Leadership changes haven't fixed the Michigan GOP

"The way you behave when you think you can get away with it is who you really are." ~ Carly Fiorina

Many hoped that the recent change in leadership in the Michigan Republican Party would lead to a more sensible MiGOP, but the facts are that little has changed in what the leadership (and therefore the party) stands for.

Former leader Ronald Weiser called for violence against the “three witches” (Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson) suggesting that they be "ready for the burning at the stake". He also suggested violence against Michigan Republican representatives who voted to impeach the former president, by suggesting that, “Other than assassination, I have no other way other than voting them out."

Then came Kristina Karamo. Her continued support of the Big Lie clearly demonstrates that the party no longer believes in free and fair elections. She demonstrated who she is (and by extension who the MiGOP is) by being a guest speaker at a QAnon conference, claiming that Beyonce was secretly recruiting Black Americans to paganism, stating that “demonic possession is real” and that the leaders of Black Lives Matter are “Marxist witches” — just a few of her outlandish statements. She echoed the claim promoted by QAnon that a shadowy cabal of elites is harvesting children’s organs. All while guiding the MiGOP to near bankruptcy. She refused to concede her own 2022 race for Michigan Secretary of State, which she lost by 14 percent.

Finally tired of the Karamo drama, the MiGOP chose to replace her with Pete Hoekstra. Changing leaders did nothing to change the core values of the MiGOP.

When Hoekstra ran for Congress in 1992, he vowed he would serve no more than 12 years and forgo the taint of political action committee donations. In 2004 he forgot his earlier pledge as he ran for a 7th term and accepted PAC money.

Even after no WMDs were found in the wake of the Iraq invasion, Hoekstra made headlines by announcing at a press conference in the Capitol that weapons of mass destruction had been located in Iraq in the form of 500 chemical weapons.

On November 3, 2006, The New York Times reported that a website created at the request of Hoekstra and Senator Pat Roberts was found to contain detailed information that could potentially be helpful to those seeking to produce nuclear weapons. The website was shut down on Nov. 2 following questioning by The New York Times.

Eager to stay in politics, he ran for statewide offices. He lost the 2010 Republican primary for governor by 10% and in 2012 he lost the general election for U.S. Senate by 20%. He was forced to apologize for a campaign ad that was described as “racist and offensive by people from both parties”.

Following his failure to get elected to statewide offices, he remained in politics for the next few years as a lobbyist in Washington.

In 2017 he was nominated to be the US Ambassador to the Netherlands. On his first official day, the Dutch press asked him about the controversial comments he made in 2015 in which he said that the “Islamic movement” was creating chaos in Europe and suggested that extremists were burning politicians and cars in the Netherlands (conspiracy theories popular in right-wing media). When challenged by the press he denied that he had ever made the comments and went as far as to call those comments fake news. Because the Dutch press was persistent, and they had the recordings, he was finally forced to apologize weeks later.

He stirred up another round of suspicion (reflecting on America) as he invited the now-defunct radical right-wing Dutch political party (PVV) to have an event at the embassy.

With the hiring of Hoekstra, the underlying values of the MiGOP have not changed. The party is stuck in a world where violence toward those they don’t agree with is ok. By parroting the Big Lie, they continue to undermine democracy. They continue to repeat conspiracy theories with the only goal of frightening voters. And they continue to demonstrate their difficulties with the truth. When caught in a lie, the party line is to double down on that very lie.

Those of us interested in a strong two-party system continue to wait for a Michigan Republican Party that can distinguish truth from outright lies. One that stops parroting conspiracy theories.  One that refuses to incite violence. And one that is willing to stand up for all Americans, not just those at the extremes and the rich.

— Mark Smith resides in Grand Haven.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Leadership changes haven't fixed the Michigan GOP