The Grand Illusion
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the majority of Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate do not want to convict former President Trump in an impeachment trial, despite his months of efforts to overthrow an election that even all Republican state election officials said was without fraud and despite his successfully inciting a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol while Congress was in joint session to certify the results.
These Republicans offer a number of excuses, ranging from the barely plausible to ones far worse. The barely plausible one is that the U.S. needs “to heal.” Who do they think they’re kidding? The only ones who need “healing” are the far-right and their supporters, and they’re not interested in being “healed.” They’re still plotting to overthrow any democratically-elected government that doesn’t support them and their goals.
The next excuse is that it’s unconstitutional. Bullshit! First, legal precedent has already been established in the case of federal officials previously impeached after they left office. Second, as a practical matter, do we let embezzlers off the hook just because they’ve left the company they looted? Or teachers who’ve been abusive because they’re no longer teachers?
The third excuse is that Trump really didn’t do anything wrong. He just got carried away. Really? Plotting and pressuring officials to overturn election results for over two months and, apparently, even after the assault on the Capitol, from recent reports from the Justice Department.
The fourth excuse is that it will get in the way of the new Administration. This one is incredibly hypocritical. Already the Republicans are signifying opposition to many of the Biden administration’s proposed policies.
The fifth excuse is that it’s just better to let Trump fade away, as if he’ll EVER willingly fade way. Not the man who treated the White House like the set for a TV reality show.
The sixth excuse is that Trump was the only one addressing the needs of the “forgotten workers.” Just because he told those workers he identified with them shouldn’t give him a free pass. Besides, as far as the neglected workers go (those pushed out of the workforce by technological and economic change), Biden’s far more likely to address their problems in a meaningful way than Trump — or most Republicans — ever would.
The real reason is that those Republicans care more about getting re-elected than they do about morality, about law, and about the Constitution. They’re either self-interested cravens or too ignorant about law and ethics to be a U.S. Representative or Senator [not that ignorance is any barrier whatsoever], and they’re still afraid that Trump will strike back at them.
All the rhetoric and all the excuses to the contrary, they won’t oppose Trump because they’re either too unethical themselves, too stupid, or too cowardly to do their ethical duty…if not all three.
I totally agree with all of this. I actually think that Biden is going to prove to be very resilient and will play hardball with the right wingers.
Regardless if Trump isn’t going to be prosecuted, he creates his Patriots Party (Nativist Party) and splits Republican votes in 2024 (if he even survives his financial fallouts).
Republicans are going to lose alot of traction once Biden starts hitting them with some rather heroic policies. Their inability to compromise or work through issues without their opposing side kowtowing to them will be there problem, and hopefully not everyone else’s.
I predict that the media will set up Biden as if he is up against alot, but Biden’s smart and tough–he knows where to hit Republicans where it hurts and Harris will be great support for this.
BTW I absolutely love your Imager Portfolio series. I wish there was more political/economic fantasy/sci fi books like yours and C.J. Cherryh’s. They are both educational with protagonists who are very responsible and practical within their governments and societies.
Although the courts have failed to agree with my wisdom, my personal and quite useless opinion (based on lots of history) will always be that the left is itself the ultimate unconstitutional entity (at least at the US federal level, although the states have more latitude than the federal government does) because it constantly tries to make end runs around LIMITED ENUMERATED FEDERAL POWERS, and although mob action is NOT the answer, the left needs to be restricted – preferably by an informed electorate that will refuse to elect them, but if that doesn’t work, what, just accept them? That’s a suicide pact too.
As for fraud, that’s what they do – “the end justifies the means”, which is a leftist slogan, demonstrated in the last year in not just one but many riots. I have reports of fraud by Democrats that go back to around the time I was born, when there were claims of a unanimous turnout in one precinct, but it was definitely NOT unanimous – there were at least two votes the other way, and pointing that out was not conducive to staying in the area.
At any rate, it should NOT be an exclusive choice between honest elections and inclusive elections, and insisting on either/or (and neither side their fault) just increases distrust all around. But massive mail-in voting is just asking for trouble, and security experts, although they won’t support the notion that any particular commercial voting machine company was part of fraud, have repeatedly pointed out that e-voting is hard to get right, and with proprietary software, impossible to verify or validate, esp. if the human procedures involved are deeply flawed too. Is it REALLY too much to ask anyone with two functioning legs that’s not traveling on business or in the military or living abroad, to show up in person, WITH photo-id? (given even a couple of days of early voting and enough polling stations, lines are NOT long, even in a pandemic; I voted in person, SAFELY) If someone is too darn poor to afford to request a copy of their birth certificate, heck, go a tiny bit socialist and subsidize that and the cost of their ID; but it’s NOT an excuse to go sloppy that nonzero difficulty might be racist or something; bull-excrement! Yes, there have been (and in a few places still are) precincts that will attempt to exclude some voters – but that cuts both ways affecting both parties, both in keeping them away, and in not counting some of them.
I understand your points, although I disagree with many of them, but what you said has nothing to do with the failure of elected Republican officials to be ethical. Your response is to simply ignore this issue and go back to “standard” talking points, albeit with the implication that because those more liberal than you have used the system, within the system, to make changes that you disagree with, that those changes are somehow illegal, even though the courts have found them legal.
Likewise, past illegal voting fraud, which has occurred involving segments of both parties, has little bearing on this immediate past election, which officials from both parties have declared free of any fraud that would have changed the results. Bringing it up is merely another “what about that” tactic to avoid dealing with or acknowledging the present criminal attempts on the part of Republicans.
There are many, many very smart folks who write into this blog…representing a fairly good spectrum of the current political debate. I won’t try to compete with them, there is no point.
I wanted to point out the 800 pound gorilla in this particular living room, and that is that it is obvious, beyond obvious, that Trump and many of his sycophants and cronies ARE guilty of sedition, at the very least, and, at least in my opinion, probably treason, although the proof of treason is not yet public.
What are we arguing about? The argument could be made that the preponderance of the crowd of white supremacists, proud boys, neo Nazis and all the boys and girls of the insurrecting crowd, were mislead by the Trump political propaganda machine into believing that their story about the election actually being a fraud. This blog has explored the issue of separate information “bubbles” that give seemingly fantastic perspectives…and downright lie…but, if you REALLY believed that had happened, then what would you be willing to do to “protect” your country?
I don’t think that argument has any effect on the guilt of Trump and his political operatives, but I do think we need to pay attention to this issue with his followers.
To deny this, i.e., Trump and his political supporters in public office and/or some power positions…is to deny that Jan. 6th happened and/or that all the statements made by Trump or his cronies about the “stealing” of the vote weren’t made. Reality sucks when you’re that outrageous and that wrong.
Trump tried the same moves that Hitler and his crew pulled last century, and he found a fertile field when he directed hate towards one of the many groups and people he asked his followers to hate. That says something very dark about our electorate, as I had hoped we were more civilized than that. But it is of interest that one of the primary symptoms of this disease is the loss of civility, which Trump didn’t really lose, because I don’t think he ever had any.
But, as the sports jargon says: “Come ON man” this can’t be a debate, as it happened right in front of us. Power must be an unbelievably strong narcotic, as those who seem to want it so bad, act like addicts, willing to do ANYTHING to get it, keep it, or steal it.
When I did research on Hitler and his Big Lie it was incredibly disturbing because Republicans are also adopting the same philosophy in this exact moment. It really goes to show that Republicans only want to take advantage of the uneducated (which the Republicans have defunded for decades to keep the population incapable of going up the economic ladder) and the poor in order to further abuse them. It seems that the political snake is eating its tail and the damage the Republicans are capable of doing is only just become barely visible to us.
But I for one believe in karma and there are consequences for politicians who act like this. Let their party eat each other up. It’s time for the millennial generation to move on without them.