Anti-Trump Pennsylvanians Form Republicans Against Perry to Defeat Scott Perry

A group of prominent Pennsylvania Republican former senior public officials, congressional candidates and longtime political strategists who are not Trumpist have formed Republicans Against Perry (www.republicansagainstperry.com) to target Republican United States Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania for election defeat in 2024. Perry is one of the most loyal supporters of Donald Trump and was one of the leading architects within Congress of the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election on false grounds to keep Trump in power. The Trumpist Perry had long believed in and promoted baseless conspiracy theories before promoting the theory that the election results were fraudulent in Pennsylvania and other States, which was rejected by Republican elected officials, judges and members of Congress, as well as even Trump Administration officials. Trumpism is not conservatism, but a populist mix of protectionism, nativism and isolationism, as well as a tolerance for Trump’s deception, disloyalty, corruption, authoritarianism and cruelty. Perry opposes aid to Ukraine to defend itself against aggression by the Russian Federation, led by tyrannical ex-Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Putin. Putin had engaged in an active measures campaign in 2016 and ongoing first to support Trump’s candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination and then in the general election by interfering in the election in numerous ways, as Russia has been interfering in American politics since 2014, when it first invaded Ukraine, according to U.S. all intelligence agencies, a Republican Special Counsel investigating Russian interference and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Among various machinations, Russia also interferes in the elections of European States. Trump invited and welcomed Russian interference, coordinated his messaging with the publication through a Russian cutout of information the Russians had stolen, and amplified Russian disinformation and propaganda. He and his henchmen obstructed the investigation into Russian interference and the Trump Campaign’s complicity with it. The Russians were not the only foreigners to interfere in the election on Trump’s behalf and foreign interference was not the only fraud committed that helped him win the election. But Trumpist Republicans minimize these examples of fraud — even from a hostile foreign power—while making false or exaggerated claims against Democrats in the 2020 election, while ignoring real examples of fraud that some Democrats and liberals do commit. They thus further one of the goals of Putin, which is to undermine Americans confidence in elections. To excise the influence of Putin and Trump from the GOP, it is necessary to defeat their supporters and apologists and replace them with honest, competent patriots, and especially with those who are true center-right conservatives.