The cowardice and self-serving selfishness of many congressional Republicans, while our country is possibly on the brink of civil war, is unbelievable and shocking.
There should have been swift movement by all members of Congress, regardless of party affiliation, to condemn Trump for his treasonous insurrectionist speech and the resulting attack on our Capitol and our Constitution on January 6, 2021.
Instead, we are getting Republicans playing politics as usual.
In the House, 10 Republican members voted with all Democrats for a bipartisan impeachment of Trump, while 197 Republicans voted against impeachment and four Republicans did not vote at at all.
These people are so deep in denial! They voted against the article of impeachment, “Incitement of Insurrection,” the result of which they witnessed in person!
Stunning…perhaps not.
When you realize that many of these Republican House members would have to admit that they have been supporting and enabling Trump’s lies for years, in spite of knowing better, it starts making sense.
In the Senate, Republicans have shown a little more resolve than their colleagues in the House. Several Senators have responded to the Trump instigated insurrection with forceful words.
There appears to be greater support for an impeachment and a trial; although, like in the House, the overwhelming majority of Republicans in the Senate would prefer to take no action and simply allow Trump to slink away unpunished at 12:00 pm on January 20, 2021, when Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States.
While the House is ready to send the Article of Impeachment to the Senate, Mitch McConnell is refusing to immediately start proceedings for a trial. He claims that there is not enough time.
While there are only eight days remaining in Trump’s reign, I guess it is not so much a matter of time as it is a matter of will. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t feel like bringing the Senate back from its break, probably because he doesn’t want to preside over a trial against Trump. After all, he can pass that responsibility off to the incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
It’s another example of putting politics and party before the Constitution and country. McConnell and his Republican friends have shown just how fast they can move under pressure of a deadline when confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court.
Where there is a will, there is a way. The Republicans do not have the will, nor do they have the backbone or the testicular fortitude that it takes to stand up for democracy and for our Constitution. All they ever do is whine, complain and posture, but when it comes to actually doing the hard work to defend our democracy, they fail.
Republicans have failed to keep Trump in check since he started spouting lies and hate as early as 2015 and have continued this behavior throughout his tenure. By not pushing back on Trump’s lies, they have allowed the merchants of hate - White Nationalists, White Supremacists, Conspiracy Theorists and other liars and haters — to establish themselves amongst Trump’s base.
Throughout all of the lies, conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric spewed by Trump and disseminated via Twitter and Fox News, Republican leaders stood by silently. This slowly created an alternate reality for at least 70+ million people who voted for Trump in the last election.
They stood by silently when Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the election. Then, by not congratulating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory after all votes were counted, and recounted, and re-recounted again, they further enabled the lie to take hold in the minds of Trump’s followers.
In my opinion, many Republicans perpetrated treason to our Constitution. They jeopardized a peaceful transition of power by actually repeating Trump’s lies of “election fraud” and “a stolen election” even though they knew this not to be true. Even Trump’s Attorney General of the USA, Bill Barr, stated that there had been no evidence, anywhere, of widespread voter fraud.
Republican cowardice has brought us to this point in history. It could have been averted with counter pressure from Republican lawmakers in response to Trump’s lies, when they first began.
It could have ended when Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in 2018. There were plenty of witnesses and documents that could have been heard and seen in the trial but the Senate refused to subpoena them. Instead, they acquitted Trump on both counts. Many Senators had made up their minds even before the articles of impeachment reached the Senate that they would not convict Trump. What ever happened to keeping an open mind during a trial?
Now, Republican lawmakers are disingenuously calling for unity, healing and moving on.
I agree, we need to unite, heal and move on! But we need to unite as Americans, regardless of our political or religious affiliation, the color of our skin, our sexual preference or gender. We need to send the unmistakable message that when you attack our democracy, our republic, our freedom, our Constitution, there are swift and serious consequences for those actions.
Only when we come together in support of our Constitution and for our democratic values, then we can begin healing. We need to excise the malignant growth of lies, hate and conspiracy theories. We need to stop tolerating White Nationalists, White Supremacists, Fascist, Autocrats and other haters of freedom and democracy and let them know that there is no place for them and their sick beliefs in these USA.
Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, the KKK, QAnon, Proud Boys, White Nationalists, White Supremacists, American Nazi Party and anyone like them should be treated as outlaws and terrorists! There is no place for these haters in a cosmopolitan society and world that believes in equality for all regardless of color, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or religious affiliation.
When Republican cowardice ends, this work may get done and we can begin to move on from the damage, shame, hate and pain that was inflicted on the soul of our republic, on our democracy and on our Constitution on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.
