The Sorry Fate of the Republican Party
To Trump or Not to Trump
I'm sad, sorry, and alarmed to say that we currently have a government based on mafiosa tactics and processes. Republicans in both Houses no longer vote their consciences, or even their common sense, but vote instead by intimidation and threats of violence against them. Any Republican legislator who even remotely appears to oppose Donald Trump, even after his presidency has ended, may well receive death threats via phone, email, social media, or even directly at their or their family's home or place of business. "Godfather" Trump has never, nor does he presently, do anything to discourage such criminal threats.
The impeachment trial for Trump's inciting the insurrection against the U.S. government is over before it starts. It seems most Senators have already decided on their vote, with the Republican count falling far short of the 17 needed to join all the Democrats to convict Trump.
Why is this so, given that we even have Trump's offenses on video, making all who watched eyewitnesses to a crime? Certainly not because the Constitution forbids the impeachment of a Federal official after leaving office. There is a precedent for such an impeachment. No, it's a political decision. Vote to impeach and a Republican risks the threat of a primary challenge; or worse, risks the threat of death or harm. That's how the mafia runs its affairs, and has from its origins.
Assuming elections here will always be as polarized as they are now, I suggest that impeachments are a dinosaur and totally irrelevant. One Republican congresswoman, Greene of Georgia, has even just filed impeachment papers against Joe Biden. Total insanity on this QAnon supporter's part, and adding immeasurably to our political divide.
In the current case against Trump, he should be tried for being an accessory before the fact of murder. A Capitol policeman was brutally killed by a mob that was incited to act by Trump. I think a strong case could be made for felony murder. Trump has never shown any contrition for that officer's death. No remorse or complicity. He never even called the family to console them. Nor did he attend the funeral or any sort of service. These are the actions of a guilty and shameless criminal.
As for the current Republican party, on Federal, state, and local levels, and its mafia infrastructure of fear and intimidation, I suggest this party should be dumped into the dustbin of history. There is no hope for these cowards and sycophants. To vote on the basis of fear is not democracy--not by any means. That is fascism and/or communism, Hitler and Stalin style.
They are in total disarray and confusion, between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The bantam rooster Trump is even bullying around with threats to form a new party. The Texas Republican Party has formally endorsed the supporters of the debased and deranged cult of QAnon. And the Arizona Republican Party has censured several of their members in Congress for standing up to their principles and voting and speaking against Trump. A West Virginia Republican State legislator was arrested for participating in the 1/6 insurrection.
And for Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a six-term Illinois congressman and one of just 10 Republicans in the House to vote for impeachment, the party is in the midst of a difficult fight about its own identity. "I do think we are in a battle," Kinzinger told CNN's Jim Sciutto Monday. "And it may be a battle that really needs to happen for our party to say, what is it we stand for? Not when it comes to policy, but as much as anything, are we aspirational or are we a party that feeds on fear and division?"
Fear and division. That's what the Republican Party has been about since Newt Gingrich started the ball rolling in the early 90s. But Trump took it a bit further than anyone anticipated. The election of 2016 was a deal with the devil where a devil won. In 2020, that devil was cast into hell, but as we know, that's where devils thrive and revive. Trump, though deposed, is still very much with the Republican Party. They need to decide if he will remain their de facto leader or drop him into the political crevasse of history...where he belongs!
