Here we all are on the other side of Biden’s inauguration and still the world turns! Predictably, the batshit crazies of QAnon and rabid Trumpsters have begun the process, not of detoxification, but of restructuring their insane conspiracy theories. My current favourite is the impending return of the ‘king’ Trump as the legitimate leader in March of this year.
The harsh reality of electoral politics defeat has settled heavily upon Mitch McConnell with a new majority leader in Chuck Schumer who seems to have learned the lessons of McConnell’s obstructionism during the Obama years and has flatly
declared that this will not happen on his watch. Time will tell, but the threat of nuking the filibuster just might give pause to McConnell. The Democrats need to go bold and decisive in implementing many of Biden’s policy directions, particularly
if they want to reap the benefits in the 2022 mid-terms and beyond.
The sheer level of hypocrisy from Republicans around the Jan. 6 insurrection [see especially Josh Hawley] and Trump’s involvement leading to his second impeachment [a new low!] is not surprising but nonetheless staggering to observe. Cries of foul play, vindictiveness committed by Democrats are coupled with demands to just “move on” and seem to be clearly tone-deaf according to latest polls. In a Monmouth University poll, 56% say that Trump should be impeached. Interestingly though, the number of Republicans who agreed with that action is only a paltry 13%! A narrow majority, 52%, said that he should be convicted but this number rises to 57% who believe that he should be barred from ever holding office again. However, that action cannot occur without the conviction first.¹
Does he deserve to be impeached? Absolutely not. I don’t even think there’s a basis for impeachment. They beat him up before he got into office. They’re beating him up after he leaves office. At some point, I mean, give the man a break! Nikki Haley on Fox News
The life-blood of this current Republican Party remains the toxic parasitic hemoglobin of loyalty to all things Trump. Born in many instances out of fear of being primaried by Trumpists [eg. sheer self interest] and in not an inconsequential number of true believers, this is now a party of fear and hate, anti-democratic not just in tone but more importantly in actions, an increasingly safe haven for far-right fascistic types and white nationalists. Two newly elected House Republican members, Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert are both sympathizers of the QAnon conspiracy theory. This GOP threatens the basic tenets of American democracy because it is more interested in securing the exercise of raw power for itself than governing in the interests of all Americans.
America, no the world, needs to see that the bedrock concept that no citizen is above the law demands not just the appearance of justice via impeachment, but a guilty verdict and subsequent consequences like a lifetime ban from holding office. The scourge of Trump(ism) needs to be defeated beginning now, not through appeasement but through a decisive victory. Drive the lunatic fringe out of the mainstream of American politics back into the recesses of the body politic where it can languish in the dark again.
If there was a real desire on the part of elected Republicans to engage with Biden’s call to unity, it would have to begin with an acknowledgment of truth as a first condition. You cannot have reconciliation toward unity unless you address the Trumpian Big Lie that the election was stolen from him. There is NO EVIDENCE that there was widespread voter fraud in those battleground states. He simply lost to his opponent! Sadly, and yet predictably, not a single one of the 140+ members of Congress who gave oxygen to that lie have seen fit to recant. Indeed, in some cases they continue to remain invested in it and speak to its existence as evidence of some ‘alternative fact’.²
We all witnessed weeks and weeks of post-election shenanigans by Trump and his surrogates- 60+ lawsuits that were unsuccessful, phone calls to officials to find or throw out votes, plots to potentially fire the acting AG and use the power of the DOJ to threaten a state to change its count -all with the single expressed goal of keeping Donald Trump in power. The increasing desperation of Trump as each tactic failed, miserably I might add, led to the ultimate act of incitement of insurrection by him conducted blatantly in plain sight at the rally on January 6. Undeterred by wiser counsel [well actually there isn’t any around him], approvingly aided by others like Mo Brooks and Rudy Giuliani calling for physical action, we all saw the outcome of their words. Letting Trump go riding off into retirement unscathed without repercussions is simply not an option. [Indeed, in an unprecedented move like so many before that Trump has done, on Monday January 25, from his exiled White House south at Mar-a-lago, he officially launched “the Office of the Former President” to maintain and project his control over the Republican Party. Creating such an office is not unusual for past Presidents, but no one before Trump has ever used the wording “Former President” Now we see the new con about to be perpetrated on the stupefyingly ignorant MAGA crowd of cultists.]
Former Republican Congressman, now TV host, Joe Scarborough, tells Senate Republicans [and by extension, others] precisely what they can do with their renunciation strategy;
Forget? Forget? You are out of your mind and you’re not a conservative. That’s how conservatives do not talk,” said Scarborough. “We don’t forget, if you attack our country, we go after you, we jail you, we throw away the key.³
No apology, no contrition, no taking responsibility for any and all of it. That is the Trump way and if acquitted [yet again, along decidedly party lines] it will bode poorly for the GOP and dangerous for American democracy.
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