‘An authoritarian movement’ Ex-GOP director slams today’s Republican party
A former California Republican party leader said today’s GOP has become dominated by “loyalty and fealty” and is showing characteristics of an “authoritarian movement.”
Mike Madrid, who served as the Golden State’s GOP political director before co-founding the Lincoln Project, told The Los Angeles Times that his former party has become almost unrecognizable.
“The party is now about loyalty and fealty,” Madrid told The Times.
“The Republican Party has completely removed itself from any sort of ideological or policy discussion. It has taken on the characteristics of an authoritarian movement.”
Madrid’s comments followed the state’s GOP’s decision to change the rules for allocating presidential primary delegates in a way that figures to benefit Donald Trump, the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination next year.
The report notes that under the new rules change all of the state’s 169 delegates will be awarded to the candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote.
Laurel Rosenhall writes for The Times that ”….the upshot of the rule change is a system for California’s Republican primary that will favor Trump, discourage other GOP candidates from campaigning here and make the state less competitive in the nominating contest.”
“This is about not even giving conservative activists in the Republican Party a voice,” Madrid said.
“It’s about saying that the number one characteristic required for party involvement is fealty to the leader. Those are horrific words that should echo throughout history.”