GOP is quietly purging right-wing members -- to replace them with even more radical politicians

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Under cover of the coronavirus chaos and amid our national uprising, Republicans have quietly uprooted some of their most controversial right-wing members of Congress — only to replace them with even more radical contenders for federal office, including devotees of the nonsensical QAnon conspiracy theory, ahead of this fall’s election.

June 16, 2020

By Sophia Tesfaye, Salon

More than 10 years after the Tea Party movement gave rise to the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus by targeting longtime incumbent Republicans who were deemed insufficiently right-wing, a recent set of wins by insurgent candidates over some of the most radical Republicans in Congress makes clear that the GOP has now passed every off-ramp on the road to extremism. While the mass Republican retirements ahead of the 2018 midterm elections greatly weakened the GOP, this cycle’s purging of incumbents in safe red districts, will likely serve to further radicalize the GOP caucus.

On Saturday, in a novel case of voter suppression, a small group of Republicans in Virginia’s 5th district voted to oust Rep. Denver Riggleman, a far-right Freedom Caucus member who voted with President Trump nearly 95% of the time since winning a competitive 2018 race amid a Democratic wave.

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Bob Good, who defeated Riggleman in that primary, is a fundamentalist zealot and a former athletics director at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Good essentially ran for office because he was upset by Riggleman’s involvement in a gay wedding, calling Riggleman “out of step with the base of the party.” A born-again evangelical Christian and staunch social conservative, Good wants to end birthright citizenship and opposes abortion for any reason — even if the mother’s life is in danger.

Republicans have a six-point registration edge in Virginia’s rural 5th district, so in all likelihood Good will take office as an extremist backbencher who introduces wild bills that go nowhere. But there is a slim chance that Good won’t even make the general election ballot this fall, as the Washington Post explains:

Good missed the Tuesday deadline for filing a key form related to his candidacy, but he hand-delivered the form to the state elections office on Friday afternoon, election officials said. The board of elections routinely offers extensions in cases like these, and changing election dates due to the coronavirus may have created confusion about the deadline.

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https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/gop-is-quietly-purging-right-wing-members-to-replace-them-with-even-more-radical-politicians/

[beachbumbob]

1. this is how the GOP disappears as a force in politics as more radical they go right, the more

democratic voters are created and why WE need to learn that going radical LEFT will bring about out falling as democrats

[lagomorph777]

5. Yup - VA is fast flipping blue, with the help of radical RW nutjobs like this.

Even the moonshine counties are going to flip if they keep this shit up.

[Iliyah]

2. GOP are doing their best in . .

permanently keeping their power over the USA any means necessary. Therefore, with this mind set, like majority of "single" party control, many will suffer and die.

Voice of America ha been compromised by yours truly, the Senate Republicans.

We must keep our eyes on the prize.

[Thekaspervote]

3. The further they bend to an unreasonable radical right, the more voters will choose dems

[MineralMan]

4. This presents us with opportunities to flip districts.

We vote, too, or I certainly hope we will in 2020.

[not_the_one]

6. Hopefully it will result in the complete destruction of the GOP,

AND the fundies/evangies/nazis/supremecists he rode in on.

At that point, I will FINALLY say "Thank You, Donald Trump".