Dave Reichert, the former King County sheriff, member of Congress and current leading Republican contender in the race for governor, says his party “has been taken hostage.”
It may be more like an alien abduction.
The latest evidence of this was the Republican Party’s state convention last week in Spokane. Reichert was passed over for the party’s endorsement in favor of Semi Bird, a political novice whom voters recalled last year from his position on the Richland school board.
Delegates also literally turned their backs on former U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who is running for state lands commissioner. Congressman Dan Newhouse was shunned, as well, and the party’s endorsement was given to his right-wing rival, Jerrod Sessler.
Why did these three prominent Republicans not win the backing of their own party? Because they have failed to show abject fealty to former President Donald Trump. Beutler and Newhouse, in particular, were anathema to the majority of the conventioneers because they voted to impeach the ex-president after he aided and abetted the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
The trio of outcasts are branded as RINOs — Republicans in name only — by many of Trump’s MAGA devotees, but, in any other era, Reichert, Beutler and, especially, Newhouse would be recognized as the solid conservatives that they are. The definition of conservative has morphed in recent years, though. The conservative brand now has far less to do with support of conservative policies than with an attitude of belligerence, grievance, paranoia and fear — the attitude that Trump embodies in his every utterance and encourages in his followers.
The GOP’s MAGA base has moved so far from the rational conservatism of past Republican leaders like Slade Gorton and Jennifer Dunn that they are essentially aliens who have seized the collective mind of the state party and turned it into a personality cult — a party that is truly Republican in name only.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
Editor’s note: Seattle Times Opinion no longer appends comment threads on David Horsey’s cartoons. Too many comments violated our community policies and reviewing the dozens that were flagged as inappropriate required too much of our limited staff time. You can comment via a Letter to the Editor. Please email us at letters@seattletimes.com and include your full name, address and telephone number for verification only. Letters are limited to 200 words.