The acquittal of Donald Trump by the United States Senate for inciting an insurrection, largely on technical grounds, does not bode well for our country going forward. Not only does it provide precedent for future presidents to act with impunity during their final days in office without constitutionally required consequences, it also emboldens the mob he inspired and sends the message that the Republican party negotiates with and harbors domestic terrorists. Because their terrorist tactics are working on Republican leaders even though Trump has left office, his most violent supporters are now even more of a threat to the safety of our lawmakers and public officials who dare to publicly oppose Donald Trump. Even the vote to acquit, for many Republican Senators, was made more out of personal fear than belief in his actual innocence or any false constitutional “technicality.”
Why do I assert this? It has been said by a number of reporters, Republican pundits, and even Republican officeholders that since the November 3, 2020 election Republican members of the House & Senate increasingly feel they can neither speak nor vote their true consciences due to fears for their own and their families’ safety. They say that if key votes were taken by secret ballot, the results would be quite different. This fear of publicly opposing Trump proved true during the February 3, 2021 internal Republican caucus vote to censure and remove U.S. Representative Liz Cheney from her House Republican party leadership position. That vote was taken by secret ballot and tallied overwhelmingly in her favor despite Trump’s calls for her removal. When their votes can be cast in secret, a majority of Republicans actually do the right thing. But because most votes of the House and Senate must be public, the politics of intimidation and mob rule have taken over the Republican party.
Whatever happened to the mantra that the United States does not negotiate with or capitulate to terrorists? Because that is what we need to call these insurrectionists, and those who supported, and continue to support and make excuses for them – including and especially Donald Trump – because that is what they are: domestic terrorists. Who because of their proximity and freedom to live, move, and plot among us with all of the privileges that citizenship allows, make them a bigger threat right now than most foreign terrorists. Is this really what we want America to be? Where anyone who may want to be an agent of necessary change and run for office needs to weigh those aspirations against attracting death threats directed at themselves and their families? And as is the case today – those death threats are the direct result of statements made by a sitting or former POTUS?
We are better than this. And certainly better than Donald Trump. We need to stand up as a country to say once and for all that documentable truth matters over rumor and ambition driven opinion, and that threatening those and the people they care about with harm who may disagree with you is never okay. We cannot continue to succumb to the politics of intimidation. I personally know what that feels like because I myself was subject to intimidation and harassment just running for a local city council seat. The level of intimidation ratchets up proportionally with the level of office one seeks. How are we going to recruit good, normal people to run for public office if doing so carries such a high level of risk? It is time to say NO – we are done with that scenario.
This past week’s news cycle was dominated by the Trump impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. Despite overwhelming evidence proving Trump’s essential role in inciting the insurrection, both before and on January 6, only seven Republican Senators voted to convict Donald Trump. Some Republican party leaders still claim that Trump was not responsible for the riot. But others now – after they voted to acquit him – say Trump was indeed responsible and what he did was clearly wrong, but that self-imposed, nonexistent “constitutional” constraints mean that it is up to the criminal justice system, not the Senate, to prosecute and judge the probable crimes of Donald Trump. All but 17 Republican members of the House and Senate lacked the moral courage to do the right thing and publicly vote to impeach and convict Trump for inciting an insurrection that endangered all of their lives and our federal republic itself.
After selling their souls to avoid the wrath of those who continue to worship a false god, a large majority of Republican leaders now want to simply pass the buck of that impending wrath to others and “move on.” As if we should all just forgive and forget their four years of complicity with Trump’s crimes now that they have completely forfeited their role as judges of it. Nope – those of us who watched with growing dread as Republican leaders repeatedly gambled that sociopathic thinking writ large can be contained by anything other than universal condemnation will never forgive any but the 17 who voted to impeach and convict Trump – despite serious and violent threats to themselves and those they care about. They did not negotiate with terrorists, and neither will we.
The Republican party’s repeated collective refusal to condemn and hold accountable the actions of Donald Trump and the extremists that he inspires, and on January 6 willfully and knowingly incited, is why we are where we are now. From a historical perspective it is unprecedented and unconscionable. Shame on the Republican party as a collective political body. Which is saying a lot, since they were the original party of the abolition of slavery. It is shocking how far they have reversed themselves and fallen prey to political and financial expediency and the politics of intimidation, violence, and hate. Lincoln would disown them.
At some point, every Trump supporter – and by extension the Republican party – is going to need to ask themselves: do you support our country, or do you just support Trump? Because that is what it comes down to. When Senators and members of Congress fear for their and their families’ safety if they do not vote Trump’s way, we no longer have a federal republic. Is that what you really want? If not – let Trump go, relegate him to the past, and start rebuilding your party for the 2022 elections. Because in the current climate, Republican calls to Democrats for “unity” even as its own representatives and party officials fear for their safety rings hollow. Nope – not willing to hug it out with Republicans until their party changes its attitude towards unacceptable actions and rhetoric. We do not negotiate with terrorists nor those who would give them comfort or assistance.
https://www.vox.com/2021/1/13/22229052/capitol-hill-riot-intimidate-legislators
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/republicans-trump-impeachment-boogeyman/
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/11/trump-impeachment-trial-day-3-468588
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/13/us/impeachment-trial
