Amash: A Republican’s call for impeachment
Rep. Justin Amash has given conservatives a “clarifying choice,” said Conor Friedersdorf in TheAtlantic.com. “Stay loyal to a president of bad character” or attack a man of conscience “who votes in accordance with the principles they share.” The Michigan congressman, 39, last week became the first Republican in either the House or Senate to call for President Trump’s impeachment. In a series of 13 tweets, Amash carefully explained why the Mueller report clearly indicates Trump obstructed justice, and stated that “any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.” Trump, he said, had “engaged in impeachable conduct.” Shortly afterward, said Andrew Sullivan in NYMag.com, Amash received a standing ovation at a town hall in his heavily Republican district. In effect, this “real conservative” is asking other Republicans: “Do we acquiesce to tribalism or practice self-government?”
Amash’s betrayal has bought him a moment, said Henry Olsen in The Washington Post. “He is, however, neither unbiased nor a typical Republican, rendering such attention way overblown.” Amash has opposed Trump’s tariffs and budget deficits and is more of a libertarian than a true conservative. As House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, Amash “votes more with Nancy Pelosi than he ever votes with me.” That’s “simply not true,” said Charles Sykes in TheBulwark.com. Amash was elected as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave and is a true, small-government conservative. He voted with Trump’s policies 92 percent of the time in the current Congress. Unlike other Republicans, however, he rejects the notion that if you like some of what Trump does, you have “to be silent about all the rest—the lies, the grift, the potentially illegal conduct. Everything.”
For now, at least, Amash’s “anti-Trump solo act is doomed,” said Jeff Greenfield in Politico .com. In Hollywood movies, the courageous whistleblower makes a stirring speech on the Senate floor and “truth prevails and the corrupt are exposed.” But Amash isn’t Jimmy Stewart, and in the real world, Trump enjoys a 90 percent approval rating from Republicans; other Trump critics in the GOP, like former Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, have been driven from power. Right now, Amash “finds himself in a party of one,” and unless something truly shocking occurs, he will remain that way.