The Republican't Party

February 15, 2021

Republicans have a big problem … a big blond problem. After their unprincipled Impeachment cave-in, and some internal dissent, what’s next? Will the party remain the “Trumplican” Party? Will GOP end up standing for the Grand Old Partition and divide into factions, disappear, or morph into something else? Or, alternatively, is the way “forward” a path that the cynical and cunning Mitch McConnell charted which is to throw Trump under the elephant, and to woo back the party’s donors who massively headed for the exits following Trump’s violent white guy riot on January 6.

McConnell’s path is to amputate Trump from the party while salvaging it. Immediately after the riot, his wife quit Trump’s cabinet, and McConnell said in the Senate that “the mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” Even so, McConnell helped postpone the trial until Trump was out of office, and it began on February 9. This allowed the question of the constitutionality of trying a President after he left office to be raised by Senator Rand Paul, but this was defeated with support from seven Republicans. The House then presented incontrovertible evidence that Trump stoked and organized the insurrection, but the “constitutionality” gambit provided political cover to the 43 Republicans, including McConnell, who voted to acquit.

The Donald likely celebrated at that point, having once again benefited from lawyerly loopholes as he had done all his life. Except that this time one of the loophole supporters, McConnell, took to the Senate floor shortly after the acquittal and publicly demolished Trump’s reputation. The mob attacked, he said, due to the fact that “they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he had lost an election … [Mr. Trump] is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.”

“The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things,” McConnell said. “Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors, we saw, that unhinged listeners might take literally. But that was different.…This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories by an outgoing president who seems determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.”

Absent was any condemnation of the mob or of the organizations involved, some of whom are Republican donors. But McConnell heaped all the blame on Trump, then issued a coded warning that others should, and will, take further legal action. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one,” McConnell said, stating Trump is “still liable for everything he did in office.”

This acquittal-and-condemnation maneuver was deft on a number of levels. In terms of keeping the party’s lights on, McConnell provided cover to horrified Republican donors in the hopes they would sign big checks in the future. Strategically, McConnell’s excoriation thwarted Trump's predictable triumphalist claims that he was “vindicated” and “victimized”. In that sense, McConnell began to amputate Trump from the party and to de-fang him. Notably, the first statement issued out of Mar-A-Lago a day later was uncharacteristically temperate and non-threatening.

The strategy, though designed to salvage a party that deserves extinction for anointing and enabling Trump, also benefitted all Americans. Just imagine if Trump had been convicted. He would have pulled out the stops and summoned his Brown Shirts back onto the streets, imperiling the public. That may sound hyperbolic, but, lest we forget, America’s security and intelligence agencies haven’t a clue as to how many domestic terrorist organizations, or members, lurk in the shadows of America. Further, this is a country with 400 million guns and untold numbers of seething, unhinged, and armed men capable of mass murder and mayhem.

McConnell’s broadside has mitigated the threat in another way. The Trump “empire” crumbles and the Senate leader’s speech surely accelerates its decline. The phone doesn’t ring anymore. Putin doesn’t do callbacks. His brand is radioactive. Litigation looms. McConnell’s denunciation will be aired and quoted continuously as will the speech by his sidekick in the House, leader Kevin McCarthy, who also blamed Trump for the debacle. Hundreds of criminal and civil cases are now before the courts on behalf of victims as well as perpetrators, each serving as reminders and wake-up calls and impediments to Republican candidates. That’s why, unless the party can stuff a sock in Trump’s mouth permanently, and his children’s, the Republican Party is doomed.

Of course, Trump won’t relent nor will his many loyalists. His operatives immediately initiated censure actions against Republicans in the House and Senate who voted to impeach or convict. And enablers like Senator Lindsey Graham continued to shill. “The Trump movement is alive and well. It’s the most potent force in the party,” he said on Fox TV the day after the acquittal. “We need Trump plus.”

God help us.

So, America, it’s come down to this. The Republican party is to blame for Trump’s ascension and for increasingly becoming a sheltered workplace for sociopaths, fascists, and deviants. Hopefully, the party will purge Trump, expel his loyalists, and contain the rest by imposing rigid standards and ethics on members and activities. Lastly, the Impeachment acquittal was unjust, but, and I’m no fan of Mitch McConnell’s, his constitutional finesse and personal indictment of Trump may end up saving the country from more desecration and trauma than any of us can imagine. At the very least, it has given the country a welcome respite. But it’s no solution for a party without a moral compass.

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Note: Trumplican elephant is a decal available on Etsy

The dueling elephants cartoon is by Clipartmax.com