So What: Impeachment and Party Factional Splits

So What: Impeachment and Party Factional Splits



The impeachment proceedings which occurred over the past few months was not a common occurrence within the history of the United States. In fact, with the inclusion of President Trump, only three United States’ Presidents have formally been impeached by the United States House. With the increasing political polarization within the United States, it isn’t too surprising that evidence of polarization would appear among the votes for the impeachment of the President which is exemplified by all of the Republicans in the House that voted “no” for both articles of impeachment, and all but five Democrats voted “yes” for both articles of impeachment. These voting lines for the articles of impeachment clearly demonstrate the sorting of members within congress which is a product of political parties that exist to promote the collective goals and objectives of the party that is comprised of individuals who generally have the same ideological goals.


Nonetheless the concept of factional splits became a salient feature within Trump’s impeachment proceedings within the Senate. In the first Article of impeachment, Senator Mitt Romney stood alone in his vote to convict President Trump on Abuse of Power. Masket noted that social issues have caused rifts in the Republican party in between 2005 and 2010. He cited abortion related laws as a prevalent reason for why a fracture existed in the Republican party at this time. For Mitt Romney, the behavior of the President became the founding factor for his defection from the rest of his Republican colleagues in the vote of Article 1. While there is a great deal of disagreement over the motivations of his vote to convict the President on Abuses of Power, his action presents a relevant example for the significance of intraparty cleavages. Since Senator Romney’s historic vote, we are currently witnessing the implications of standing alone and voting in opposition to the other members of a political party and it’s likely that these observations would be seen within the Democratic party as well. 


The acknowledgment of factional splits should also be understood within the context of Party Cooperation. If members of a political party show signs of defection, the party coalition will be less inclined to involve them in matters that seek to advance the party’s agenda in fear of individual members undercutting it. In respect of Mitt Romney’s vote, we are currently seeing a mass condemnation directed at him by the President’s loyal followers which is not surprising given the emotional appeal that the President successfully advertised during his campaign which was a significant feature of his election success.  Regardless of Senator Romney’s 79.4% score which describes how often he votes in line with Trump’s policy positions, his impeachment vote had the most pervasive affect among members of the Republican party. The term “RINO” is often used on social media to describe Republican members of the House and the Senate as being Republican in name only and not in practice and given the impeachment proceedings of President Trump, many people on the right will understandably feel as though Senator Romney will continue to undercut Trump’s agenda. This relates to the overarching theme of how party cleavages and factions encourage a dramatic collapse in the party’s public perception.


When a factional split occurs within a party, we might expect to see a correction of sorts at the polls when senators like Mitt Romney are up for reelection. Senator Romney isn’t up for reelection until 2024 which is quite some time away and may perhaps benefit his reelection efforts during this year given the amount of time that will pass from now until then. There are many other variables that are also likely to play a role in Senator Romney’s reelection success in 2024. If the president is not reelected this year, then it’s unlikely that Mitt Romney’s vote to convict Trump on the first article of impeachment will be used against him during his reelection year. Nevertheless, factional splits within parties are usually addressed by threats of being primaried or being voted out of office, and when someone crosses the current President of the United States, Republicans are very unlikely to forget. Senator Romney’s vote was so impactful that “RecallRomney” trended for a while on Twitter which was a social media effort by Republicans to remove Mitt Romney from the Senate in retaliation for his vote to convict the President. While many users who participated in the growth of this trend may have been aware that sitting senators cannot be recalled, the likely motivation behind the trend was to voice their displeasure with his vote and to send a message to other Republican office holders should they refuse to fall in line with the party for votes that could be viewed as standing with or against the political party.