Trump critic Justin Amash quits Republican Party

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN

(CNN) Rep. Justin Amash, the only congressional Republican who publicly argues that President Donald Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct, announced Thursday he is quitting the GOP. Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party," Amash wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Thursday morning. "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."

Amash didn't mention the President by name, but his decision to abandon the party comes after months of escalating criticism not just of the President but of his own colleagues for their failure to hold Trump to account, specifically for the actions detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the 2016 election and its aftermath.

In May, the five-term Michigan representative became the first sitting Republican lawmaker to join Democratic calls for an impeachment inquiry. He drew scorn from GOP leaders and Trump -- Amash has "been a loser for a long time," the President responded -- when he wrote in a series of tweets that, after reading Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, he believed Attorney General William Barr intentionally misrepresented Mueller's findings and Trump engaged in obstruction of justice.

Amash, a staunch libertarian, litigated the failures of the Republican Party, Congress and the American political system as a whole in his Post op-ed. The Republican Party, I believed, stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty -- principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family," he wrote. "In recent years, though, I've become 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." He also pointed to George Washington's farewell address, in which the first US President warned Americans of the dangers of partisanship. "True to Washington's fears, Americans have allowed government officials, under assertions of expediency and party unity, to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law," Amash said. "The result has been the consolidation of political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/04/politics/justin-amash-leaving-gop/index.html

---

Here is a link to his Op-ed - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/justin-amash-our-politics-is-in-a-partisan-death-spiral-thats-why-im-leaving-the-gop/2019/07/04/afbe0480-9e3d-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html

He and the rest of them HELPED bring down their own party so his sudden "come to Jesus" moment is ridiculous and it's notable that only recently has he been starting to buck the party when it came to votes because their modus operandi was that they were to obey and vote lockstep because... not Obama.

ETA - he was a teabagger extraordinaire and only left their phony astroturf "Freedom Caucus" last month but the massive damage to both their party and this country, was already done after almost 10 years of their assault on basic dignity and embrace of lunacy - https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/10/politics/justin-amash-leaves-freedom-caucus/index.html

[Stargazer09]

1. I hope others follow his lead

But my dream is that several GOP Senators will decide to switch allegiances.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Definitely the Senate GOP needs to get with the program

Seems they would rather leave than fight. Since people like Rand Paul also espouse Libertarian views one would think he would stop lock-stepping but he still does save for a few token issues.

[hot2na]

30. Rand Paul is a fraud

He is an even bigger fraud than Donald Trump. The only reason he is in congress is because his fathers name and his fradulent Libertarian position.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. Yup.

Like father like son. And as they say - Fuck Ron Paul (and his spawn).

[Scarsdale]

3. Forget it.

The gop is ruled by McConnell. He is a multi millionaire who is hanging onto his fortune by keeping Russia involved in our elections. He and his Taiwanese wife are padding their bank accounts, doing business with Russia and others, while smuggling cocaine into the country. They wield more power in D.C. than tRump ever dreamed of.

[OliverQ]

14. They won't.

There is not a single Republican Senator who will do the right thing. They are all part of Trump's cult.

[rampartc]

4. this is a good article on amash as well

https://theweek.com/articles/846683/justin-amash-myth-tea-party-conservatism

After nearly a decade of quietly voting against federal aid for Flint — less than two hours from his district — and opposing virtually every meaningful attempt to protect the environment or regulate the financial industry that came his way, Amash is in the news because he thinks that President Trump should be impeached. His evolution from unknown congresscritter to liberal folk hero took a long time, but it was almost instantaneous.

On Monday evening Amash resigned from the House Freedom Caucus, a group he helped to found in 2015. The Freedom Caucus was meant to be a kind of successor to the old Tea Party-era Liberty Caucus (with which it is often confused and of which Amash is now, hilariously, still chairman), a vehicle for "open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans." In practice this means not believing in climate change and dismissing GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act as "Swampcare" presumably because they would have allowed too many people to continue receiving Medicaid.

Lots of Republicans talk this way. Only Amash is silly enough to believe any of it. This was quietly acknowledged on Tuesday afternoon when Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, was asked whether Amash should also leave the Republican party. "Justin Amash can determine his own future, but I think in a philosophical basis, he's probably in a different place than the majority of all of us," McCarthy said before laughing.


more perspectives :

Jeff Spross

This makes Amash a hard case. No one could argue that he is without principles or that he is just in it for the money. He is not selective about applying his ideas to practical questions; he is a bona fide fanatic who would be happy to see millions of his fellow Americans starve in order to honor a 231-year-old piece of toilet paper. The problem is not that he is a grifter or a charlatan but that the things to which he has sincerely devoted his life and political career are fantasies.

Which is better, really believing in nonsense when you should know better or nihilist worship of power for its own sake? Sometimes the answer has to be none of the above.

my comment : amash is no kind of "liberal folk hero." he is a never trumper who probably considers trump "too liberal."

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Good article!

And agree that he is no fucking "liberal folk hero" except maybe considered that by his fellow teabaggers who didn't think his bucking the crazy only in the past few months, should have happened. He was no different than the crazy Michele Bachmann.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Are we in trouble

Libertarians are emerging as defenders of the Constitution. Really, let's ditch parties and go with no laws and go with Tea Bag justice. Who will be the countervailing holders of the balance of power? Because Joe Stalin would love to see America as a one-party system.

[NNadir]

7. He may be a tea bagger dumbassed libertarian but...

...I cannot help but have respect for anyone who can change his or her mind and question her or his assumptions, particularly when said slippery slopes, in the current case, lead to concentration camps.

There is a place for apostates in our world.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The issue then becomes

whether he is working with Democrats to mitigate the disaster in Flint and other legislation? I know he has recently voiced some support but he has a lot of work to do to repair his reputation and not have this be nothing more than a political stunt.

In essence, he has become the "Jeff Flake" of the House GOP (with Flake having been a similar Libertarian with the willingness to suddenly "buck" the party)... But Flake still lock-stepped voted for most other GOP draconian measures before riding off into the sunset (and I had watched Flake for YEARS when he was in the House with his focus on "pork" (earmarks) inserted into appropriations by both parties, appearing at every budgetary/appropriations legislation debate with list in hand).

[NNadir]

10. I certainly don't consider him a hero of any kind but...

...many people in cults go where the leaders of the cults tell them to go, rather than what the original principles of the cult involve.

The religious philosopher Alan Watts once remarked that rather than adopt the religion of Jesus, Christians chose to adopt a religion about Jesus.

I was raised in a Christian household where I was exposed to the religion of Jesus as well as one about Jesus.

I have come to know the difference.

Many self identified "Christians" worship Trump, while Jesus himself said, "It is harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle."

The question of whether Trump is actually rich, or if he's merely Bernie Madoff on a grander scale (something many of us suspect he is), is irrelevant. He lives as if he's rich, so if Bible bangers took the Bible seriously - and clearly they don't - they might have pause to think. That they don't think about their principles and their implications is a problem.

I can't think of a single putative "Christian" who favors tolerance, love of the poor, forgiveness...etc.

I would think better of Christianity if they did.

Amash is clearly a fool - a tiresome fool - but to the extent he raises a point by being true to the principles of his faith, rather than blind obedience to a clearly evil person, Trump, he is entitled to limited admiration.

[oldsoftie]

12. Oh, he's no doubt rich. Just not nearly as rich as he told us when he started running.

he said over 10 billion. Reality is probably around 2. And thats simply because of NYC property. All you have to do is OWN it to be rich. Plus, daddy's 400 million helped get him there

[OliverQ]

15. His assets are only assessed at about $600 million.

He's not a billionaire.

[oldsoftie]

39. Bloomberg & Forbes estimate his worth at between 2.8 & 3.1 billion.

And again, that number isnt hard to get considering the amount of NYC real estate owned. Hell, I know someone worth over 100M just because of ONE building in Manhattan. Any debt attached to it would have also been found by them since security deeds are public record. His biggest losers are his golf courses.
Regardless, its still only 20% of what he's bragged to be worth.

[NNadir]

25. We have no idea of his debt load. The fact that Putin owns him outright says a lot.

Then there's the Deutschebank thing.

Bernie Madoff was "rich," except he wasn't.

Madoff lived and grifted based on reputation for being rich, but he was only "rich" on other people's money.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. As a Christian

who sees the gist of the teachings, one might offer the fig leaf of forgiveness and redemption, however one would need to look at the difference between their "words" versus their "deeds" because by following the Libertarian mantra spawned by the likes of Ayn Rand and William F. Buckley, the idea of "limited government" only seems to apply when the "government" is not controlled by the GOP. I.e., the party they chose to align with, whose ideology allows for and promotes egregious suppression of the rights of those not like them in states controlled by them, is against the idea of the Constitution's "equality for all". And they do this all in the name of "states rights" and "limited" (meaning "federal" NOT "state" ) government.

And if his complaint continues to be the tired "both parties are the same" nonsense, then he should be on the bandwagon to address Citizen's United and be a co-sponsor of any updated version of "McCain-Feingold" to get the damn money out of politics and political elections. Otherwise little will change and all of this is meaningless grandstanding.

[Cosmocat]

23. Two party system thing is a shot at Ds

There is a clear right and wrong that exists in all of this.

We are not perfect, but we are THE ANSWER at the moment, unequivocally.

He has SOME light in his soul, unlike 99.9% of Rs at this point, but he still is infected by core element that got us here - the belief in the evil liberal boogyman.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. I compared his actions to Jeff Flake

who rode off into the sunset as McCain-lite - but still voting 95% with his party. What he and his fellow "never-Trumpers" need to do is go on a road tour to convince their "base" how far they have deviated from what their now-under-the-bus-luminary Raygun promoted and promulgated.

[NNadir]

29. The Ayn Rand religion - which is ironic since the idiot claimed to be an atheist - is...

...of course as toxic as other kinds of fundamentalism.

As for Christian principles, I think forgiveness is an important value, to a limited extent at least. However some things cannot be forgiven, the establishment of race based concentration camps for example. No one is about to forgive Heinrich Himmler or Adolf Eichmann.

I have had cause to reflect on these principles in recent weeks because of my mother-in-law's death, and the disputes among my sisters-in-law over the matter of how to address her death and each other. My own estrangement from my brother began in this place - the death of my mother - and, on reflection, I am not forgiving myself for my inability to forgive. Perhaps if I had been more forgiving, my sons would have an uncle, but as it is, they don't. I have no idea where my brother is, who he is, whether he is alive or dead.

On the larger scale, these dogmas, fundamentalism whether Christian, Islamic, or Randian are pernicious given the seriousness of the strain on our planet. I don't think that forgiveness should be appropriate in this case.

When I write here about environmental issues, it is often from a scientist's perspective, but I often add a human perspective which is the oft repeated phrase, "We will not be forgiven, nor should we be."

We will not be forgiven.

[BumRushDaShow]

36. I think in a personal familial situation

sometimes "time heals" (but not always).

But in the case of those who follow the Libertarian ideology that promotes "individualism" at all consts, it leads to extreme selfishness with no redeeming qualities - even when the believer is negatively impacted by the consequences of such thinking - not caring if what they loudly profess is often ignored by their followers and themselves (and as folks know, Ayn Rand happily collected Social Security while railing against the need for it).

One might compare and contrast the responses of James Brady when he was shot and on his deathbed, where upon his recovery he fought for 13 years to make a change and a difference versus Steve Scalise, who on his own deathbed and through recovery, went right back to business as usual. In essence, this country has been taken over those whose cognitive dissonance is so great that they may never recover. I think one of the articles cited in a post upthread ruminated on the fact that not only did Amash promote his group's philosophy, but actually believed it.

[NNadir]

38. I agree. Most dogmatic religions, including the nonsensical Ayn Rand religion...

...feature hypocrisy on a grand scale, as originally noted with respect to Christianity but the contrast you make between Brady and Scalise is spot on.

I will say that on a familial scale time does not always heal all wounds; they can fester and infect everything, as was the case with my brother and me.

I am trying to think of a graceful way to let my sisters in law understand this, but from my own experience, I'm not so sure it will work.

I heard two of them using (about each other) words very much like I used decades ago, "You don't know what she said to me..."

I hope I can help them because one never wants to see the people one loves experience pain with which one has lived oneself.

[paleotn]

31. Yep, your first sentence sums it up....

The cult has moved on from Amash's neo-libertarian foolishness and is rolling hell bent towards fascism. A type of crazy he didn't sign up for. And why shouldn't the cult move on? Did Amash and his colleagues really think they could control the orange toddler for their own aims? IQ45 doesn't give two shits about political philosophy or anything else other than IQ45. He, like much of Amash's caucus, are in it only for the money and power. Everything else, politics, religion et al., are just a means to a selfish, nefarious end.

[JI7]

19. HE isn't claiming to be a liberal. he still believes what he believes which is conservative

libertarian crap.

but he is right in this one area with Trump so i'm ok with that.

i want republicans to impeach him also and senate republicans to convict him. i don't think they need to become liberals or democrats to do that.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. He doesn't have to claim (or not) to be one (I don't think I wrote that he did so)

I think the writer of the article quoted and linked to in post #4 that I addressed, characterized him like that - i.e., "a liberal folk hero".

However I summarized the Libertarian thinking in post#17 regarding what they mean by "limited government" (i.e., "limited federal government" ) and let the states basically decide - including to oppress people who they don't feel were actually covered or included under the Constitution ("original intent" ).

I would also like to see a Senate conviction - something that the "impeach now!!!1111!" crowd keep fantasizing automatically happens when an impeachment occurs in the House ), but right now we are far away from that point thanks to Citizen's United and the crazies that have been elected in the Senate from the GOP (like Marsha Blackburn).

[johnnyfins]

9. Bum, your comments are spot on

This guy is having his moment of clarity now? I think he is hoping that the country will forget his and all the repubs hands in the great 2016 con.

Put more simply, Fuck Him.

[oldsoftie]

11. And the Right cant dismiss him as a "RINO"; he was a leader in the "Freedom Caucus"

[OliverQ]

16. But they will anyway.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. Yup and I'm sure he is still best buds with the likes of

crazy Gym Jordan, loser Louie Gohmert, and nutty Mark Meadows, just to name a few.

[Norbert]

13. So the number of republicans calling for impeachment is back down to zero

Right now I don't care what he was. But I am hoping he has some pull with his constituents. Maybe he can get them to at least vote for a libertarian instead of the petulant man/child.

[JI7]

18. yeah, but he is still a right wing conservative

[Honeycombe8]

21. He's pretty brave.

It's likely he's killed his political career. Whatever I think about his ideology, that's something that almost no one would do, in either party.

But there is no real choice in America between the two major parties, just like in other countries. Rand Paul is a libertarian, too, but belongs to the Republican Party because in order to have any influence, you have to belong to one of two parties.

But I admire anyone who bucks the system and goes out on a limb. He has spoken out more forcefully about impeachment than many Democratic politicians.

[Cosmocat]

24. I have not looked at it

but, I am guessing his knows his district well enough, or has polled it, that he is pretty sure he can still in as an I. Either that, he or has something lined up. And, after five terms, he gets the sweet pension - which of course as a great libertarian he will refuse/return, I am sure.

[Honeycombe8]

27. Probably.

Last edited Thu Jul 4, 2019, 09:14 AM - Edit history (1)

But it's still pretty brave. He won as a Repub. That is his career, was his political future. It is something that almost no politician would do....diss the party that brought him to the dance. It takes a certain amount of gumption, knowing what kind of hail storm is going to rain down on him. But I'm sure there are some benefits, which is why he's doing it. He may have a choice job lined up. Which is smart, if he does.

But I am not speaking about his ideology or voting record, which is rightwingnut. For someone who hates Trump's corruptness, he sure does seem to have Trump's ideology, as far as his voting record goes. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/justin-amash/

[paleotn]

34. Thanks, Amash, for your broken clock moment....

We'll deal with the your neo-libertarian bullshit later. Bigger fish to fry right now...like the fate of the damn Republic.

That's the extent of my admiration. His political philosophy helped precipitate this mess, so he's not getting off the hook that easy.

[Honeycombe8]

35. He may run as a third party candidate against Trump.

So to that extent, he's helpful if he draws even just one vote away from Trump.

He's basically saying he's libertarian, sounds like.

[sop]

28. Republican rats fleeing the sinking Trump ship

Trump's turned into too much of a loose cannon, his lunacy is threatening their conservative corporatist agenda. Amash and others aren't motivated by principle, it's self-preservation.

[FakeNoose]

33. That only works when the rats can see that the ship is actually sinking

Too many of them aren't even looking, and have no critical thinking skills.
I believe this will be the end of the Republican Party. Chump has killed it.

[paleotn]

37. Ironically, in my mind IQ45 is a logical end of their conservative agenda....

Gin up the proles with foolishness nonsense in order to push through tax cuts and roll back those pesky regulations. But to their surprise, a narcissistic carnival barker hijacked their proles and took us all on a merry jaunt towards fascism. Well, no shit. They've been tilling that ground for a generation with the conservo-nut media machine and then act all surprised when an amoral ass takes over and it all goes off the rails. And they didn't see this coming?! They didn't think their proles would actually internalize the bullshit, making them ripe for a fascist "savior?"

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

40. Let's hope a few more do

Though I won't hold my breath.

[stillcool]

41. When I got married I changed my name..

didn't change a thing. He has to do more than that. Maybe some therapy?

[sandensea]

42. Good on him. I'm sure it wasn't easy, what with all the arm-twisting and threats Amash probably got.

This photo says it all:

[DeminPennswoods]

43. Amash reached a principled conclusion and acted on it

I don't find any fault with that. I don't think he's a phoney baloney like Paul Ryan and Rand Paul.

[al bupp]

44. I say give the man credit where credit is due

Despite his teabagger roots, he's willing to stand-up for his principles in a way we can only hope more repubs of the libertarian bent would, even should when it comes to our tin-plated dictator wannabe and his ilk.

[5starlib]

45. Please Amash, run as an independent!!

We need all the help we can get. If nothing else, he'd assure Michigan would go Dem.

[ck4829]

50. Yep

[IronLionZion]

46. Amash seems less flakey than some other maverick Republicans recently

2 Arab immigrant parents, supposedly does a lot of environmental conservation work, and drives a hybrid. Dude might even run for president as a Libertarian. He seems to actually have some principles.

[BumRushDaShow]

47. Problem is

"Libertarian principles" are the antithesis of anyone who is not a wealthy, straight, white male land-owner. I.e., the federal government requiring and enforcing "civil/equal rights" nationally, is something they are against. I am tired of much of the Libertarian claptrap.

[ck4829]

48. The real "#walkaway"

[ck4829]

49. Kick