“The best way to describe [the Michigan GOP] is the Pridelands once Simba is gone and Scar and the hyenas have taken over” — Jeff Timmer
Over the weekend, Michigan Republicans (MIGOP) elected an election denier, Kristina Karamo, as their new leader. After 11 hours and three rounds of voting, she beat the Trump-endorsed Matt DePerno. It seems the MAGA base looked at the debacle of the 2022 election — the GOP lost both state Houses, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected by 11% in a swing state — and decided they needed to get crazier. They could not have found a better candidate.
Days before the election, the GOP’s new champion explained her philosophy to a “patriot” group of Michiganders.
“When we start talking about the spiritual reality of the demonic forces, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy, we can’t go there. No. It’s like, did you read the Bible? Didn’t Jesus perform exorcisms? … Scriptures are clear. And so if we’re not operating as though the spirit realities of the world exist, we’re going to fail every time.”
Karamo is familiar with failure. She lost her 2022 race for Secretary of State by 14 points. Although the exercise burnished her conservative cred as right-wing media is always looking to promote the rara avis, a female Black Republican. She scored frequent appearances on The Sean Hannity Show, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Fox & Friends, and Let it Rip on Fox-2 Detroit.
Like many candidates, she was optimistic about her campaign. In May 2021, she told the conservative Michigan Results Radio Network (RNN)
“The gap between promises made by candidates and promises actually kept by those elected has always been a concern, but the current Secretary of State may have set an all-time record for failed promises. My commitment to voters will be to keep my promises. I truly believe my conservative ideas and values better align with voters across Michigan.”
Unfortunately for Karamo, Michigan’s voters decided the Democratic candidate, Jocelyn Benson, had the ideas and values that aligned with theirs. Not that Karamo has read the memo. While the 2022 Michigan elections are in the books and the Democratic officeholders are duly sworn, Karamo still claims she won — and has not admitted the truth.
She told the party faithful, “conceding to a fraudulent person is agreeing with the fraud, which I will not do.” Fortunately, her obstinacy, while it is poor manners and lacking grace, has no bearing on the matter.
Karamo is not blind to all truth. She knows the Michigan GOP is in trouble. Addressing the delegates, Karamo said, “our party is dying.” However, her solution is deluded. She says the MIGOP needs to rebuild itself into “a political machine that strikes fear in the heart of Democrats”.
It is as if naval architects looked at the Titanic sinking and decided that the problem was the ship was not traveling fast enough. In her mind, RINOs are part of the problem. Karamo posted on Instagram,
“There’s a significant number of Republican leaders who are co-conspirators with the Democrats in the deconstruction of America.”
Deconstruction? That is conservative doublethink — in which the Democrats are both growing the state and tearing it down. Her whine is a fine example of projection. Every accusation is a confession.
Karamo is not just a MAGA politically. She is a conservative evangelical and a contributing member of an attempted Christian theocratic coup. She has a master’s degree in Christian Apologetics from evangelical Biola University — a college that was instrumental in creating the pseudo-science of Intelligent Design. Unsurprisingly, Karamo has called evolution “one of the biggest frauds ever perpetuated on society.”
She is no stranger to fraud. On her theology-and-politics podcast, Karamo endorsed the conspiracy theory that left-wing anarchists were behind the 1/6 insurrection. She has warned listeners about “conservative imposters” within the Republican Party, declared herself an “anti-vaxxer,” and called public schools “government indoctrination camps.”
If Michigan’s Republicans think Karamo will lead them to the promised land, they are going to spend a lot of time in the desert. Democrats should let them get on with it. As Napoleon said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Or she.
