"We'll either hasten down a poisonous path where only the winners of an election actually accept the results, or show we can still muster the patriotic courage that our forebears showed, not only in victory, but in defeat. If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral."
Mitch McConnell, January 7, 2021
Cliff Bentz was elected to Congress in the bright red Oregon Second Congressional District. Bentz is invisible in the national news but emerged in Oregon's news when questioned about Liz Cheney's ousting from leadership. He praised it.
Liz Cheney is saying what Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy each said briefly in the aftermath of January 6 attack on the Capitol to "stop the steal." She said that the Republican Party has lost its way. It is no longer a conservative party. It is a party loyal to Trump, and Trump insists on a dangerous lie. It is doctrine in the GOP. That doctrine shapes leadership and the future.
Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy stopped talking. Liz Cheney did not.
Liz Cheney was an embarrassment to the House GOP. She observed the obvious, not just about Trump, but about the GOP rank and file. They were aiding and abetting Trump by their silence and by their rhetorical sleight of hand. They worked out a way to let Trump be Trump, to profiting from Trump without being Trump.
Trump said mailed-in ballots caused fraudulent elections--except in Florida, where Trump himself would vote by mail. Otherwise the elections were entirely fraudulent. Bentz was silent about vote by mail in Oregon, which has universal vote-by-mail, even though his own election took place that way.
Bentz went to Congress saying he planned to vote against accepting the vote in Pennsylvania, a state Biden won by 80,000 votes, and on the evening of January 6 he cast that vote. In a press release written on January 7 Bentz said he was "committed to listening to the opinions of my constituents." He said he "heard many speak of distrust in the elections." The truth of a fair election was questionable, but there was certainty that voters believed Trump. Note he did not say Biden won the election and deserves to be president. Instead he passively acknowledges Biden would be installed. He acknowledges loss, not legitimacy.
[W]e can accept that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. I am committed to a peaceful transfer of power, but I continue to empathize with those whose frustrations with the electoral system remain unresolved. I share their frustrations, and as the Representative of Oregon’s Second District, I will do my best to address their concerns.
Bentz told an Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter that Trump was not responsible for the violent effort to Stop the Steal. "I don’t think he ever would have wanted it to turn violent. The protesters are responsible, the people who decided to take it upon themselves to damage things."
The GOP and Cliff Bentz are still stuck today defending the lie and minimizing the effort to overthrow the election because Trump is still insisting on the election being stolen. On May 15 he wrote
The entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED! This is illegal and the Arizona State Senate, who is leading the Forensic Audit, is up in arms. Additionally, seals were broken on the boxes that hold the votes, ballots are missing, and worse. Mark Brnovich, the Attorney General of Arizona, will now be forced to look into this unbelievable Election crime.
The Republican Arizona Elections Recorder said this was utterly false, and said the accusation was "unhinged" and "insane."
Yesterday, May 16, Trump wrote that a CBS poll showed he had a "strong hold" on the Republican Party.
80% of Republicans agree with the removal of Liz Cheney from GOP Leadership and only 20% disagree. The poll also showed that 67% of Republicans said that they do not consider Sleepy Joe Biden to be the legitimate winner of the 2020 Presidential Election. I agree with them 100%, just look at the facts and the data—there is no way he won the 2020 Presidential Election!
Liz Cheney is not just calling out Trump. She is calling out Republican officeholders like Cliff Bentz, whose silence gives the lie room to grow. Bentz is part of the "go along" group, not directly contradicting Trump and riding on his coattails. Silent officeholders tacitly validate Trump. They are accomplices and cheerleaders.
Doctrine seeks its own perpetuation and it chooses leaders who are faithful. Bentz was on board, ousting Cheney and replacing her with Elise Stefanik. Like Bentz, Stefanik signed onto the December brief that urged the Supreme Court to throw out the 2020 election. Like Bentz, she voted to throw out the votes of Pennsylvania. Like Bentz, she contests the election's legitimacy by saying "tens of millions of Americans are rightly concerned that the 2020 election featured unprecedented voting irregularities."
Cliff Bentz is part of the momentum of the death spiral. He himself may do just fine. It may not be a death spiral for the GOP either. Republicans may well win back the House.
The death spiral is the American republic. Ambitious politicians have watched and learned. Partisans care more about keeping power than keeping a republic. Now we know.
5 comments:
And a cheery Monday morning to you, sir!
There's no doubt that Republicans think the electorate is stupid. Telling lies to gullible people is considered wicked. If you deceive a child you are cruel. Lie to your lover and you break their heart. Fraud is punishable by incarceration. These are things we condemn in our private lives but tolerate in public servants. They are shielded by the oppositional nature of politics.
The liar attacks the truth, claiming it to be a lie.
Why is it called "The Big Lie"?
Because in order to believe the election was stolen, one must believe that 250 years of American democratic institutions have been overturned by a conspiracy that would require hundreds of actors, all operating in perfect synchronicity and secrecy. Republicans nurture this paranoia as being perfectly reasonable to those who are utterly incapable of separating fantasy from reality, in the service of those who profit from it. It's a fiction that borders on superstition; early humans ascribed lightning to the Gods, invisible and all powerful.
I keep returning to one idea: that people vote against their own best interests in order to avoid taking responsibility for their personal failures and shortcomings. It's easier to blame a multitude of "others", conveniently all minorities; "elites", "freeloaders" "immigrants". Republicans, having nothing of substance to offer otherwise, have made this their central governing principle.
Voters are stupid, i.e., one would be similarly stupid not to take advantage of it.
Benz ain’t no Walden. I don’t think classless Benz is smart enough to keep independents and traditional patrician Republicans under his roof.
He practices the big lie with every vote. A total non thinker who will ride his mule until it drops over dead. Maybe he will continue to win but if you read his newsletters he shows no ability to write legislation. What water wisdom is he bringing to his committee? I haven’t heard of any.
Fox News personalities are not journalists, they are propagandists.
Cliff Bentz is not a legislator, he is a propagandist.
Regardless of how you spell it our 2nd District representative is BENT
Spineless, cowardly opportunist who will toe the Seditionist line until it strangles him.
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