By Calvin Hill
There is a general consensus that the present day Republican Party has no bottom. But why would one be expected in an abyss. They see nothing wrong with grabbing women by their vaginas as long as the perp can say it with pride. When the GOP turned on John McCain, Gold Star families and the CIA, the march toward embracing fascism could not be far behind. Now, even the FBI and law enforcement are their enemy.
The recent revelations that Donald Trump spirited boxes of documents, belonging in the federal archives, down to his Mar-a-Lago playpen declaring, “They’re not theirs, they’re mine,” tends to belie all the self-serving confessions that his administrative detractors had to stay wedded to his abominable leadership in order to dispel him from his worst instincts. Now that we know Donald Trump wanted America’s generals to be more like Hitler’s generals, there was nothing any of them could do to stop his worst instincts short of a 25th Amendment expulsion. Calling the gallows on the Capitol grounds meant to lynch VP Mike Pence “common sense,” attests to that fact, notwithstanding his appreciation of the death and carnage of January 6th in service to his many lies.
The aftermath of January 6th, 2021 brought forth scathing indictments of the former President at the podiums of both Capitol chambers, not by Democrats, but the Republican leaders of the House and Senate. However, both Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell reneged on their oath to the Constitution and any loyalty to the democratic republic for which it stands. Trump has not been secretive about his disdain for McConnell while angling for his defeat as Senate Republican leader. Sadly, McCarthy’s pathetic allegiance to the pathologically mendacious Mr. Trump sees that misguided loyalty as his route to Speaker of the House not realizing that the disloyal Donald Trump will never forget that McCarthy was the enemy when The Donald needed his loyalty most. Clearly, if McCarthy is ever elevated to the Speakership, it will not be with the endorsement of Donald Trump.
Every Fuhrer needs a cadre of blind loyalists willing to die for their leader – until faced with death after the fall of that leader. The hundreds of January 6th defendants now faced with their loss of liberty, courtesy of the long arm of the law, no longer profess, “Whose house? Our house,” but fall back on the adage of every war criminal – “I was just following orders,” when faced with the incriminating audio and video of them raining flagpoles and baseball bats on police officers. Even Carrie Underwood knew enough to only use her destructive instruments on “His pretty little souped up four wheel drive,” not on the cheater.
Even now, more than 19 months after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took their oaths of office, the delusional Donald Trump is expecting some imaginary legislative force to discard the 2020 election results and simply reinstall him as President immediately. No word of what he wants done with Mr. Pence. And as the Department of Justice ramps up criminal investigations a lot more serious than Trump’s past illegal and questionable proclivities for racial discrimination in housing, fleecing non-profit organizations, and playing musical chairs with his businesses and properties in contest with the tax man, Trump is burying himself in social media confessions rife with self-incrimination. After having pled the 5th Amendment hundreds of times in the New York State civil investigation of the Trump Organization, then witnessing the endless stream of absurdities Trump unleashes on his social media platform, there is a tendency to presume, “He can’t really be this stupid!” Then it forces you to recall that his older sister said she is the one who did his homework.
His sociopathy and narcissism renders Trump incapable of taking sound legal advice. Unable to secure some of the better criminal defense attorneys usually available to subjects and targets of adequate financial means, Trump appears to have been forced to avail himself of counsel from the law offices of Moe, Larry, and Curly Esq. who go on conservative media outlets and make ridiculously idiotic claims having no basis in fact.
The Republican Party is dumbing down education by banning books, controlling women’s medical choices, decrying the existence of parentage of same sex couples and pledging to keep courses out of public schools that are only taught in law and graduate schools. The Republican Party, and their comrades on conservative media outlets, feign insult when President Biden specifically calls out the MAGA Republicans as “semi-fascists” and threats to democracy. What is a President of the United States supposed to say when Republicans ignore the threat and continue to bend the knee and show fealty to a man who condones violence on the citizenry in service to his lie, refuse to condemn the sight of swastikas, a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt or a Confederate flag parading through the Capitol, neglect the theft of their own supporters and, insult to injury, are conspicuously silent when Donald Trump offends the American military hierarchy because they were not more like Hitler’s generals.
Meanwhile, several Republican Governors and legislatures have waged an all out assault on the right to vote as well as Ronald Reagan’s idea of a welcoming America to those seeking our constitutional freedoms and opportunity. Should their anti-immigrant efforts become a nationwide success, prepare to see a celebratory gathering of right-wing white supremacists taking turns chiseling away the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty as they replace it with “Tired and poor huddled masses are not welcomed here. Yearn to breathe free elsewhere.”
The Op-Ed Alternative 