It looks like Congressman Tom Rice was kicked out of the Republican Party’s Grand Tent.
On Saturday, the Republican Party’s executive committee in South Carolina censored Rice – all because he voted in favor of impeaching former President Donald Trump last month. Now, state lawmakers are lining up to prioritize the conservative of Myrtle Beach in 2022.
The resolution was far from ambiguous: “In the first and most consequent vote in the new session, Mr. Rice allied himself with (President of the Democratic Chamber) Nancy Pelosi and the principled leftists in voting for the president’s impeachment, betraying voters Republicans who enthusiastically supported Mr. Rice during the past two election cycles, ”said the resolution, according to a report by Jamie Lovegrove and Tyler Fleming.
Predictably, state party chairman Drew McKissick says Trump does not deserve any blame for the riot. He just invited people to go to Washington, encouraged them to march on Capitol Hill and suggested that his own vice president had betrayed him … after two months telling his supporters to “stop the theft” of the presidential election.
That he lost by more than 7 million popular votes and more than 70 electoral votes.
Rice is so conservative that when his vote on impeachment was registered last month, most political observers in South Carolina immediately, and publicly, suggested that he accidentally hit the wrong button.
But no, he meant it – and he is persevering. Rice says the state GOP has forgotten its creed: “I will not chicken out in front of anyone except my God.”
“It seems to me that they are shrinking from Donald Trump,” Rice said in the understatement of the year. “If the president who did what Donald Trump did that day and sent a crowd to paralyze Congress and the result was an attack on the legislative power of the United States government, this is a clear violation of the constitution. It is absolutely a crime or misdemeanor. I don’t care if the president who does this is Republican or Democratic, I’m voting for impeachment ”.
This is called putting the country above the party, and political analysts are now debating whether Rice took a moral stand or committed political suicide. Can’t it be both?
Former Congressman and Governor Mark Sanford says the elected officials do not work for the state party’s executive committee, but for its constituents. And they are elected to make difficult decisions.
“If a guy takes a vow of conscience, there is a way to register, whether you like it or not. It’s called an election,” says Sanford. “It was a courageous and lonely vote. We need more courageous and lonely votes in the United States Congress.”
Of course, now several state Republican parties across the country – Wyoming and Arizona, for example – are also censoring Republican congressmen who voted in favor or impeachment and, in some cases, other elected officials who have not shown due loyalty to Trump.
There have even been calls in some Republican parties in South Carolina County to censor Senator Lindsey Graham for not doing enough to help Trump overturn the election results.
Which is hilarious, because Graham has carried Trump so much water lately that he will probably need physical therapy on his shoulder.
What’s next, will South Carolina Republicans find any way to publicly intimidate Columbia attorney Butch Bowers – the Republican Party’s super lawyer – for taking the ramp out of Trump’s legal defense team after a week?
So it now appears that Republicans, who criticize the left’s cancellation culture, plan to cancel Rice in the next Republican Party primary elections.
Last month, the Charleston County Republican Party fell apart when one of its members suggested a resolution condemning the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol, which, by the way, resulted in five deaths. President Maurice Washington says the controversy in the local party has been exaggerated and has maintained that the GOP is a party in the Grand Tent … a term that Republicans have used frequently over the years.
It is a noble goal and, honestly, the only way for the Republican Party to maintain national electoral relevance. Many Republicans sincerely believe in the Grand Tent mantra and are not very happy with recent developments.
But they are increasingly repressed by a stronger and more extreme party faction … and it’s making the suburbs more blue every day.
This attack on Rice and – ridiculously – even Graham is not the kind of free and open exchange of ideas and diversity of opinions envisioned at the Great Tent party.
In fact, this absurdity makes the GOP look more like a one-man tent.