Honesty, WTF is going on in the Republican Party.  A couple days after the January 6th insurrection at the National Capitol Building, the Republican Minority Leaders of both  legislative houses issued very forceful statements condemning Trump’s involvement . A few days after that, McConnell and McCarthy  both made  political U-turns that figuratively slammed my brain against the side of my skull.  Concusion therapy required some diligent periodical research.  Specifcally I was curious what would drive the Republican heirarchy to forgive a president that committed sedition and insurrection.  If that isn’t impeachable, what is?

Most of the articles I read universally concluded it was all about power, that basically for the Republicans nothing is out of bounds as long as it helps to regain power, and there certainly is power behind 70 million Trump votes. Naturally money and ethical abandonment play a part in such Machiavelian conduct.  But power is what it is all about.

Then I ran across this. Our Domestic Terrorism Problem

These people are bat shit crazy.  Do you suppose a few of these nut jobs got to the people walking the halls of our hallowed government buildings?  Maybe all the threats and destruction that went on the 6th of January actually served their intimidating purpose.  How much of the Republican vacillation and cowardliness is due to fear of losing power as opposed to outright fear of bodily harm?

Consider Lindsey Graham. After Joe Biden was finally declared the winner of the presidential election on November 7th, Graham, the next day, urged the president to fight on and not concede.  The day of the Electorial College count,  January 6th, after the Capitol Building had finally been cleared of insurectionists, he said “enough is enough.”  He basically denounced the “big lie” and said the election was compeltely legitimate.  A couple of days later he was accosted at the DC airport by a dozen Trump supporters calling him a traitor, and a few days later quickly mended fences with Trump, flying with him on Air Force one to Texas and later in the week castigating fellow Republicans for considering Trump’s second impeachment. During that speech he emphasized those who participated in the storming of the Capitol should be punished to the full extent of the law, but mentioned nothing about Trump’s participation.  I suppose without a spine it’s fairly easy to squeeze through tight spaces.

So, scardy çat or ass kisser? Only Lindsey knows,  What is going on in the GOP?  According to Colorado Dem. Jason Crow, in a conversaion with a few of his fellow Representatives, a couple of them broke down crying  fearing for their lives if they voted for impeachemnt.  Some History of Intimidation in Congress. This article also points out how history is repeating itself with regard to racism.

The crazy shit thought?  I guess there’s nothing more intimidating than a ranting psychopath, and especially one of those with a gun.  Brings to mind Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Here is a card carrying QAnon conspiracy theorist who has openly endorsed hate and violence, including the suggestion of a “bullet to the head” of Nancy Pelosi, likes to pose in photos with White Supremacist leaders, and claims California wildfires were ignited by a space lazer controlled by Jewish bankers.  As more and more of her craziness has been revealed, various members of congress are starting to wonder if Minority Leader McCarthy shouldn’t have a word with her and at least consider pulling her from her committee assignments.  This would seem to be a good idea in light of the fact she is slated for the educational committee and in her mind the Parkland and Sandy Hook Shootings were both a staged hoax.  Ya. I know. WTF!

So McCarthy says he will talk to Greene.  But there’s a problem. Trump loves Marjorie Taylor Greene- says she’s a “rising star” in the Republican Party. McCarthy just spent an entire day at Mar-a-lago spit polishing Trump’s ass. Demoting one of Trump’s fellow “birthers” seems fraught with the risk of Trump’s wrath.  Stay tuned.

Well, there you go.  No matter how you try and get around it the commmon denominator to all this chaos in the Republican party is Trump.  Power quest and bullying and intimidation are certainly Trump trademarks.  For reasons difficuilt to fathom, the Trump voting base, ever clinging to his populist, anti establishment mystique that incorporates racism and anti-immigration,  is willing to look beyond his crimes, divisive rhetoric, incompentence, corruption and moral degeneracy.  As far as craziness goes, the average Trump supporter would consider Trump’s narcisistic personality disorder to be a diagonisis leved only by those bent on defaming him.  But there is no escaping his promotion of consipracy theories, a number or which are related to QAnon.  What he did on January 6th was in no way normal and absolutey impeachable.

Trump is the Republican party, still.  He is the power, the intimidation, the crazy.  Continuing to defer to Trump as the de facto leader of the Republican Party  is to risk labeling the party as the Lunatic Party.  Hauntingly, it is the party that elevated to president someone who once bragged he could shoot someone on New York’s 5th Avenue and get away with it, and proven right.  Five people that died in the Capitol Building on 1/6/2021 would be alive today if Donald Trump had not been president.

Homeland Security just issued a Terror Advisory Bulletin that bullet points several threats to national security posed by Domestic Violence Extremists.  Political commentator Nicole Wallace  relevantly called the warning statement the “manifesto” of the Trump militant base. Terrorism Bulletin

The years of condoning all of Trump’s deceit have put the Republican Party in a difficult fix.  Whether it’s sheer embarassment, want of power, or lack of courage, too many  congressional members of that party find themselves unable to do what is right and tell the truth- that widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election was a big lie and President Trump committed acts of insurrection and sedition. That is the only way this country will even begin to heal.  The unity Republican elected officials are demanding Democrats initiate will only be possible after Republicans concede to, and explain to their constituents, the truth.  It’s that basic.

I sympathise if it is true that the threat of physical violence is the reason an elected official chooses to flush courage down the toilet.  But doing the right thing is the critical part of the job. It is so confoudingly perplexing why so many Republicans insist on maintaing fealty to Trump. As more absurd conspiracy theorists carve out  larger niches in the party, more mainstream conservatives will leave.  Over 9,000 Arizona Republicans changed party affiliation after the January 6th riot.  The party deserves someone better.  And it needs someone better. There are plenty of Republican leaders who favor comprehensive immigration reform without Trump’s attatched racism for one thing. If Republicans keep going down their current path of attempting to restrict voting rather than expanding their voting base, it is an absolute forgone conclusion and demographic fact Democrats will strenghtn their grip on power. There can not possibly be a more logical time to cut Trump loose, and If the Republicans can’t figure out a way to do it,  their party might have to confront a 21st century Bull Moose conundrum that will likewise ensure a long string of Democrats in the White House.

Historian Jon Meacham commented a few days ago about abstractive dilemmas past presidents periodically have had to deal with.  He said FDR had to negotiate between capitalists and labor.  Truman and Eisenhower had to confront the extremes of McCarthyism and Communism.  And Biden, of all things, is in the ridiculous position of having to forge his administration through the 21st century’s clouded view of what is fantasy or reality.  That should be a jarring realization of what is happening to our country.