I was wrong.
That moment was Mitch McConnell's speech on the floor of the senate. McConnell said that Trump was wrong. That he lost the election. That he incited an insurrection. That this was shameful and inexcusable.
Impeachment was never meant to be the final forum for American justice. Never meant to be the final forum for American justice. Impeachment conviction and removal are a specific intra-governmental safety valve. It is not the criminal justice system where individual accountability is the paramount goal. . . . President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen.
If only.
Most Republican officeholders are attempting to duck the fact a jury found Trump guilty of raping a woman and defaming her. That he took public documents, kept them, showed them off, hid them, and lied to the government about doing so. That he orchestrated a plan of alternate electors and intimidation in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election to stay in office. The response of the GOP is almost universal. They are attacking the justice system, saying it has no right to investigate Trump. That it has no right to search his home and find exactly what the search warrant said it would find. That it has no right to indict and try him for crimes. This stance is taken by die-hard Trump loyalists -- no surprise. But it is also taken by Republicans running against Trump to become the the 2024 GOP nominee.
We have a new norm in GOP politics. Back the party, not the blue. Stand by your man, not stand by the law.
As the 2nd place candidate in polls behind Trump, Ron DeSantis would appear to be the person with the most to gain from Trump's being held to the account McConnell predicted. TV journalist Jake Tapper asked DeSantis, “If Jack Smith has evidence of criminality, should Donald Trump be held accountable?”
DeSantis response attacked the Justice Department and the investigations.
And so you have a situation where the Department of Justice, FBI had been weaponized against people they don’t like, and the number one example that happened to be against Donald Trump with the Russia collusion. That was not a legitimate investigation; that was being done to try to drive Trump out of office. And so what I’ve said, as president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies. We’re going to have a new FBI director on day one; we’re going to have big changes at the Department of Justice.
House Republicans spent hours accusing the FBI of targeting conservatives. The head of the FBI is Trump's own appointment. He responded to House Republican attacks with:
The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background.
Christopher Wray is a Republican with a long history of significant political contributions to conservative Republican candidates.
McConnell is no longer saying aloud that justice must be done. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had condemned the insurrection in its immediate aftermath, saw that Republican voters still loved Trump, so he re-pledged loyalty to him, not to a justice system that would hold Trump to account.
America will face some very controversial court decisions in the coming months. We will need a justice system with credibility. We may have demonstrations -- riots even -- outside courthouses. Trump is calling for them. We might have 11-1 holdout jurors. We might have OJ Simpson-type verdicts. Whatever the judicial outcomes, there will be unhappy people. This would have been a good time for the Supreme Court to have the highest credibility as a symbol of integrity and impartiality, but the opposite is the case. Chief Justice Roberts cannot control his members' tastes for the good life of hospitality and gifts from billionaire friends.
The one body in American political system who could re-establish respect for law, not party, in this circumstance of Trump being investigated and tried would be senior Republicans. They could urge caution, restraint, respect for the process. Fifty years ago it required Goldwater to tell Nixon he needed to leave office. Goldwater's disapproval showed this was about rules, not politics. We need multiple Goldwaters, acting as a group. We don't have them. Trump created a mass movement of public support. It will require a mass movement of public revulsion to abandon him.
America lost an opportunity in the second impeachment vote. Republicans had the chance to turn the page, but they did not.
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7 comments:
Republicans believe that loyalty to the party supersedes loyalty to the constitution – oaths of office be damned. Trump is the embodiment of that concept, claiming that loyalty to the party means loyalty to him.
It’s disheartening to see a major American political party so soundly reject our founding values, but they’re just pandering to their base – a mob of White nationalists contemptuous of justice, resentful of diversity, fearful of losing their White privilege, suspicious of science and in denial of facts. The military has a word for it: FUBAR.
Peter says: “Trump created a mass movement of public support. It will require a mass movement of public revulsion to abandon him.” Trump is a lying, cheating, stealing, puss-grabbing sociopath who tried to overturn a free and fair election. Anybody with even a vestige of conscience is already totally revolted by him. It’s hard to imagine what he’d have to do to create revulsion among those who aren't.
Republicans will turn the page when voters vote against the lies and blatant support of lawlessness of MAGA candidates. They need to experience defeat in clear terms. Until that happens losing in primaries will control them. Even the “moderate Republican congressman “ seem to be going along with stupid stuff. There doesn’t seem to truly be a “moderate “ republican.
Rhonda Septic is trying to create his own "army" of Brownshirts.
My question is what happens if these recruited thugs fire on National Guardsmen, who have been Nationalized by the President ? Which way does the National Military jump ?
Aristotle: “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.”
Cue “Lord of the Flies.”
It seems to me that the sicalled "moderate" Republicans died out not long after Darth Cheney and the Shrub stole Florida from Al Gore, and the deafening silence of any left in Office is nothing but fear driven complicity in the slow rolling Coup d`estate being orchestrated by Trump and his sycophantic followers.
Republican politicians are funded by large corporate and wealthy private interests whose agenda is to receive maximum government largesse, null health and safety regulations, and avoid taxes. In addition, they receive support from organizations that profit by exploiting religious and racist bigotry, aided by a heartbreaking level of voter apathy.
As you might imagine, this requires a complete suspension of morality, and a high tolerance for hypocrisy. In the last 50 years they have successfully purged all moderation from the party.
That's it. Once you accept this fundamental fact, then their behavior is fully explained.
Other democracies are experiencing the same stressors, so this just may well be a historical trend that is part of the larger story of the advancement of civilization, a trend clearly moving towards social and economic justice, which may not be resolved for generations.
“But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop … I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land” -Martin Luther King
Let's not forget to include religion in that umbrella of corporations.
Religion also wants to weaken our system of government.
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