GOP Congressman Abruptly Rebels Against Trump To Run In 2020

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There are three types of Republicans in Congress. There is the Freedom Caucus whose members are in complete lockstep with Donald Trump’s agenda. Then, there are those who have surrendered their equal branch power to this president, perhaps out of fear. Finally, there are those rare Republicans who have the courage to stand up against Trump. Now, lone Republican Justin Amash (R-MI) wants to beat POTUS at his own game.

Representative Amash actually considers himself the only Libertarian in the Republican party. He just announced that he “can’t rule out” opposing Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election as a third-party Libertarian:

“I think my message does resonate with a lot of people. There are people who are tired of the way it works and are coming to understand that the problem is this two-party duopoly and the partisan fighting that is nonstop. If people came to Washington with strong ideologies but less partisanship this would be a lot better.’

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Amash said:

‘It turns out a lot of them were not in favor of limiting the size of government, they were just opposed to the president at the time. The Tea Party is largely gone. It was replaced with nationalism and protectionism and the general philosophy of the party now under Trump.’

Chair of the Republican National Committee Ronna Romney McDaniel said she was not surprised:

‘He’s kind of always going on his own path. And sometimes he’s swimming in the same direction as you, and sometimes he’s not. And Justin was never a supporter of President Trump.’

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Chair of the Libertarian party Nicholas Sarwark said:

‘There’s a lot of people who consider Amash to be the best congressman from the perspective of a Libertarian. They think he’s the best congressman for our goals since Ron Paul.’

Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution John Hudask claimed there was no place for “a serious third-party option” at the presidential level:

‘At any moment in our political history, you’re going to have people who are dissatisfied with the party status quo, and they can respond in a variety of ways. Trying to form a third party is always the least successful approach.’

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Amash does not identify with the two Independents, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Angus King (I-ME). They vote with the Democrats. Amash considered:

‘We want to allow people to have choices in elections, at least most Americans want that, but the parties don’t want that. They want you to be stuck choosing between “Team Red” or “Team Blue” and it makes everything much easier for them them.’

Registered Libertarians grew 92 percent between 2008 and 2018, Sarwark said:

‘If you’re a Republican that doesn’t feel like doing whatever Trump is doing because of what he ate for breakfast, you have nowhere to go right now. Democrats are having a discussion about what that party means … Philosophically, libertarianism is on the rise, but it helps that the two old parties are busy killing themselves.’

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About Libertarians increasing their votes, Hudak said “it’s pretty hard to imagine:”

‘Any sort of upstart candidate who thinks he would defeat a sitting president in a primary and is not independently wealthy is likely fooling themselves and their supporters.’

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Members of the House Freedom Caucus have aligned themselves tightly to Trump, especially when it comes to immigration. Amash said Trump “consolidated the (Republican) establishment and the grassroots:”

‘If anything, the establishment is the most powerful I’ve ever seen it in D.C. at any time I’ve been involved in politics. People think (Trump) is draining the swamp because of the way he talks. So he’s solved the problem for the Republican establishment. They have always had trouble with the grassroots and the tea party who have pushed back against their positions.’

Amash was not surprised about the reactions he got to his idea of running in 2020:

‘I think people see that I’m operating differently than other people in politics. That’s just the way I’ve always been. I believe firmly in following a set of principles, following the Constitution and the rule of law.’