This is suddenly a legitimate question.
I have been following politics since the early 1970s, covering it since the late 1980s, and paid to comment about it here and elsewhere since the late 1990s. I have mostly taken a realistic, some may say pessimistic or cynical, stance to this subject. I understand why politicians shift radically with the winds of change to stay relevant and get elected, which causes many to think them slimy, opportunistic hypocrites. This is why I do it, quite frankly. Politics reveals a great deal about human nature and the reason people love/hate politicians is because we are acting out our own psychological issues through them. I, for one, do not blame politicians for being human. It is when they sell bullshit excuses for this behavior that raises my antennae, and, well, you know.
Otherwise, I see it all as part of a grander game. Therefore, I do not think all Democrats socialists, nor do I think Republicans are fascists. But something very interesting has happened since the days following the defeat of Donald Trump to Joe Biden in November of 2020, culminating in the seditious atrocities of January 6, the most heinous act of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. A majority of the Republican Party has actively chosen to abdicate its position as representing a segment of the American body politic to enthusiastically support an anti-American program and shamelessly cover-up the invasion and destruction of the Capitol by murderous thugs, resulting in the killing of police.
What gives?
Now, my first reaction to this behavior is, of course, (see above) mere political survival. It is the most important aspect of the gig. Without being elected there is no chance to enact agenda or ideologies. And what good would it be to bash the rantings of your party’s most popular figure, alienate his rabid base, or put a spotlight on something he cooked up that ended in political sedition and murder? But I am not sure that interpretation washes here. Because… um… what is the agenda? To stop the free and fair election of the leader of the free world – that was the point of the rally that began things on January 6, conceived, promoted, and conducted by the president of the United States. He did not like losing. He wanted to stop the ratification of the vote. He caused a riot. The entire “rigged election” enterprise was to sate the wounded ego of a narcistic loon with zero evidence. It ended with the events of January 6.
If anyone could see another agenda here beyond terrorism, please write me.
As to the ideology? Is it to take up legislation in dozens of states based on this lie to change voting laws ostensibly to “protect” against a security breech that never happened? If this was to occur in, say, Venezuela, what would we be saying about it? Yeah, I thought so.
This brings us to the question at hand: Has the Republican Party now morphed into an anti-American terrorist organization hell-bent on destroying democracy?
Hardly. I would respect the party more if it were. It is merely filled with opportunists, who secretly laugh at Trump and his conspiracies without believing a wit about it, but avoid confronting it, and more egregiously, use it to enact laws to make it easier for them to stem the tide of history that is against them at the ballot box.
There is a political axiom attributed to everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Adolf Eichmann, “don’t let a good crisis go to waste” – but what if said crisis is stupid made-up shit?
But forget all that. The very idea that I could write such a headline, as less satire and more interpretative of events, is what should give us a chill. It is very plausible that we have lost the Republican Party as a legitimate political entity in this country if the party supports suppressing votes and protecting terrorists, many of whom were trying to lynch them, including the then vice president, a Republican, who is also conspicuously silent about this. Forget about the party of Lincoln, the party of Reagan is now dead and buried – the final nail in the coffin is when its members voted to oust traditional conservative Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney to replace her with less conservative New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik simply because Cheney is against anti-American sedition and Trump crap and Stefanik is not.
As covered here a few weeks ago, Cheney is a Reagan Republican, Stefanik is a Trump Republican. That maneuver affectively ends one era for another. If January 6 is any indication, it is not a proud era for Republicans.
To wit: Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the Senate, who after January 6, told the august gathering that Donald Trump “held responsibility” for inviting and rousing the mob to the ultimate destruction and murders that followed. Yet, he ordered his constituency to block an investigation on those events. This is the same contingency that ordered up nine, that is correct, nine different investigations of the Benghazi tragedy that killed two Americans in a Libyan war zone. This is the American Capitol under siege with hundreds of armed marauders shouting for the heads of the vice president and the speaker of the house. Is it crazy then to inquire if this man is not at least committing treason?
How about Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader in the house, who screamed at Trump in the White House to stop the insurrection on that dismal afternoon and took to the House floor to decry its horrors, only to continue to deflect from finding out more about where it originated from, how many factions enacted it, and if it could happen again? There are still questions about how many members of Congress had a hand in January 6. Is this what the Republican Party wants? To forever be implicated in this crime against the nation?
These are serious questions. They are not meant for sensationalism or to piss-off innocent Republicans, who have their own reasons for loyalty to the party. I have friends, family members, and colleagues who remain Republicans in the face of all this…. And I feel sorry for them, because they do not deserve what is happening to their party. America needs at least two healthy political parties.
Although, it is fair to dissect this and confront them with these facts, because all of what’s covered above has happened and continues to occur within one of the two major parties. The refusal to even appoint a bipartisan commission when it was supported by thirty-five House Republicans and six GOP Senators is a damning admission to this assertion. But they have made this bargain and hope to win elections, and as stated above, that is the gig.
