The GOP Is Abandoning The Rule Of Law

Fred Wertheimer’s Weekly Note  |  July 27, 2023

The rule of law is a foundational principle of our country and at the heart of our civilization.

But in recent years, Republican officeholders have been abandoning the rule of law and opting instead for raw partisan politics, often at any cost.

This started with former President Trump who blatantly lied about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from him and then proceeded to attempt to steal the election for himself.

After he failed in the courts, Trump and his allies turned to a series of illicit schemes to grab the presidency that included “fake electors,” threatening Republican leaders,  harassing election workers in the states, and pressuring Vice President Pence to violate the Constitution. This culminated in the violent Trump-instigated January 6 attack on the Capitol.

While many congressional Republicans initially called out Trump for his pivotal role in the attack, most now try to deflect attention from the efforts to hold Trump legally accountable for his coup attempt.

Congressional Republicans rarely defend Trump’s attempt to steal the presidency. His actions are indefensible. Instead, they deflect by claiming this is about a weaponized and political Justice Department and Biden Administration. In so doing, without any basis, they undermine the credibility of our law enforcement agencies and officials, and the credibility of our laws.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a captive of the far-right and a cowed ally of Trump, is doing his part to try to move the focus away from Trump by stating his interest in opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden – for which there is no credible constitutional basis.

McCarthy also has raised the idea that the House should expunge the two Trump impeachments – for which there is no precedent and no credible constitutional basis.

McCarthy and most House Republicans, apparently, are ready to sacrifice the rule of law on the altar of partisan politics.

They aren’t alone. The Republican denigration of the rule of law is alive and well in the states, too.

Alabama

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alabama had engaged in racial discrimination when it created a gerrymandered congressional map that included only one Black-minority district. That decision meant that a new map had to be created with two majority-Black congressional districts. Black voters represent one-quarter of the state’s voting age population.

The Republican-controlled Alabama legislature proceeded to re-draw the state’s congressional map by again creating just one majority-Black district.

The Alabama legislature flat-out ignored the Supreme Court ruling. In essence, the legislature said: “The rule of law be damned.”

Their new map is expected to be overturned by the courts, but the delay could prevent a correct and fair map from being in effect for the 2024 congressional elections.

Ohio

Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled Ohio state legislature passed a law banning August special elections.

But, when an opportunity arose that could help the anti-abortion movement and other issues favored by Republicans, the Ohio legislature ignored the law it had passed just a few months earlier and scheduled an August special election.

The stated purpose of the special election is a ballot measure that would increase the threshold of voters needed to pass any state constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60 percent.

The immediate purpose of the ballot measure is to increase the chance of defeating an amendment to protect abortion rights that will be on the November ballot.

Citizen-led efforts to reform Ohio’s heavily gerrymandered, Republican-tilted voting maps that violate the state’s Constitution could also be affected if the August measure passes.

Ohio Republicans have other issues in their sights as well.

As the Ohio Capital Journal reports: “Critics — including bipartisan groups of former governors and attorneys general and more than 240 other groups — say the requirements would make voter-initiated amendments practically impossible.”

Texas

After placing dangerous, inhumane floating barriers in the Rio Grande to block migrants from crossing, Republican Governor Greg Abbott told the federal government to get lost when they informed him that the barriers violated federal laws.

This week the U.S Government sued Texas to get the barriers removed.

Abbott’s arrogance is no surprise. Texas state officials seem to believe they can set their own self-serving standards when it comes to the rule of law and ethics.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently under indictment, was recently impeached by the state legislature. It was recently revealed that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who will preside over Paxton’s impeachment trial in the state senate in September, received $3 million in political contributions from a pro-Paxton political committee in the last month.

This, apparently, is how ethics works for Texas Republican leaders.

Disrespect for and disregard of the rule of law is, apparently, how things work for many Republicans in Washington and around the country.

Upstart Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy may have best described the current state of many Republicans when he said, if elected President he would enact proposals “without the permission or forgiveness of Congress.”

So much for the rule of law. So much for democracy.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.