Justin Amash leaves the GOP before it can “leave” him

Rep. Justin Amash has always been a party of one. Now, he’s made it official. He’s leaving the GOP and is running for reelection as an independent.

Why? He claims it’s because the two-party system and hyper-partisanship have wrecked Congress. He finds that individual members of Congress have no say in things. They are simply there to obey their party leader.

But none of this is new. What’s new is that Amash is hopelessly behind in the GOP primary in his district.

A poll taken at the end of the month found that he had only 17 percent support — dreadful for an incumbent — and was trailing his leading rival by 10 points. A poll from earlier in June had him 16 points behind.

This, in all likelihood, is why he’s leaving the Republican Party. It was on the verge of “leaving” him.

Amash says he’s not ruling out running for president as a third party candidate. I think an Amash run for president would be inconsequential. Libertarians hard core enough to vote for him aren’t likely to vote for Trump in the absence of Amash’s candidacy. Most will either vote for some other flake or decide not to vote at all in the presidential race.

Amash frets that he wasn’t relevant in Congress. Wait until he sees how irrelevant he becomes once he’s no longer in Congress.

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