Don’t censure Pat Toomey for his impeachment vote | Opinion

”We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to ‘do the right thing’ or whatever,” said the chair of the Washington County GOP after Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey’s recent vote to convict in former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Couldn’t make this up. Leaders of the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, and Reagan saying that their senator must be censured, not for violating his principles, but for having principles. So let’s state what seems to me as obvious: Sen. Toomey should not be censured. He should be thanked for understanding that following his conscience, rather than pandering to some of the loudest voters, is the essence of the job of someone elected in a representative government.

The media should ask all Republicans considering a run for Toomey’s seat if they believe the 2020 Pennsylvania election results are real and true, or part of a steal and coup, and whether the January U.S. Capitol violence was incited, at least in part, by the lie that Trump won Pennsylvania. None of the nonsense about “moving on” and impeachment as “settling scores” must let anyone get away with not answering these two factual questions, as Sen. Toomey had to do.

» READ MORE: Pat Toomey: This is why I voted to impeach Trump | Opinion

I first met Pat Toomey as a new member of Congress. I was seeking support for Muhlenberg College, one of the larger employers in his district. At the time, most congresspersons of both parties eagerly sought special project funding for their constituents — “earmarks” — and often saw their reelection dependent on how well they “brought home the bacon.”

Congressman Toomey listened to my case. Then he told me that while he thought this constituent was doing great things, he had campaigned against earmarks, and that was that.

I left the meeting with a strong appreciation for Pat Toomey’s commitment to his principles. I thought he was wrong about the role of Congress in deciding how our tax dollars get spent, but I couldn’t have more respected the way he approached his position of public trust.

I felt the same way about the senator when he announced that he would not seek reelection, honoring the promise he had made to limit himself to two terms. Again, he was saying what he meant.

» READ MORE: Sen. Pat Toomey won’t run for reelection or for Pennsylvania governor

The act of principle for which Sen. Toomey will now surely be most remembered is his vote in the recent impeachment trial. Toomey believed the president had violated his oath and suborned criminal violence, and so his own oath required a vote to convict.

Rather than being proud about such integrity shown by the commonwealth’s senior Republican official, the GOP establishment is now telling Sen. Toomey it very much hopes the door hits him on the behind on the way out.

Pennsylvania is a truly purple state, swinging just about 2% between the narrow victory of Donald Trump in 2016 and the still narrow victory of President Joe Biden in 2020. In its reaction to Sen. Toomey’s impeachment trial vote, seeing angry red, the Pennsylvania GOP is fixing to turn Pennsylvania bright blue.

The great majority of Pennsylvania’s voters are in the political center, and if the Republican brand is defined by attacking a senator for showing conscience, these people will choose the only alternative they have, even if the Democratic Party continues to swerve to the hard left.

» READ MORE: The push to punish Pat Toomey points to a future tied to Trump for Pennsylvania Republicans

People who know recent Pennsylvania political history may be gobsmacked by me, a protégé of Arlen Specter, standing shoulder to shoulder with Pat Toomey. But the Trump years have shown how much common ground exists upon which conservatives can stand in contrast to extremes of both Trumpism and socialism, and that the true irony is how, by censuring Toomey, out of loyalty to Trump, the Pennsylvania GOP establishment makes much more likely all the things Trump voters oppose.

Craig Snyder is the CEO of Indigo Global, a business consulting firm, and is currently testing the waters as a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2022.