A Republican former congressman Adam Kinzinger warned in an interview with The Guardian that a second term for Donald Trump could mean the end of American democracy and “a devastating blow to the world order”.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has vowed to exact revenge on his political opponents in a second-term agenda that is more aggressive than his first, including mass deportations and a purge of the judiciary. Kinzinger, one of the most prominent Trump critics in the United States, is sounding the alarm.
“The best-case scenario is that the government is completely incompetent and inefficient,” he said by phone. “The worst thing that happened was that during his four-year term, he didn’t understand what he was doing. He just wanted to survive and until the end he listened to the people around him. Now he’s going to have people around him People who share the same views, and this just reaffirms his point, some of them, frankly, are very smart and they know how to implement these authoritarian measures around the constitution or the law.”
He added: “Is this the end of the United States of America? I don’t think so, but let me stress this: think. But this will certainly set us back on the progress we have already made. “
Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, was first elected to Congress in 2010 but broke away from his party following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He denounced the then-president for inciting “angry mobs” with false claims of voter fraud and was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him.
He later became one of two Republicans, along with Liz Cheney of Wyoming, on a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. He also founded a political group, Nations First, to support candidates who oppose Trump and view him as a threat to the Constitution.
He announced he would not seek re-election after the Democratic-controlled Illinois Legislature approved new congressional maps, forcing Kinzinger and another Republican incumbent, staunch Trump supporter Darin LaHood, to (Darin LaHood) for a primary matchup.
Since his departure, House Republicans have become more dysfunctional, ineffective and closely aligned with Trump, who continues to sow distrust of institutions and falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen. Kinzinger, 45, worries the former president’s return to Washington could mark the beginning of the end for American democracy.
“Will we have an election four years after Trump? Probably. Will the person with the most votes win? Probably. But the only thing autonomy needs to survive is – You don’t have to agree with Jack Squat, just that you can vote, your vote matters, and whoever gets the most votes wins – that’s the only contract Americans need.
“He’s already convinced 30 to 40 percent of Americans that the system is rigged, so I don’t think he’s going to continue to undermine confidence in the system during his four years in office. When that’s permanently undermined, Democracy is over. It really can’t survive this way.”
Kinzinger will speak at the Principles First Summit in Washington on Sunday, which is said to be attended by more than 700 pro-democracy, anti-Trump conservatives and centrists. It will be held concurrently with and in opposition to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), now the annual gathering of far-right Make America Great Again (Maga) populism.
Kinzinger has never attended CPAC. “It’s like a ‘conservative’ clown show,” he said. “In past CPACs, there were always some weird people, and now those weird people are the entire Republican Party. So maybe I should put on a fake beard and go in and see where the party goes.”
This year’s CPAC speaker line-up includes Trump, Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Housing Secretary Ben Ka Ben Carson, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
Stefanik is the highest-ranking woman in the Republican Congress, one of the first lawmakers to support Trump’s presidential bid, and a strong contender for Trump’s running mate. However, the New York congresswoman was once viewed as a moderate.
Kinzinger said: “Alice Stefanik is still a huge surprise and disappointment to me. I’ve known her before. I think she legitimately opposed Trump’s first impeachment, and she gave some speeches and Trump praised her, and all of a sudden, man, it was like being on heroin. feels good. I’ve been there, I’ve been where Trump complimented me and said nice things about me, and it felt great.
“She made the decision right then and there to grab it and leave, and it paid off for her. She kept getting re-elected and was considered for vice president. If I were her, I simply couldn’t look in the mirror. But from the original As a political strategy, she did a great job.”
Another potential running mate — and a case study in capitulation — is South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who abandoned his own presidential campaign last year and recently told Trump: “I just love you.” The move humiliated many observers.
Kinzinger reflects: “Of all the people, Tim Scott was the one who really hurt me. I don’t mean that to sound like a mild argument, but I know Tim. I know his heart. He and I are close friends. I know he knows better.
Newsletter Promotion Post
“It kind of shatters my faith in humanity and, frankly, in people who are in politics. I’ve always thought that no matter how many people play this game – and I’m very good at playing this game – there’s always a line they can’t cross. The red line. It was really devastating to me personally when I saw Tim Scott cross the red line.“
Scott downplayed Trump’s numerous legal troubles, which include 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, and declined to condemn the former president’s role in the Jan. 6 riots. Stefanik called the House’s Jan. 6 panel “illegal and unconstitutional” and echoed Trump’s rhetoric, describing those convicted in the insurrection as “hostages.”
Kinzinger was shocked.
“I’m convinced that in ten years no Trump supporter will admit that they support Donald Trump. He will ultimately be seen as a stain on this country. I don’t think that in ten years any of their children will be Trump’s Supporters. But that said, it means we have to win because if they win, they write the history books, they write the rules, then my prediction is going to be wrong.”
When the history books are written, an important chapter will cover how the party of George H.W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney became the party of Trump, Steve Bannon, and The party of Jory Taylor Greene. Kinzinger, the author of “Traitor: My Life of Faith, the Military, and Defending America from Trump’s Assault on Democracy,” has his own thoughts.
“When I came out, I could observe and say I thought these things were beneath the surface. I felt a little bit, but the assumption in my mind was that this authoritarian movement, with its racist undertones, was extreme. I have always Think it’s just part of the movement, part of the party. But Donald Trump’s superpower is he teaches people not to be ashamed, not to be embarrassed, not to worry about backlash.
“It’s this sense of shame that keeps the party in secrecy. When that’s taken away, you get some of the worst instincts at the bottom. Leaders are not doing what they should be doing, leading people to a better place.” The good thing is, instead, there’s this anger and this madness about money, and Donald Trump is the biggest part of it.”
“Have freedom” has become the mantra of Donald Trump Jr. and others in the MAGA movement. “There’s a view now that if you can piss off liberals and the left — that’s a deep culture war,” Kinzinger said. “The left does a lot of things that make me crazy, but if they can make the left crazy , that’s what they do.
“So why do they like Vladimir Putin? Well, some people do like him, but some people just love him because he annoys the left. That’s not the way to govern, but it’s a good way to raise a lot of money method.”
Trump’s admiration for Russia’s authoritarian ruler Vladimir Putin continues to be frustrating and disturbing. He recently encouraged Russia to attack NATO allies who don’t pay their bills, despite NATO’s mutual defense provision, known as Article 5. He remained silent for days after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison.
What does Trump’s re-election as president mean for the Western alliance? Kinzinger, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, commented: “Sadly for Ukraine, this will most likely mean the end of NATO. NATO still exists, but a “border invasion” of Estonia, for example, would trigger Article 5 — I don’t think you would have seen Donald Trump stand up for Estonia at that time, and that would have been an effective end for Estonia. NATO, because Article V is the only thing that holds it together.
“Ukraine will continue to fight and Europe has stepped up its efforts, but I don’t expect Ukraine to win, at least under Donald Trump. Now, if Ukraine faces losses under Donald Trump, he It could turn things around; I’m not going to say it will never happen. But it would be very devastating to the world order as we know it.”
