Adam Kinzinger vs A Republican Party Wedded To Authoritarianism

The first I remember ever writing about Adam Kinzinger was when then-closet case Aaron Schock was signaling his heart was all aflutter in regard to his colleagues Kinzinger and Mikey Suits (R-NY). Eventually Schock settled on fellow closet case Jason Smith (R-MO), who’s still in Congress, currently denying Matt Gaetz’s brazen innuendos that he’s gay. [Gaetz: “Jason Smith says if my lips are moving, I'm lying. Well, you know what? If Jason Smith is breathing, he is living a lie. There might not be another member of Congress who lives a lie everyday more than Jason Smith and Jason Smith knows exactly what I am talking about. And by the way, so does almost every member of the House Republican caucus. So, there's a good deal of projection in Jason Smith calling me a liar when it's Jason Smith who literally has to live a lie and I honestly pity him for that because it wouldn't be something that— I wouldn't live that way. I'll just put it that way. So, Jason, I would check yourself before you come at me with any accusations of being dishonest about what I say, when you're dishonest about how you live…”] Sorry for the tangent… back to Kinzinger, who never wittingly had anything to do with any of this.

He has a new book out, Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country, a kind of autobiography that takes his readers from his ‘80s childhood and his career in the Air Force to his 6 terms as a conservative Illinois congressman who eventually voted to impeach Trump and then serve on the committee investigating the attempted coup and insurrection. NY Times reviewer Sam Adler-Bell was unimpressed. “What Renegade resembles most of all— down to its professional co-authoring by the award-winning journalist Michael D’Antonio— is a campaign book in search of a campaign. When Kinzinger announced his retirement in 2021, he said, ‘This isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning.’ Still, it’s difficult to imagine what sort of future that might be— unless Kinzinger gets much better at persuading other Republicans to join him out in the cold. Renegade, a book primarily about how much nobler Kinzinger is than his former colleagues, is unlikely to do the trick.”

Maria Shriver was more impressed. “In the hours after that shocking attack on democracy,” she wrote about January 6, “Kinzinger was quick to say then-President Trump should be removed from office immediately. Then, he became one of just two members of the GOP to sit on the committee investigating the January 6th attack after ten others he’d recruited to stand against the pro-Trump movement lost their nerve and abandoned him. Being a renegade came at a cost. He received death threats. Family members told him he was a disappointment to God. A fellow veteran and co-pilot in the war in Iraqi told Kinzinger he was ashamed to have flown with him. And yet, Kinzinger stood his ground and stood up for what he believed. In his new book… Kinzinger gives us an inside look at some of the most critical moments in politics in the last few years and offers a compelling call for our leaders— and all of us— to come together.”

In an interview with Shriver, Kinzinger traced the root of political evil and dysfunction in Congress to the excess of money in politics: “I think one of the things that has driven this moment is fundraising. I used to brag about reaching across the aisle to work with Democrats, and I could raise money based on that. Now if you’re Republican, you raise money when you brag about fighting Democrats. That’s a problem. Another thing that’s currency now is fame. You don’t become famous— at least not quickly— by legislating and passing bills. You become famous by wearing Scarlet letters to the floor of the House, screaming out loud or saying outrageous things. Unfortunately, I think this job has started to attract people who see it as a quick way to fame and popularity, and they’re not serious legislators.”

In a CNN interview, Anderson Cooper asked him if he still considers himself a Republican. Somewhat awkwardly, he said he does, although he voted for Biden in 2020 and plans to do so again next year. Why? He said he “really believes it’s down to one issue on the ballot— not taxes, not even abortion, nothing. The one issue is: do you believe in democracy or do you believe in authoritarianism? And I think that’s the only thing should be voting on. I see, if [Trump’s] reelected, not a slide [towards authoritarianism], a sprint. Because on January 6th we saw the guard-rails of democracy held. The car hit the rails; it kept you on the road. That rail can’t take two hits. And now they know what they’re doing. Now they know where the tricks are in the system. I guarantee you Donald Trump will not put people around him that are loyal to the Constitution and will push back.”