The GOP's Rejection of America

Over and over, Republicans ignore voters’ concerns. This deeply cynical behavior will not succeed.

What? Us, worry? Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas think something is very funny while waiting to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In a disturbing bit of news on Easter weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his plan to pardon Daniel Perry, who less than 24 hours earlier on Friday was convicted of murdering 28-year-old Garrett Foster at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Austin.

While Perry’s attorneys claimed he acted in self-defense since Foster was armed and he felt “threatened,” the prosecution noted that Perry, an Uber driver and active-duty Army sergeant, had run a red light and drove into the protest after earlier stating on social media that he might “kill a few people on my way to work; they are rioting outside my apartment complex.” As for Abbott, essentially ignoring the jury’s verdict, he wasted no time in insisting that the case fell under Texas’ “Stand Your Ground” laws, should be quickly reviewed by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and he’d pardon Perry “as soon as it hits my desk.”

If only this were the lone example of outrageous behavior during the last week. But a series of such events arrived so fast and furiously that it was hard to know where to focus one’s thoughts. Among them:

• On Thursday, in an act of hostility toward democracy, the GOP-led Tennessee legislature expelled two young black Democratic lawmakers protesting gun violence (which I wrote about in “Ban Assault Rifles” on Friday).

• The bitter concession speech on Tuesday by Wisconsin GOP Supreme Court candidate (and election denier) Dan Kelly who lost by double digits and called Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz a “serial liar” and her campaign “deeply deceitful” and “beneath contempt,” then wished the state luck “because I think it’s going to need it.”

• The detailed revelations in a ProPublica article on Thursday that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni had over decades taken luxury “hospitality” gifts worth millions from Texas billionaire and Nazi memorabilia collector Harlan Crow.

• The increasingly desperate criminal defendant, Donald Trump, who celebrated holy Easter Sunday—not by attending church—by posting, in all caps, “To all of those weak & pathetic rhinos, radical left Democrats, Socialists, Marxists, & Communists who are killing our nation, remember, we will be back!” And then, another post: “WORLD WAR III.”

Rather than such news fueling our anger, I would suggest we may be at a turning point—that the accumulation of bad behavior and the possible response to it offers a useful roadmap for those of us who value democracy and justice and seek change. From Texas to Tennessee, to Wisconsin to Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court, elected Republicans and their acolytes have made clear their disinterest in representing the will of the people and serving justice—and more, that they are determined to reject the majority, no matter how corrupt doing so requires them to be, in pursuit of their self-serving interests.

Consider a few of the outcomes this week and the responses.

Justice-elect Protasiewicz’s 11-point campaign win in Wisconsin, giving liberals on the court a 4-3 majority for the first time in 15 years, was largely focused on abortion access and voting rights. The overturning of Roe v. Wade was at the center of her advertising, and she made it clear she largely aligned with Democrats on issues. In her victory speech, she said voters have “chosen to reject partisan extremism in this state” and "too many have tried to overturn the will of the people.” The state’s Democratic Party chair, Ben Wikler, tweeted that the race was "a release valve for twelve years of Democratic rage in Wisconsin about Republicans rigging our state and smashing our democracy."

The record turnout in this most expensive judicial race in Wisconsin history included unusually high youth voting with volunteers for two activist groups reportedly knocking on nearly 100,000 doors and making some 250,000 phone calls. Predictably, former Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker blamed young voters for the loss with the familiar “anti-woke” talk. “It comes from years of radical indoctrination—on campus, in school, with social media, & throughout culture,” he said. “We have to counter it or conservatives will never win battleground states again.”

Meanwhile, the national response to the expulsions in Tennessee were unusually swift and strong for a state legislature issue. President Joe Biden described the action as “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent.” Former President Barack Obama, who doesn’t usually get into the fray these days, called the expulsions “the latest example of a broader erosion of civility and democratic norms.”

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville on Friday and called for background checks, red flag laws and restrictions on assault rifles. This aligned with a new Economist/YouGov poll last week that found 82 percent of Americans favoring universal background checks, 74 percent backing red flag laws and 63 percent favoring an assault weapons ban (including a remarkable 42 percent of Republicans).

Consider the comments of Justin Pearson, one of the expelled Tennessee lawmakers, whose national profile has risen dramatically since the GOP supermajority overplayed its hand. “We are at an inflection point in the life of our democracy, apathy toward gun violence cannot persist,” he said. “We can no longer accept the status quo that elevates gun lobby’s [interest] above the safety of our children.”

As for Clarence and Ginni Thomas, well, the tin-eared response released by the Supreme Court’s public information office, made clear they’re not about to apologize for their behavior and refusal to disclose the unethical gifts, even if Congressional Democrats are calling for investigation and Clarence has pledged to follow new guidelines on financial disclosures going forward. Harlan Crow and his wife are among their “dearest friends,” the statement said, and that “sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends” did not require disclosure—or so he says he was advised.

No matter that they were lavished with expensive trips for 25 years, including one in 2019 likely exceeding $500,000, involving nine days of island hopping on a large private jet and a 162-foot super-yacht with a full staff and a private chef. No matter the jet and super-yacht were owned by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, whose home includes an autographed copy of Mein Kampf and other Hitler artifacts. No matter that one of his company’s walls is adorned with an oil painting depicting Thomas, Crow and other Republicans, including the former Federalist Society chief Leonard Leo—all smoking cigars. No matter that judges are prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone with business involving the court.

No matter that Clarence appeared in a documentary financed by Crow in which he described his modest tastes “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it. I come from regular stock, and I prefer that—I prefer being around that.” Uh-huh.

“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served under Democrat and Republican administrations, told ProPublica. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”

Mine, too. And, I suspect, the hearts of millions of Americans who are exhausted by the corruption and increasingly doubt the court’s credibility and judicial independence. Almost exactly a year ago, on March 28, I published “Let’s Not Normalize Clarence and Ginni,” with the subtitle, “The need for ethics on the Supreme Court, especially when a spouse is seeking to abet the overthrow of a democratically elected government, could not be more obvious.”

That still holds, including the need to pass the Supreme Court Ethics Act, of which Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal are among the co-sponsors. “No Justice, any more than a federal judge, should advance a partisan cause or sit on a case involving a personal friend or interest,” Blumenthal said of the legislation, meant to address the eroding trust.

To no surprise, responding last year to criticism of Clarence Thomas concerning the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Justice Thomas is a great American and an outstanding Justice. I have total confidence in his brilliance and impartiality in every aspect of the work of the Court.”

We have no reason to assume McConnell’s changed his mind. And to be sure, the intensifying combination of Republican corruption, hostility to democracy, rejection of women’s reproductive rights, voting rights and gun control—not to mention likely additional indictments for a criminal defendant running for the GOP nomination for president—may be fine with the MAGA cult and even other Republicans included in the base. But the rising crescendo of passion and hard work to ensure turnout of activated Americans, young and old, can ensure that GOP hostility is a failing proposition.

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