A JUSTIN AMASH THIRD-PARTY RUN WON'T DEFEAT TRUMP

After reading the Mueller report, Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan declared that President Trump has committed impeachable offenses. Naturally, he's now persona non grata in his party:

A Republican state representative plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Justin Amash....

State Rep. Jim Lower, R-Greenville, announced this morning that he would run for the 3rd Congressional District seat Amash has held since 2011 and would forgo a race for a third term in the state House....

Amash became the first Republican to voice support for impeachment. Trump attacked Amash on Sunday on Twitter, calling him a "loser" and saying Amash only made the remarks to get attention....

Lower described himself as "pro-Trump" in making his announcement.

Jonathan Chait believes that Amash could end Trump's presidency:

... Amash is contemplating a presidential candidacy with the Libertarian Party. “I would never rule anything out,” he said in March. A real right-wing third-party challenge, by a Republican (who hails from a swing state) would be a nightmare for Trump’s reelection. And the more Republicans attack Amash, the more they close the door on any chance he can return to Congress, where he mostly votes with them, and push him instead to run against Trump. The short-term goal of discrediting Trump’s critics may bring with it a much larger long-term cost.

It would be nice to believe this, but the overwhelming majority of Republican voters would not consider Amash a "real" right-winger, especially not after Trump and the GOP noise machine began publicizing these apostasies:

Amash voted "present" rather than "yes" or "no" on the 2011 Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which provided for the cessation of federal funding to Planned Parenthood. He explained, "Legislation that names a specific private organization to defund (rather than all organizations that engage in a particular activity) is improper and arguably unconstitutional" ...

Amash supports decreasing U.S. military spending, and believes there is significant waste in the military spending of the U.S. Department of Defense....

In 2014 he was one of eight members of Congress who voted against a $225 million package to restock Israel's Iron Dome missile defenses, which passed with 398 members in support....

Amash joined 104 Democrats and 16 Republicans in voting against the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which specified the budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense ... calling it "one of the most anti-liberty pieces of legislation of our lifetime".... Amash co-sponsored an amendment to the NDAA that would ban indefinite military detention and military trials so that all terror suspects arrested in the United States would be tried in civilian courts....

Amash has expressed opposition to political gerrymandering. He said in 2018, "I firmly believe there should be an independent process for drawing districts. They should be based on geographic considerations, and they should be as compact and contiguous as possible...I always felt the maps should be drawn in a way that is less political and more based on geographic considerations." ...

In July 2018 House Republicans introduced a resolution supporting the officers and personnel of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Amash was the only Republican in the chamber to vote against the resolution.... He tweeted, "The House voted today on an inane resolution regarding ICE. The resolution makes several dubious claims and denounces calls to abolish ICE. I wouldn't abolish ICE without an alternative, but there's no reason to treat a federal agency as though it's beyond reproach and reform." ...

Amash supported a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, saying that the "real threat" to traditional marriage and religious liberty is government, not gay couples....

Amash has been a frequent critic of the National Security Agency's anti-terrorism surveillance programs....

He voted against the 2011 reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act....

Oh, and did I mention that he's of Palestinian and Syrian descent?

Amash will win the votes of a few #NeverTrumpers in the commentariat. He'll also win the usual libertarian voters, and maybe a few disaffected lefties. (He wants to end federal marijuana prohibition.) But he won't be seen as a genuine conservative alternative. It would be nice to think so, but that won't happen.