The Cost of an Unserious Republican Party

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)

Politics has always attracted unusual figures and characters.  This is not unique.  Look at the political landscape long enough over the past 40-50 years and you're going to find names like Edwin Edwards, Marion Berry, Jim Traficant, & Richard Daley, men who shocked as often as they inexplicably won reelection.  But generally these figures were anomalies.  They were also something that leaders in their party knew was a mistake, something they didn't want to emulate.  But in the Trump Era, these sorts of figures have become the norm in the Republican Party, and this past week encapsulated that in in a big, glaring, embarrassing way.

It's worth noting that as I write this it's only Thursday morning-there are literally two full days left for Congress to come up with more nonsense, but here's a bit of a rundown for those that need to get caught up (I honestly don't know which of these is the biggest headline, so let's just throw them all out there).  We had former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allegedly elbowing Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett, which Burchett confirmed but McCarthy denied.  We had Kentucky Rep. James Comer saying during a House hearing that Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) looked "like a smurf" after Moskowitz pointed out that Comer, like President Biden, had also lent his brother money (which Comer is investigating currently).  Then there was Marjorie Taylor Greene, chastising the director of the FBI (Christopher Wray) about her Twitter account being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security...a department which the FBI Director has no authority over.  Wray then had to hear conspiracy theories from Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins about how the FBI instigated the January 6th terrorist attacks by using "ghost buses" (I...I don't know either).  Finally, you had Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin threatening during a Senate committee hearing to get into a fistfight with Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, a fight that only ended when Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told them both to sit down, and reminded Mullin "you're a United States Senator!"

This is insanity.  And it has to be noted, with the exception of Moskowitz, every single person involved with these altercations is a Republican.  In fact, this sort of behavior is almost exclusively within the GOP, to the point where Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz yesterday tweeted "Reporters please use the word 'Republicans' rather than 'Congress' thank you."  Given that this Congress also hosts figures like Matt Gaetz, George Santos, Lauren Boebert, Tommy Tuberville, & Nancy Mace, all trying to outdo each other in terms of outlandish self-promotion and truly offensive behavior that would get them fired from virtually any other job, it begs the question-why?

The answer to this is pretty simple-it's because of Trump.  Donald Trump's behavior since he launched his campaign in 2015 has involved him breaking virtually every social norm known to politics.  Obviously this has encroached onto criminal behavior (91 indictments & counting), but even if you subtract that, he's done things that a decade earlier would've gotten him thrown out of the party.  He mocked the disabled, women, prisoners of war, & gold star families.  He regularly mocks other politicians' age, appearance, & intelligence (as well as their family members).  This normalization has allowed for the Republican Party specifically to get away with this...

...to a degree.  It cannot be denied that at least part of Donald Trump's loss in 2020 was attributed to a wish to "return to normal" amongst Americans.  But it's also true that Trump's teflon doesn't always work in reverse.  Many of the Republicans I just name-checked are in safe red seats (all except Santos), and so this is clearly catering to a primary crowd that favors buffoonery to actual coherence.  But in 2022, we saw that nominating idiots, con artists, & fools came with a price.  In a Republican midterm that should've seen a lot of swing states go red, figures like Kari Lake, JR Majewski, Mehmet Oz, Don Bolduc, Blake Masters, & Joe Kent ran the kinds of campaigns that mirrored the behavior we're seeing in DC this week.  Strange commercials, outlandish public attacks on opponents, straight-up lying on Fox News and other Republican media outlets about provable facts...all were regular parts of their campaigns.  And they all lost races that a normal, traditional Republican probably would've won.  The only rational language that Republicans in these situations really understand anymore is if they lose power, and in these cases...they all did.  This parade of incompetence, of absolute jackassery that these unserious Republicans have shown this week might not cost them specifically at the ballot box, but their party is paying a steep price for it, and it will be used against them in next year's elections.  As Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R) said on the House floor this week "I want my Republican colleagues to give me ONE thing that I can go campaign on and say we did."  Next year, Congressman Roy will find out exactly what that lack of direction cost the GOP.