I’ve never met Caleb Heimlich (photo, left), but he’s probably a decent guy you could have a beer with.
He’s a career political junkie (read his bio here). He is was one of the youngest GOP state party chairs in the country, but is leaving that post to “spend more time with his family” (read story here).
Heimlich was elected to the post in 2018, when Susan Hutchison vacated it to run for U.S. Senate. For what it’s worth, she got 41.5% against Sen. Maria Cantwell, underperforming political novice Tiffany Smiley in 2002, who got 42.6% against Sen. Patty Murray.
In his exit interview with Seattle TV station KING 5 News, Heimlich said “being a Republican in a blue state has been a challenge.” True enough, but it’s worth noting Republicans used to be competitive in Washington (see, e.g., former governor and U.S. senator Dan Evans).
Republicans threw away Washington, and have nobody to blame but themselves. They not only became extremists, but purged moderate Republicans from their party. Their most recent nominee for governor was Loren Culp, which speaks for itself. Republicans haven’t elected a Washington governor since 1980, and that one was a one-termer.
Heimlich also said, “One of the challenges in politics today is there’s so much divisiveness, there’s frankly so much hatred.” There’s no denying that, but pin the tail on the donkey. It’s his party that’s stirring up hate against LGBQT people who’ve done nothing to them, Muslims, immigrants who just want a better life, and others. They also demonize Democrats, who they treat as enemies instead of competitors.
His party wholeheartedly embraced as its leader a man who’s a prolific liar, serial adulterer, dishonest businessman, tax cheater, and a bunch of other things, none of them good. He isn’t respected by many Americans because he doesn’t deserve to be.
It’s his party that suppresses dissent, bans books, engages in voter suppression and gerrymandering, and tried to overthrow a presidential election. Individuals on the far right threaten “civil war,” and are responsible for most of the political violence in our country. Instead of condemning this, Republican candidates run political ads depicting Democrats in gun crosshairs. They can’t expect to be popular.
KING 5 News says Heimlich, in a prepared statement, said he will “continue to advocate for common-sense solutions, constitutionally limited government, and more freedom.” Sounds impressive, but the reality is common sense left the GOP some time ago, and the party today is passing unconstitutional laws and stripping people of freedom.
He also said, “I am committed to restoring balance to Washington state government and believe our citizens would be better served by more representation of diverse views than we currently see from the majority party in Olympia.”
This sounds good, too, but the fact is Washington voters choose the government they wanted, and they don’t want what the GOP is selling these days — more guns, bigotry, criminalizing abortion, keeping wages low, opposing expanded health care, and so on.
So here’s my advice: Practice what you preach, and get your party to practice what you preach, because voters are paying attention to what they do, not what you say. But I call that “mission impossible.” Do I come across as cynical? I don’t want to be. I firmly believe a healthy democracy requires competitive parties, but we don’t have that today, and that’s not my choice.
The toxic rot in the GOP is so pervasive I think it’ll take a generation to sort out, and Trump has to leave the scene and Trumpers have to come back down to earth before anything positive can happen. In the meantime, the rest of us will do our best to preserve American democracy against GOP efforts to demolish it.
By the way, I wish Heimlich well in his new endeavors, and I understand his frustration.