Rare News Desk
When Tea Party conservatives launch primary challenges against Republican incumbents, we’re told it’s a waste of party resources.
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But in Michigan’s third congressional district, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Main Street Partnership—the latter run by a lobbyist and former Ohio Republican congressmen who complained the conservative Club for Growth “set themselves up as judge, jury and executioner” by backing primary challengers—opened up their wallets to try to unseat two-term Republican Rep. Justin Amash.
When Tea Party conservatives criticize the Republican incumbents they are challenging, we’re told it’s a violation of Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. (They neglect to mention Reagan himself challenged incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in 1976. If he hadn’t he probably never would have become president.)
But Amash was denounced as “al Qaeda’s best friend in Congress.” These words were spoken by a sitting Republican congressman. They were repeated by a Republican in an ad by Amash’s GOP primary challenger. That challenger, Brian Ellis, received a donation from a second sitting congressman serving in Michigan’s House delegation.
This calumny is far worse than calling someone a “RINO” or pointing out that they voted for tax increases.
Amash’s critics within the party tried, however unconvincingly, to play the RINO card too. They pretended he didn’t care about national defense or the right to life. Karl Rove hilariously described Amash as the “most liberal Republican.”
That would be the same Rove who served as leading political strategist and deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush. Bush’s record includes discretionary spending that rose faster than it did under Bill Clinton, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, Sarbanes-Oxley, the Patriot Act, steel tariffs, an attempted amnesty for illegal immigrants, and a Wilsonian foreign policy that led to a $1 trillion nation-building project in Iraq.
It’s also the same Rove whose oddly named “Conservative Victory Project” was widely viewed as competing with the Tea Party. Falsely claiming that Amash voted the most often with Nancy Pelosi is no way to keep the Eleventh Commandment.
So why did these establishment Republicans flip their usual party-loyalty script and try to take out Justin Amash?
As the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney observed, “Amash’s crime: being stubbornly consistent in opposing big government.”
That means supporting real free enterprise rather than corporate welfare, bailouts and subsidies to the establishment’s K Street cronies.
It means caring about limited government and the Bill of Rights even when constitutional violations are justified with the phrase “national security.”
It means safeguarding tax dollars, whether they are being spent at home, blown up in foreign countries or launched into outer space.
It means opposing big government programs when proposed by Republican congressmen or signed into law by Republican presidents.
It means opposing excessive executive power and overreach, even after the Democrats leave the White House.
Finally, it means having the courage to say no to wars that are not in the national interest.
That’s why it’s important that Amash cruised to a double-digit victory over his primary challenger Tuesday night. Two liberty-leaning Republicans in neighboring districts went down to defeat, including an incumbent whose challenger was endorsed by 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney (again, so much for the Eleventh Commandment).
But Amash is the most important liberty Republican in the House. He is a leader of the bipartisan coalition to rein in the National Security Agency, protect privacy and stop indefinite detention. He helped stop a U.S. war of choice with Syria. He has kept alive Ron Paul’s tradition of only voting for legislation he believes is explicitly authorized by the Constitution.
Amash’s primary opponent said it was up to the courts to decide what was constitutional. Remember how the Supreme Court saved us from the unconstitutionality of Obamacare? If you don’t, that’s because it didn’t happen—though it might have if the chief justice appointed by Rove’s boss had voted correctly.
By re-nominating Amash, Michigan Republicans guaranteed themselves representation by a consistent conservative who is nevertheless his own man rather than a cookie-cutter GOP lawmaker. He votes his conscience and then explains every vote to his constituents on Facebook.
You might not agree with him on every issue. This writer doesn’t. But it shows a level of conscientiousness and transparency about the job that is sorely lacking in Washington.
Moreover, Amash’s success is helping to grow the liberty caucus in the House. On a vote where Ron Paul would have once been alone, Amash will have the company of Thomas Massie, Mark Sanford and Walter Jones, among others.
As in Jones’ case, Amash’s Republican opponents will likely try again, even as they discourage conservative primary challengers in the same breath. But for now, constitutional conservatives can celebrate a rare victory.
