Op-Ed Rebukes GOP, Calls on House Republicans to Own Their Part in National Discord
Former Texas Congressman Will Hurd is calling on his former colleagues and national party to do some soul searching.
For Hurd, there can be no future for the GOP without the GOP first looking in the mirror, accepting its role in our current political climate, and making amends.
But do House Republicans, many of whom are QAnon apologists, their party leaders and apparatus, including the National Republican Campaign Committee that pumped QAnon conspiracy theories throughout the 2020 cycle, agree?
After all, it was this commitment to QAnon’s “big lie,” that incited a mob to swarm the Capitol, overturn the election and damage our democracy. This violent act lead to the death of five including a police officer earlier this month.
REMINDER: The majority of the Republican conference voted to overturn the election and only ten voted to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the deadly mob.
“For far too long, Republicans in Washington have aided, abetted and amplified dangerous and destructive QAnon conspiracy theories that have driven a wedge throughout the country and created the destructive mob that stormed the Capitol,” said DCCC Spokesperson Christine Bennett. “House Republicans’ refusal to combat this growing problem is weak and cowardly and has done great harm to our country.”
KEY EXCERPTS BELOW
Joe Biden is president in large part because Republicans have been incapable of growing the GOP to better reflect the changing demographics in the United States. We won’t be able to change that without addressing the epidemic of misinformation that has infected the party and realigning our party’s actions based on our values.
Republicans have lost seven of the last eight national popular votes, and it only took four years for us to lose the House, Senate and the White House. Republicans aren’t going to achieve electoral success by being seen as the party that defends QAnon extremists who advocate the murder of the former vice president. Nor will we see success by supporting white supremacists who call a Black police officer the n-word while that police officer puts his life on the line to protect democracy. Every Republican on the ballot in 2022 will face campaign attack ads that affiliate them with the domestic terrorists who charged the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
If the party wants a future, the elected officials, pundits and activists who claim to be its members must stop peddling conspiracy theories and drive out those who continue to do so. Republicans must be honest and do the right thing based on conservative values, not the thing that leads to more clicks, comments or shares on social media.
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I accept that many of the people who stormed the Capitol believed the lies they were fed. They were lied to not only about the validity of the election, which was the most secure in our history, but also on a host of issues for years. They were radicalized through multiple platforms that sought to advance elected officials’ ambitions or the goals of foreign adversaries. Every person who went from peacefully protesting to joining the insurrection should be found and fully prosecuted, but conservatives need to wake up to a few realities.
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Using these values to guide our decisions and being honest about the tough choices our country must make to keep this century the American Century will translate to electoral success. A new GOP starts with us looking in the mirror and being honest with ourselves about what we believe.
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