Longtime Michigan Republican official resigns, saying GOP only loyal to ‘deranged narcissist’ Trump
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Over the weekend, Republicans in Michigan were busy in Grand Rapids at their spring convention. This is where members of the Michigan GOP go to discuss strategy, who is running to represent them, who they will support, and how much support they will give to various candidates. Traditionally, this would also be the time to discuss policy distinctions between candidates and the lines they are and are not willing to cross in regard to compromise—depending on the candidate and district in question. AHAHAHAHA. That last part was a joke. The Republican Party has zero policy platforms that fall within the purview of our Constitution!
The conservative civil war is raging across the country, and while traditional media is mostly worried about their personal stock portfolios, GOP operatives continue to battle it out between the recently solemn neocons of the party versus the furiously misdirected MAGA-cum-tea party fascists in the party. The Michigan convention was filled with all of the bile we have come to expect from a meeting of Republicans. The major “themes” (because once again, there is no policy in the GOP) were anti-LGBTQ+, anti-education rhetoric wrapped up in “parental rights” and the promotion of Trump’s big lie that the election was stolen.
Tony Daunt was a longtime Michigan state GOP committee member. I say ‘was’ because on Tuesday night, Daunt reportedly resigned from the state committee, saying the Republican Party is going down a sewer hole.
The Detroit News was able to get a copy of the emailed resignation that Daunt sent to Judy Rapanos, chairwoman of the 4th Congressional District Republican Committee. In it Daunt criticized what he said was a litmus test of loyalty to disgraced disaster of a person Donald Trump. In fairness to Daunt, he described Trump as a “deranged narcissist.”
Daunt isn’t some woke liberal cancel culture warrior, mind you. He is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who believes the Democratic Party has “myriad failures” that the GOP should run candidates against. Daunt has supported proposals like doing away with Michigan’s personal income tax and is highly critical of government spending over tax cuts—the classic, proven-to-fail policies that conservatives have always pushed.
And while he believed the GOP should be trying to win elections by going after Democratic Party policy, he now says his fellow “feckless, cowardly party ‘leaders’ have made the election here in Michigan a test of who is the most cravenly loyal to Donald Trump and re-litigating the results of the 2020 cycle.” Maybe the most damning part of Daunt’s resignation letter is Daunt’s assertion that Michigan GOP leader know the election fraud claims are lies and Trump’s general election claims are lies. The best part? He calls Trump an “undisciplined loser.”
Listen to Daily Kos Elections’ The Downballot podcast’s David Nir and David Beard discuss Michigan
“Incredibly, rather than distancing themselves from this undisciplined loser, far too many Republican ‘leaders’ have decided that encouraging his delusional lies — and, even worse — cynically appeasing him despite knowing they are lies, is the easiest path to ensuring their continued hold on power, general election consequences be damned.” That’s the stuff. Who will or won’t Daunt and other Republicans like him vote for this coming fall, nobody knows. Hopefully this conservative civil war continues to erode the Republican Party in the same way the party has been eroding America for the last five decades.