Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Anthony Gonzalez leaves no doubt about what he thinks about Donald Trump and his impact on the GOP. The former president, he says, is like a \u201ccancer,\u201d and he has turned his party into a toxic and hostile environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe he can ever be president again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But if Trump is the one supposedly headed for the exit, why is it Gonzalez who announced he would not seek reelection?<\/p>\n
Last week, Gonzalez (Ohio), the 37-year-old former rising star, announced that he wouldn\u2019t stay and fight his Trump-backed primary challenger, walking away from what had once been a safe seat in Congress.<\/p>\n
The decision was greeted with dismay among anti-Trumpers of both parties who saw Gonzalez\u2019s survival as a test of whether Trump\u2019s grip on the GOP could be shaken. It also came as a surprise. Gonzalez was an attractive candidate, with a strong resume and lots of cash, and he had out-performed Trump by nearly 7 points in November. Why would he hand his nemesis an easy win?<\/p>\n
The answer is Gonzalez didn\u2019t quit because he feared he couldn\u2019t win, but because it just wasn\u2019t worth it anymore. Winning, it turns out, is not winning if the prize feels a lot more like a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could fight your butt off and win this thing, but are you really going to be happy?\u201d he asked. \u201cAnd the answer is, probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the key to his decision to self-purge: He could spend a year fighting off merde-slinging deplorables, only to win another two years sitting in a caucus next to Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Paul Gosar (R- Ariz.) and the other avatars of Trumpism.<\/p>\n
Defeat, even before a single vote is cast, might have been disappointing. It might even look to some like a conspicuous lack of competitive mettle. But that assumes the outcome is in doubt \u2014 which it isn\u2019t. The Republican Party is already lost. And victory meant two more years trapped in a hellscape of crazified school board meetings, Trump rallies, My Pillow Guy insanity, Newsmax and Fox News hits, and a caucus run by Kevin McCarthy, a man without any principle beyond the acquisition of power.<\/p>\n
So Gonzalez decided to become the latest Republican to walk away from it all.<\/p>\n
Trump gloated, attributing Gonzalez\u2019s fall to his \u201cill-informed and otherwise very stupid impeachment vote against the sitting President of the United States, me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the young congressman\u2019s decision also highlighted once again the transformation of the GOP. The party is okay with members who dabble in white nationalism, peddle conspiracy theories and foment acts of political violence. Neither bigotry nor nihilism is disqualifying.<\/p>\n
The one unforgivable sin, however, is telling the truth about the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
By and large, GOP officeholders have internalized that message; they know that defying or even questioning Trump\u2019s most bizarre claims is political suicide.<\/p>\n
Trump has already made dozens of endorsements<\/a> in down-ballot races against Republican officials who refused to back his claims of election fraud, not to mention the 10 members of Congress who actually voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.<\/p>\n The result is a Trump-led purge of dissidents, but the bigger story \u2014 and the one with longer-term implications \u2014 may be the self-deportation of the sane, the decent and the principled, who simply opt to leave on their own.<\/p>\n Their political emigration is profoundly changing the face of the GOP, and it is happening at every level of politics, from local school boards to the United States Senate. Whatever the result of next year\u2019s elections, the GOP that remains will be meaner, dumber, crazier and more beholden than ever to the defeated, twice-impeached former president.<\/p>\n Until this year,<\/span> Anthony Gonzalez was not a particularly likely candidate for political martyrdom. His record was solidly conservative \u2014 he voted \u201cright\u201d 85 percent of the time, according to the conservative Heritage Action<\/a> vote tracker. FiveThirtyEight found<\/a> that he had voted with Trump nearly 89 percent of the time in the 116th Congress.<\/p>\n In 2020, Gonzalez had run unopposed in the GOP primary and won reelection in November with more than 63 percent of the vote. (Trump won the northeast Ohio district but by 6.7 percentage points less.) There was talk that the congressman, who has an MBA from Stanford and whose relatives fled Castro\u2019s Cuba, could be a future governor or senator.<\/p>\n But that was before he became one of just 10 GOP representatives to vote to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection. \u201cThe President of the United States helped organize and incite a mob,\u201d he said. At the time he explained that he was \u201ccompelled\u201d to vote for impeachment because of Trump\u2019s \u201clack of response as the United States Capitol was under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n Immediately, of course, he became a target of Trump\u2019s wrath, but there were still reasons to think the former college and NFL player might be a survivor. For a lot of politicians, being a congressman is the most exciting thing they will ever do; it is the be-all and the end-all of their self-identity. But as I told Sports Illustrated earlier this year<\/a>, that wasn\u2019t the case with Gonzalez, who has done cooler things in his career, and so was less likely to blink than some of his other colleagues.<\/p>\n In addition, Gonzalez had more than $1.5 million in his campaign war chest<\/a> and even though he faced a tough primary challenge next year, his Trump-backed opponent was a deeply flawed candidate. As POLITICO reported in July<\/a>, his Trumpist challenger, Max Miller, had a reputation as \u201ca cocky bully with a quick-trigger temper.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller has a long record of speeding, underage drinking and disorderly conduct. According to sources, \u201ca romantic relationship with former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham ended when he pushed her against a wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment after she accused him of cheating on her.\u201d<\/p>\n Gonzalez told reporters last week that he was confident he could have won his primary against Miller. But the father of two young children cited a rising tide of threats he and his family had to deal with after his impeachment vote. He recalled being greeted at the airport by two uniformed police officers, who were detailed to provide security. \u201cThat\u2019s one of those moments where you say, \u2018Is this really what I want for my family when they travel, to have my wife and kids escorted through the airport?\u2019\u201d he told the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Georgia, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan went through the same gauntlet after he refused to support Trump\u2019s claims of election fraud. \u201cPeople wanted to rip my head off,\u201d Duncan writes in a new book. \u201cFriends disappeared or became rabid enemies overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Gonzalez, Duncan \u2014 also once a rising star in the GOP \u2014 has announced that he is not running for reelection next year.<\/p>\n In the end, they weren\u2019t willing to pay the price to remain in a toxified Republican party. They are far from alone.<\/p>\n In 2018, according to Ballotpedia, 23 House Republicans retired<\/a> from political life altogether, followed by another 20 who stepped away from political office in 2020<\/a>. Others also retired, but ran for other offices. Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) continue to hang on, but they are increasingly isolated and outnumbered. The House retirees have been joined by centrist GOP senators like Jeff Flake, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who opted not to seek reelection. Pennsylvania\u2019s Pat Toomey and North Carolina\u2019s Richard Burr (who also voted to convict Trump) will also step down after next year\u2019s election. They will be joined by Ohio\u2019s Rob Portman, who voted to acquit Trump but was critical of his behavior.<\/p>\n