Lisa Murkowski reveals the ugly nature of Trump's rule
It's not about persuasion. It's about fear.
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Every day it seems as if Donald Trump is inflicting new horrors on the nation — catastrophic trade wars, the undermining of public health, mass deportations without due process. Fear is an understandable response to this ongoing nightmare, but it’s even scarier when our elected representatives share that emotion.
“We are all afraid,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski admitted last week at an event in Anchorage. “It’s quite a statement. We’re in a time and place where — I don’t know, I certainly have not — I have not been here before. And I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real. And that’s not right. But that’s what you’ve asked me to do and so I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability.” (Watch below.)
Murkowski’s remarks are alarming because there’s no reason she should fear “retaliation” in any normal political sense. She held off a primary challenge in 2022 and isn’t up for reelection until 2028. But everyone understands that defying Trump can bring dangers more grave than well-funded primary challenges.
After all, on January 6, Trump sicced a violent mob on his own vice president when he wouldn’t follow his illegal orders, and since returning to office, Trump has behaved more like a mob boss than a commander in chief. Indeed, Murkowski sounds sadly resigned to this fact, like someone bravely fighting a terminal illness with no hope of a cure.
Trump is not a normal president who governs through persuasion and political savvy. He constantly resorts to coercive threats. A system where that becomes normal isn’t a democracy. It’s a reign of terror.
The perils of the enemies list
To be clear, Murkowski is hardly a member of the resistance. But she has done more to oppose Trump than just talking.
Murkowski voted against confirming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel. In 2017, she defied Trump’s bullying and joined Susan Collins and John McCain to save the Affordable Care Act. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke reportedly warned Murkowski a “no” vote on repeal could “put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy,” specifically road projects, drilling rights, and other issues that would benefit from executive branch support.
Murkowski voted to convict Trump following his impeachment for January 6. That came after a 2020 campaign where she made headlines for her criticisms of Trump and reluctance to support him. That summer, she was the target of a string of nasty tweets from the Orange Menace, who vowed to campaign against her in 2022.
Despite Trump’s efforts, Murkowski ended up easily beating MAGA candidate Kelly Tshibaka in the GOP primary. But her worries about “retaliation” go beyond politics.
The contrast between MAGA gangsterism and the Democratic Party is telling. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (remember them?) constantly stymied Biden’s agenda in the Senate, while progressive House members like Rashida Tlaib, Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush, and Ilhan Omar were outspoken critics of Biden’s support for Israel. Some survived primary challenges. Others didn’t. However, none of them discussed their defiance in frightened, hushed tones for fear of their personal safety.
It’s taken for granted that Biden would never whip up a lynch mob against them at a political rally or on social media. Republicans like Murkowski have no such luxury when it comes to the leader of their party.
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Stochastic terrorism
The irony is that while Republicans might want you to forget January 6 ever happened, they clearly have not forgotten. The violent Capitol attack proved just how far Trump would go and that even members of his own party aren’t safe if they defy him.
According to former Republican House Rep. Pete Meijer, a Republican colleague of his admitted that even though he believed the 2020 election results were legitimate, he couldn’t vote for certification because he feared for his family’s safety.
“If they’re willing to come after you inside the US Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?” Meijer said.
Trump’s stochastic terrorism only intensified after January 6. When he faced prosecution for election interference and stealing classified documents, he egged on threats from his supporters against law enforcement authorities, judges, and even their family members. Trump expressed no remorse and showed little interest in tamping down the rhetoric. The judge in his New York election interference case had to impose a gag order on him after Trump attacked his daughter and lied about her on social media. Trump repeatedly violated the gag order, which he falsely decried as “unconstitutional.”
Trump has openly mocked and almost welcomed attacks against his political enemies. When Paul Pelosi, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, was brutally assaulted in his home by a deranged MAGA in 2022, Trump used him as a punchline at his hate rallies.
Now back in the White House, Trump is actively endangering his foes. He removed a security detail assigned to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s faced death threats after a lengthy and distinguished carer because of MAGA’s unhinged covid conspiracies. Trump also revoked Secret Service protection for John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Mark Milley. Iran has threatened their lives because of their work in the Trump administration, but they committed the cardinal MAGA sin of criticizing Dear Leader.
Trump’s message is clear: You’re safe only if you remain unflinchingly loyal. And his pardons of the January 6 criminals suggest he not only has the back of those who commit violence in his name, but condones it.
“It’s not worth it”
People have argued that if Murkowski is serious about the threat Trump and his MAGA movement present, she should actively work to weaken their influence. She could become an independent and caucus with Democrats, reducing the GOP’s majority. But that could put an even larger target on her back.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell claimed last month that Republicans were slavishly falling in line behind Trump because they feared violent retaliation against themselves and their families.
“It’s their personal safety that they’re afraid of, and they have spouses and family members saying, ‘Do not do this, it’s not worth it, it will change our lives forever. We will have to hire around-the-clock security,’” he said during a webinar. “Life can be very uncomfortable for your children.”
Republicans still hold the constitutional power to remove Trump from office, but that’s meaningless if they’re paralyzed by fear of MAGA mob violence. Trump’s hold over his party and the Congress it currently controls is inherently corrupt, not legitimately persuasive. It’s a terrifying reality that we shouldn’t let become our new normal.
That’s it for today
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Thanks for reading.
All of what you write is true, but I think you're being shortsighted.
There seems to be a perception that Trump created this "movement" and because it's about him, all will be better when he's gone. First, Donald Trump couldn't create something like this if he tried. He's not organized or intelligent enough. Second, homegrown rightwing extremism existed and was growing prior to Donald Trump. It's been growing alongside the Republican party's further and further move to the right ever since Barack Obama's election in 2008. Remember the Tea Party? They're MAGA now. The Tea Party launched the original "Stop the steal!" movement, which Trump eventually grafted himself onto, against Obama with their fraudulent claims he wasn't a US citizen. They continued to believe it despite John McCain telling them it wasn't true...and then they turned on McCain.
By 2020, Trump already had a set of voters who believed multiple elections had essentially been "stolen" because Obama shouldn't have been on the ballot, and Hillary Clinton should be in jail for, basically, "pick a crime." Their fraudulent claims about her date back over 30 years (remember Vince Foster?) When you have voters who have been conditioned to believe such nonsense for over 30 years, the events of January 6 become "about" Trump only in the sense he refused to do a thing to stop it, and quickly intervene after it started.
These people *aren't* going away when Trump finally takes a dirt nap, and it's dangerous to assume Vance or someone else within MAGA-world won't, at the very least, also become a "hostage" to the crazy.
Ultimately, this is Mitch McConnell's lasting legacy. Both parties have wingnuts, even violent wingnuts. McConnell and the Republicans were unique in "embracing" theirs to defeat Obama. IMO, McConnell thought he could control them, and unsurprisingly he was wrong. Now they control the Republican party.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…and the fact that the President of the United States would not hesitate to have you and your family killed if you don’t kiss the ring, then he would pardon whoever carried out his orders.
Alas, Babylon!