The story of Elise Stefanik says a lot about what has really gone wrong within the Republican party in the Trump era. In her, we see the way in which the Republicans have truly wronged the American people and the world–not by believing Trump, but by doing what is politically expedient. Doing not what is right but what they perceive to be right in that political moment for their careers.
Stefanik is part of a phenomenon that is tearing apart the Republican party and the nation. She started out being a traditional Republican, a sort of understudy to Paul Ryan. That was, until, she discovered that casting her lot in with Trump was the only way to get ahead. When Paul Ryan was forced to retire and it looked as if she might share the same fate, Stefanik did a political 180, even as she lost the respect of close friends. She went from calling President Trump a “whack job” to using his divisive message to propel her career forward.
Stefanik represents the underlying problem of American politics that allowed Trump to get political traction in the first place. It masquerades as political pragmatism. In reality, it is a fundamental lack of political integrity. The problem with Stephanik is not what she believes in, it is her failure to believe in anything. That is even more dangerous. It is very doubtful that she actually believes Trump’s lies about a stolen election, or anything else for that matter. Stafanik is a chameleon. She believes whatever makes most sense for her at a given political moment. She is, in short, the most dangerous thing there is to a democracy.
The most important thing a democracy demands is representatives that are truthful with, and to, those they represent, no matter what the immediate political costs. Granted, people need to respond to their constituencies. But Stephanik and others like her shaped their constituencies by playing on hatred and division for their own personal political gain. Stephnik was not listening to her constituents, she was helping someone lie to them, and doing it for raw power and personal gain.
Trump is a cancer. But he didn’t come out of nowhere and he is ultimately the symptom of a disease. Trump gained power and continues to have power because of people like Stephanik. She is in many ways the true villain. Trump is bad; he’s evil–power hungry, egotistical, self-serving. There will always be men like Trump. And men like Trump will always be dangerous. But they will not truly become a threat to democracy until people like Stefanik use the kind of internal logic that she does about keeping them in power. Trump found, and exploited, a weakness in the Republican party. He found enough people willing to help him lie to the people they were supposed to represent. And as long as that weakness remains, so will the threat to democracy. And if a stop isn’t put to it, American democracy is imperiled.
Progressive Without Apology 