Mar-a-Law-Go

Nothing says “toxic partisanship” quite like Republican lawmakers’ reaction to the FBI search at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort yesterday. Without a doubt, it was an historically unprecedented event, but that fact alone doesn't signify an “intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called it. The reflexive defense of Trump or any elected official, current or former, based on party affiliation—even in the presence of evidence of malfeasance, and with all standard operating procedures followed—is precisely where we’ve gone wrong in our politics. Our first and most important civic “tribe” is Team America. As hokey as that may sound, it's the only way democracy can work. When our party affiliations supersede our commitment to the Constitution, the rule of law, and truth itself, the end result is the upside-down world in which we find ourselves—where the Constitution is useful only as a means to a political end, the truth is entirely subjective, and even the guilty remain beyond the reach of the law. —Melissa Amour, Managing Editor

Ed. Note: Our apologies for no Topline last Friday. Our managing editor needed some unexpected surgery. But we’re back and on the mend. Thank you for your understanding!

• Pelosi to urge House to pass Biden inflation-reduction bill as is —Reuters

• Police: Suspect in 4 Muslim men's killings detained —Associated Press

• Father and son sentenced to life in prison, neighbor gets 35 years for federal hate crimes in killing of Ahmaud Arbery —NBC News

• 3 Republican primaries—and a special election—to watch in Minnesota and Wisconsin —FiveThirtyEight

• U.S. authorizes largest-yet military package to Ukraine —Politico

• Senators put bipartisan pressure on Biden to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism —CNN

• No change in U.S. assessment on China timeline for Taiwan, official says —Reuters

• Federal appeals court says House committee can get Trump's tax returns —CBS News

• Alex Jones’s text messages turned over to House Jan. 6 committee —The New York Times

• Giuliani must go to Atlanta for election probe, judge says —Yahoo! News

The DOJ kicks it up a notch

By now you've heard the blockbuster news that the FBI executed a search warrant of the resort home of Donald Trump—Mar-a-Lago—yesterday while the ex-president was out of town. The surprise search shocked the political world, making history in the process. What made the notably cautious Justice Department decide to take such a drastic step now? We don't know for certain. What is known is that agents were provided entry by the Secret Service and searched Trump’s residence as part of a federal investigation into whether Trump took classified records from the White House to the Florida estate. As for the rest of the details, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been tight-lipped. All he has said publicly is, “No one is above the law.” Clearly not. —Associated Press

• Oh the howls. Not surprisingly, the reaction to the search has been…dramatic. Trump broke the news of it himself, issuing a statement complaining that the agents “even broke into my safe.” Predictably, he variably characterized it as an “attack by Radical Left Democrats,” a “political persecution,” and a “Witch Hunt.” He failed to mention his notorious reputation for illegally mishandling and/or destroying documents during his presidency, including flushing them down the toilet. —New York Magazine

• “Preserve your documents and clear your calendar.” Congressional Republicans have fiercely and publicly defended Trump in the wake of the search. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has promised Garland that Republicans will thoroughly investigate if they retake the majority in the November midterms. Even former Vice President Mike Pence—a potential 2024 challenger to Trump—commented in a series of carefully worded tweets that Garland "must give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken, and he must do so immediately." —Politico

• The fury of MAGA scorned. Alarmingly, Trump’s most devoted supporters, already a fairly hostile lot, have reacted with heightened rhetoric online. Some users on pro-Trump internet forums told others to “lock and load,” agitated for “civil war,” and urged protesters to head to Mar-a-Lago—which some have done. More mainstream pro-Trump influencers, including podcasters with millions of followers on YouTube or Twitter, have responded similarly. “Tomorrow is war,” Steven Crowder, who has over 5 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.9 million followers on Twitter, said in a tweet. “Sleep well.” —NBC News

MORE: Mar-a-Lago search spurs ‘defund the police’ calls on the far-right —The Washington Post

Anfinson: The costs of disinformation 

“Lies and deception on the internet have caused us to lose trust in our elections, news media, courts, and government at all levels. As our discontent grows, you would think we would be more motivated to vote; the opposite is true for too many. A Howard University study shows that when people believe their vote doesn’t matter, they drop out of elections. That leaves the motivated extremes with greater power to shape government from the local to the national levels.” —Reed Anfinson in Swift County Monitor-News

Reed Anfinson is the publisher of the Swift County Monitor-News.

MORE: The Alex Jones verdict and the fight against disinformation —The New York Times

Boot: The GOP’s despicable embrace of Orban

“All you need to know about the state of the Republican Party today is what happened at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on Thursday. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been destroying his country’s democracy, received a standing ovation less than two weeks after he gave a speech in Romania in which he endorsed the white supremacist ‘replacement theory’ and denounced a ‘mixed-race world.’” —Max Boot in The Washington Post

Max Boot is a Washington Post columnist, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the author of “The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam.”

MORE: Hungary's Viktor Orban fires up Texas conservatives —BBC News

Michigan’s own election scandal

Cries of politicization of an investigation are flying in the Wolverine State too. And once again, they’re related to Donald Trump and his allies’ lies about the results of the 2020 election. Following a months-long investigation, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office is seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor to consider potential criminal charges against nine individuals who engaged in an alleged conspiracy to gain improper access to voting machines. The group's efforts included breaking into machines, printing "fake ballots," and performing "tests" on the equipment, according to a letter sent to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Because one of the individuals, Matt DePerno, will likely face Nessel in the Nov. 8 general election, the Attorney General's office is asking a state agency, the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council, to appoint the special prosecutor to remove an inherent conflict of interest. Stay tuned. —The Detroit News

MORE: GOP seeks control over how elections are run in Wisconsin, Minnesota —PBS NewsHour

Ed Board: Can a third party be the right way forward?

“[T]he major parties have left so much room on so many issues for a third party to capture the middle that there is plainly a path forward, so to speak. Poll after poll shows Americans actually have nuanced views on divisive matters including abortion, immigration, the environment, and taxation. What they increasingly don’t have are major party candidates who are willing to represent anything but the most extreme views of their political bases.” —The Dallas Morning News

MORE: Growing disconnects between citizens and legislators endanger U.S. democracy —The Hill

Fukuyama: Ranked-choice voting is one path toward depolarization

“[P]oll data shows a large majority of Americans expressing dissatisfaction with the choices being offered by the Republicans and Democrats. The viability of any third party will, in the end, be dependent on the spread of RCV and might work best as a vehicle for pushing the existing parties to adopt electoral law changes.” —Francis Fukuyama on Persuasion

Francis Fukuyama is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute, and sits on Persuasion’s board of advisors. He is the author of “The End of History and the Last Man” and “Liberalism and Its Discontents.”

MORE: Listen to Alaskans: Ranked-choice voting is a step forward for democracy —The Hill

Last month, the Idaho Republican Party selected new leadership, ousting all of the "establishment" in favor of new, mostly far-right leaders. They also are considering new rules for primary voting, further increasing the restrictions on who can qualify to vote in the already-restrictive Republican primary elections. This will, in effect, disenfranchise thousands of voters here in Republican Idaho, where most office holders are chosen de facto in the Republican primaries. As I watch our two main political parties continue their rush to the extremes, I must conclude that a viable third party that appeals to the common-sense middle (most of America, I believe) is our best real hope of reviving true representative government. —Patrick N., Idaho

We as a nation need to stop putting such strong emphasis on party affiliation. We are all Americans, and I for one do not care what you look like as long as you support, protect, and defend the Constitution. Parts of the Republican Party have strayed under Trump and become corrupt. I left in 2016, knowing Trump’s long criminal and corrupt life. But a Republican conservative I am. Loyalty to God, country, and the Constitution—that should be America. —Donna C., California

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Renew America Foundation.