REAL RED REPS

“Do you know what the difference between fiction and nonfiction is?
Fiction has to make sense.”

A week ago I found myself reflecting on the Tom Clancy quote above as I stood in a bar in Lansing, which happens to be called the Nuthouse, arguing with the manager about their no photo policy.

"What do you mean I can't make pictures in the Nuthouse?"  

The bar was filling up with freshly credentialed Michigan Republican Party Delegates who, because of funding issues, each paid $80 to participate in their normally free convention. They waited in anticipation to meet Kari Lake, who recently lost her race for Arizona governor, and claims that her election was "stolen". A common refrain in the Republican party and one that has anointed many ideological north stars. This is especially true in Michigan, which saw steep losses during the 2022 midterms and gubernatorial race in which Republican Tudor Dixon failed to unseat incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. This loss precipitated a Republican party that is deeply fractured, without stalwart leadership, in search of a new identity.

Just as the event was supposed to get under way, we were told that Lake wouldn't be showing up after all. Earlier that day, an Arizona appeals court, after finding no evidence of voter disenfranchisement or fraud, rejected her request to throw out election results in the state’s most populous county.

Without their star, the guests nonetheless lined up for photos with Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy, who seems to turn up at every MIGOP event and who still thinks Donald Trump was cheated in 2020. A nightcap is in order, for me, a shot of whiskey, a Miller High Life and a long pull off of my friend Emily's THC dispensing vaporizer. The hotel doesn't have a jacuzzi, still, I consider blowing off the next day's convention by getting supremely stoned and floating in the pool à la Hunter S. Thompson during his "coverage" of The Rumble in the Jungle. But in the morning I am stirred to action, quite literally, by a cup of coffee branded as "BOLD" and three disks of compressed pig meat, and I head out to the Michigan Republican Convention to witness the election of their new party chairman.

It took the delegation eleven hours, three votes, and about 1,327 pieces of pro-right merchandise to choose one of ten nominees. As recently as 2016, Republicans boasted a governor, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, and they contributed a major victory to the election that made Donald Trump president. The party was doing well financially with steady cash injections from the likes of former Trump appointed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and U-M Regent and former GOP co-chair Ron Wieser.

Since then, party infighting and an influx of activists so suspicious they don't even trust other Republicans have left the MIGOP in such disarray that they went with a grueling process for counting ballots at the Saturday convention, eschewing a machine count for a hand-count, even though the hand counts they performed after the machine counts at their last convention showed no errors.

The first three hours were spent debating a proposed voting rule change so convoluted that it left many on the floor scratching their heads and wondering which one of their own people was at the mic berating the rest of them for having "thin skin" and "looking to cheat."

At 8pm four hours past their original reservation of the Lansing Center, after three hand-counted votes, the party elected Kristina Karamo as Chairman, the first black woman ever to hold the position. A former community college instructor who holds a master's degree in Christian Apologetics, Karamo came to prominence through denying the legality of the 2020 presidential election and recently lost her own race against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson by 14 percentage points, yet claimed she was cheated.

During her speech before the vote, Karamo told delegates the party "operated like a political mafia," guided by its "own self-serving agenda." She did not offer specifics beyond saying that the state GOP was run like a "private social club."

Then instead of looking forward, she looked back.

"There's a reason I did not concede the 2022 election," Karamo said. "Why would I concede to a fraudulent process?"

Again, she offered no specifics, and for this particular audience, little evidence is needed as long as the attacks are aimed in the right direction.

Karamo's win came as a surprise to many, who saw Matthew DePerno as the front runner. DePerno, who recently lost his race for Attorney General, was explicitly backed by Trump, who appeared in a video promo which DePerno pantomimed in front of, pointing to supporters and giving the thumbs up while smiling, all in lieu of giving any kind of speech.

As I floated around the convention hall, I spoke with people about what issues they believed were most important ahead of 2024. What struck me in their answers was the common ground these self described far right populists shared with the left.

For example, George Phillips, who was wearing a shirt featuring Governor Whitmer with a Hitler mustache which read "Not My Dictator," told me, "I think that the divisions in our society are largely driven by the most influential humans on the planet–Big Pharma, Big Tech, and transportation and energy moguls. The majority of our news outlets, talk shows, and social media algorithms are being used to shill for big money interests."

Many on the right see the issues that I see with capitalism: consolidation of wealth compounded by greed and short-sighted, shareholder-based decision-making such as Norfolk Southern's decision to invest in stock buybacks rather than worker support and infrastructure upgrades (which led to the ongoing catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio). Despite the derailment being caused by 15 years of deregulation, corporate greed and compounded by mainstream's media lack of coverage of an issue which was implicates both political parties (as reported by the Lever and picked up by the NYT), folks like George are likely to think that the tragedy was in fact caused by rail workers who are seeking revenge over their recent bid to gain paid sick leave and better scheduling under their union renegotiation.

Open conspiracies are eschewed for conspiracies that confirm their biases. This is a problem on the left as well, it is a problem for us all in an age where truth is relative and ideological wins are more important than a reality that, if reckoned with, holds both the left and right accountable for selling out to corporations.

Karamo has a lot of work ahead of her. If the Republican party wishes to regain the control they had in 2016 she will need to overcome the suspicion of the democratic process that has fractured the party, and she will have to help make up an enormous fundraising deficit. Will she do this all through doubling down on election denial? Through theological arguments? There is certainly an us-versus-them mentality running through American politics these days. This is the water in which we fish swim. We long ago forgot it makes us wet.

See you next week,

-Niki

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