The Republican Anti-Democratic Strategy - Van Horne

The Republican Anti-Democratic Strategy - Van Horne

In the Middle Ages, religious censure by Queen Isabella’s church was horrifying.  Heretics were expelled from their community of faith. Their rights to Christian baptisms for the newborn, burials, confessions, Holy Communion, and other important sacraments were denied them. A formal decree of anathema might be pronounced, and the heretic condemned to the devil and eternal fire – at least until the banished member recanted his heretical beliefs. Expulsion was the least of it. In the autocratic regimes of late 15th century Spain and Portugal, a heretic didn’t walk away with a slap on the hand or public shaming with a red letter “H” sewn on their lapel. Under the government-led Spanish Inquisition, Grand Inquisitors like Torquemada dished out more than just expulsions. Burnings at the stake for heretic beliefs were a common feature of these inquisitions.

I mention these matters to highlight the recent Torquemada-like resolutions made by G.O.P leaders at their annual conference in Salt Lake City on February 4th There, the full Republican National Committee took action to censure Elizabeth Cheney and her Republican colleague, Adam Kinzinger. Both were branded as heretics. The foundation stone of their heresy was their active participation in the first Congressional investigation of an attempted overthrow of our government in our country’s 250-year history. Since intra-party censure of a member is rare, the exact nature of their grievous assault on Republican orthodoxy is worth understanding.

The decree punishes them for their refusal to support the post-coup d’état credo fundamental to an emerging Trump-Republican orthodoxy. That credo, spelled out in the censure motion, is that the vicious attackers of the nation’s Capital on January 6th were just a) “ordinary citizens” who b) “engaged in legitimate political discourse.” According to the oft-repeated GOP gospel, these folks were not violent seditionists engaged in an attempted coup. They were just everyday, patriotic American citizens expressing their opinion. Their two Republican colleagues in contrast, by pledging allegiance to a secular bible, the Constitution, and by insisting that those who viciously obstructed the orderly succession of power should be investigated, committed heresy.

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Even the most cursory review of what some of us continue to call “evidence” reveals the deep, anti-intellectual, tribal blindness of the GOP Conference. The “ordinary citizens” referred to in their decree included members of numerous, extreme right-wing, domestic terrorist groups. Among them were organizations like Q’Anon, The Three Percenters, The Oath Keepers, the Boogaloos, Turning Point USA, the Proud Boys, etc. In short, these are militia groups identified by the National Security Council as outfits “whose racial, ethnic, or religious hatred leads them toward violence.” And, a significant component of their threat is their violent resistance to any form of government authority. The proof of these statements lies in the fact that there were multiple deaths of police officers, and an estimated 140-150 police officers injured. To characterize the crowd who assaulted the capital as “ordinary citizens” is the height of tribal hypocrisy, raw pandering to those who want to paint a domestic terrorist attack on government as a tea and crumpets party. The fact that the Architect of the Capital estimated the physical damage to the building (May 2021) to be $1.5 million, also suggests that the political discourse engaged in on January 6th was hardly civil, or legitimate. Hundreds of these participants have already been indicted by the courts.

The most remarkable fact to consider in the Republican censure of two members who took their constitutional oaths seriously is this. This decree was a “softer,” kinder version of the original resolution. The Republican Conference considered a tougher, first version which called for their expulsion from the G.O.P.  It was unsuccessful. No doubt Torquemada and his inquisitorial court would have thrilled at this ex-communication strategy- bemoaning only the absence of a ritualized burning at the stake (or possibly a symbolic hanging at the very least).

 

Willard Van Horne Ph.D. is a retired sociologist, and former Director of Research for the New York State Education Department who is now living in Swansea, Mass.