A handful of RINO members of Congress have either resigned or announced their intentions to do so in the coming weeks to months. They claim this is in protest to the now all but certain nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate.

The latest threatened resignation is Senator Lisa Murkowski, a squishy Republican at best. She endorsed Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination and has been critical of Donald Trump.

She voted to convict Trump and remove him from office. She also voted against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to SCOTUS. On those two issues, the Republican Senator voted lockstep with Democrat Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer.

Some Republican. Did any Democrats vote to not convict Trump or vote in favor of Kavanaugh? I don’t think so. Perhaps Senator Murkowski belongs to the wrong political party.

Her latest whine is, “I’m very independent-minded,” adding, “I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.” Funny how those words are rarely uttered from Democrats about Joe Biden.

Post Ronald Reagan, the GOP tried morphing from the “Party of Reagan” to the party of Bushes, Dole, McCain, Romney and in return got bupkis. The Bush 41 gave us a tax hike and a lousy campaign against Bill Clinton.

Bush 43 provided a 20-year war in the Middle East under false pretenses, the current domestic surveillance state, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (almost Harriet Meyers).

McCain was afraid to utter Barack Obama’s middle name and Romney couldn’t defend himself from accusations of being mean to his dog, killing his employees, not paying taxes for 10 years, and letting Candy Crowley slap him around at the debates, all nonsense, but he let the narrative stick.

Screenshot The Last Refuge

Nature abhors a vacuum, and the absence of serious Republican candidates or leaders since Reagan served up Donald Trump. Love or hate his personality, he teed up conservative policies that benefited America and her people, in an “America First” manner.

Now we have Joe Biden and his administration doing everything to hurt America and her people in an “America Last” agenda. If not Trump, then the GOP might as well resign itself to being an irrelevant permanent minority party on the national stage.

It’s not only Senator Murkowski throwing in the towel, but recently Rep. Ken Buck and soon, Rep. Mike Gallagher. I wrote about the Colorado Congressman’s abrupt exit in these pages a few weeks ago.

Was it a carrot or stick? Did someone offer him treasures or was kompromat held over his head? Or was it a middle-fingered gesture to the party of Trump? As he is in a solid red district, his departure won’t tip the balance of power in the U.S. House.

Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, serving his fourth term in Congress, is also leaving Congress abruptly for reasons unknown, other than a likely gesture to the GOP that mirrors Buck’s sentiments. And his exit may tip the balance of power.

Charlie Kirk tweeted how Gallagher’s timing is both deliberate and destructive:

Rep. Mike Gallagher has announced he is resigning his Congressional seat effective April 19.

This is calculated. Gallagher could leave now and allow his safe Republican seat to be filled quickly. Instead, he is deliberately leaving on a timeline that will leave it empty until November, leaving the GOP majority even smaller and making a Democrat House takeover a real possibility.

Gallagher is a traitor to his party and to the people who voted for him. What a spiteful, repulsive creature.

Leaving the GOP with a one-vote majority in the House, who’s next in this fairly obvious effort to cede House control to the Democrats? When Buck resigned, he suggested that even more NeverTrump House members follow his lead:

Buck then hinted that more colleagues might resign, saying: "I think it's the next three people that leave that they're going to be worried about."

So much for party loyalty and principles. As with most NeverTrumpers, their beef is over both the message and the messenger. The two parties are more alike than different in terms of agenda, although not tactics.

The uni-party wants profligate spending on their pet projects, endless costly wars, open borders, and a watered-down or eliminated Constitution.

Trump believed and governed otherwise. In response, the Weekly Standard, National Review, and Wall Street Journal crowd bristled, preferring to burn their party down, taking the country with it.

As the uniparty cannot beat Trump at the ballot box, they are taking another approach. By ceding power to the Democrats, NeverTrump Republicans can with allegedly clean hands, destroy the leader of their party. And the party itself for daring to vote for Trump.

In similar fashion, Jesus was betrayed or handed over like a hot potato to his eventual crucifiers, each contributing person or party telling themselves they had clean hands, deceitfully playing their small role in the process.

How will Democrat House control potentially derail Trump’s campaign?

From the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision of March 4, 2024, overturning the Colorado Supreme Court’s attempt to keep Trump off the ballot due to “insurrection”:

The Constitution empowers Congress to prescribe how those determinations should be made. The relevant provision is Section 5, which enables Congress, subject of course to judicial review, to pass “appropriate legislation” to “enforce” the Fourteenth Amendment.

SCOTUS teed up the solution to getting rid of Trump to Congress. In other words, states can’t keep Trump off the ballot, but Congress can offer legislation that Trump is an insurrectionist and should be kept off the ballot.

This would occur on day one of Democrat control of the House, and with Democrat control of the Senate and White House, would be signed into law immediately. What about “judicial review”? Judging from the SCOTUS decision, such review would not favor Trump.

How convenient. Reps. Buck, Gallagher, and others can maintain innocence, like Pilate, “washing their hands” of this scheme to end Trump’s quest for a second term, by simply resigning “over principles” or “to spend more time with the family.”

Then there are the myriad committees investigating the January 6 entrapment scheme, Biden Crime Family corruption, Russia-gate, and other deep state illegal weaponization of government against political opponents or for personal gain. All would disappear in an instant if Democrats controlled the House.

Will it work? Who knows? Trump is not naïve and doesn’t like losing, so I am sure he has gamed this out. But it’s clear that the Washington D.C. establishment, the ruling class, the deep state, the blob, or whatever you want to call it, views Donald Trump as an existential threat to their perks, power, and survival and is pulling out all the stops to stop him.

They forget that “We the People” are Constitutionally supposed to be in charge. When governments actively defy the will of the people, it never ends well, either in dictatorship and tyranny or in revolution.

As George Orwell wrote in 1984:

“Winston Smith: Does Big Brother exist?

O'Brien: Of course he exists.

Winston Smith: Does he exist like you or me?

O'Brien: You do not exist.”

Our existence and relevance as a free people is on the line.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.