RNC's wisdom in underwriting Trump again, under all the then current circumstances back in January. Those meetings were held just two days after the Trump-incited incursion into the Capitol.



Still the RNC went ahead and re-elected its chair (and Trump supporter) Ronna McDaniel, and installed a pro-Trump deputy chair... it may have been the last straw for the hundred-plus notable Republicans now taking a stand against such folly.

The Fermi Paradox is being tested as we speak about folly.