Amash Should Have Run As A Libertarian
Yesterday, Justin Amash declared his candidacy for the Michigan Senate seat Democrat Debbie Stabenow is giving up. There are already 13 Republicans in the race, including 2 other former congressmen Peter Meijer and Mike Rogers, but mostly vanity candidates. There are also 6 Democrats running, the top contenders being conservative Rep. Elissa Slotkin and progressive actor Hill Harper. So… what do we know about Amash?
A Palestinian-American, he was born in Grand Rapids in 1980.
He was elected to Congress in 2010, with the help of the DeVos family and Club for Growth, and retired because of Trump in 2020
He’s an anti-Choice fanatic
He was one of the founders of the House Freedom Caucus
He quit the GOP (and the Freedom Caucus) in 2019 and joined the Libertarian Party
He was the first Republican to call for the impeachment of Señor Trumpanzee and voted to impeach him twice
He’s remained active in Libertarian Party politics since leaving Congress
When he quit the GOP, he wrote a July 4 OpEd for the Washington Post, Our politics is in a partisan death spiral. That’s why I’m leaving the GOP. He wrote that his parents, “both immigrants, were Republicans. I supported Republican candidates throughout my early adult life and then successfully ran for office as a Republican. The Republican Party, I believed, stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty— principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family. In recent years, though, I’ve become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.
True to [George] Washington’s fears, Americans have allowed government officials, under assertions of expediency and party unity, to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law. The result has been the consolidation of political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy.
These are consequences of a mind-set among the political class that loyalty to party is more important than serving the American people or protecting our governing institutions. The parties value winning for its own sake, and at whatever cost. Instead of acting as an independent branch of government and serving as a check on the executive branch, congressional leaders of both parties expect the House and Senate to act in obedience or opposition to the president and their colleagues on a partisan basis.
In this hyperpartisan environment, congressional leaders use every tool to compel party members to stick with the team, dangling chairmanships, committee assignments, bill sponsorships, endorsements and campaign resources. As donors recognize the growing power of party leaders, they supply these officials with ever-increasing funds, which, in turn, further tightens their grip on power.
The founders envisioned Congress as a deliberative body in which outcomes are discovered. We are fast approaching the point, however, where Congress exists as little more than a formality to legitimize outcomes dictated by the president, the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader.
With little genuine debate on policy happening in Congress, party leaders distract and divide the public by exploiting wedge issues and waging pointless messaging wars. These strategies fuel mistrust and anger, leading millions of people to take to social media to express contempt for their political opponents, with the media magnifying the most extreme voices. This all combines to reinforce the us-vs.-them, party-first mind-set of government officials.
Modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape.
Most Americans are not rigidly partisan and do not feel well represented by either of the two major parties. In fact, the parties have become more partisan in part because they are catering to fewer people, as Americans are rejecting party affiliation in record numbers.
These same independent-minded Americans, however, tend to be less politically engaged than Red Team and Blue Team activists. Many avoid politics to focus on their own lives, while others don’t want to get into the muck with the radical partisans.
But we owe it to future generations to stand up for our constitutional republic so that Americans may continue to live free for centuries to come. Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.
Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system— and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.
He’s also a bitter enemy of the new head of the Michigan Republican Party, former Congressman Pete Hoekstra of whom he once said, “You are a disgrace. And I'm glad we could hand you one more loss before you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance.”
Amash announced his run on Twitter yesterday. He wrote that “We live in the greatest country on earth, but the ideals that have made it great are increasingly taken for granted. People often feel helpless and hopeless, unheard and ignored by Washington, and trapped between opposing forces who reject America’s principles or don’t understand them… Regardless of who wins the White House and Congress, the United States will remain deeply polarized. What we need is not a rubber stamp for either party, but an independent-minded senator prepared to challenge anyone and everyone on the people’s behalf— someone focused not on extending federal power so Republicans or Democrats in Washington can achieve their political ends, but on ensuring that Americans have the personal and economic freedom to pursue their own ends. As I wrote when I launched my exploratory committee: We need a principled, consistent constitutional conservative in the Senate— someone with a record of taking on the bipartisan oligarchy, defending sound money and free speech, fighting the surveillance state and military-industrial complex, and protecting all our rights. The advantage is ours in this battle, but that doesn’t mean victory will be easy. Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate, Mike Rogers, has built his career on expanding the power of the state at the expense of individual liberty, and the establishment will stop at nothing to get him elected.”
Peter Berg is the communications director for the NRSC. His response to Amash’s announcement was not welcoming.
