Is You Is or Is you Ain’t?
For four years, most congressional Republicans have enabled and abetted Donald Trump’s criminal enterprise in the White House. Presumably, many of them were hoping to seek plausible deniability with “What was I to do? He was a President from my party!” after Trump was gone.
Thanks to the Mo Brooks, the Josh Hawleys, and the Ted Cruzes of the world, slipping quietly back into the ooze is no longer an option. (Oh, there’s a swamp in Washington, alright, but it consists not of talented, hardworking career public servants.) These guys seek to turn Wednesday’s joint-session formality of certifying Electoral College votes into the election reversal that it cannot be. Just when you thought nothing could be more embarrassing than all those utterly frivolous lawsuits…
This forces Republicans to take a stand, with the world watching. Mitch McConnell tried to stave this off, since it is a nightmare for the likes of him.
All will, in effect, declare whether they are members of the Republican Party or of the apparently newly-minted Trump Fascist Party. (Thank you, author Dick Hermann.) So, GOP or TFP? Will you begin the daunting process of reclaiming and restoring the party of Lincoln? Or will you try to vitiate the votes of millions of Americans, based on nothing, in a fruitless attempt to curry favor with a nihilist?
Treachery and Foolishness and Hypocrisy – Oh, My!
Members of Congress all know that Biden won the election, since there is literally no reason to believe otherwise. They know this was the cleanest election that can be had in the real world. Last I heard, there was precisely one case of a “dead person voting” actually proven. Some doofus in Pennsylvania acted to have his long-dead mother vote. For Trump.
The ones still trying to have it both ways must be incapable of shame for saying “It’s not ME, but all the people who believe this election was stolen. I’ve gotta represent them.” This is a weird combination of transparent hypocrisy and a boast about convincing many people of Trump’s stolen election lie. Feigning concern over non-existent voter fraud in order to attempt negating real votes is a special kind of treachery.
Another of Trump’s favorite Big Lies (the tactic itself a fascist favorite) is that a free press is “the enemy of the people”. He thus manages to emulate both Stalin and Goebbels, among others of history’s worst actors. On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, some real enemies of the people get to self-identify and join their hero in his march to infamy.
That act is absolutely disqualifying for future public service of any kind, at any level.
Meanwhile, one is left to hope the two-hour debates in each house of Congress will include a few true patriots rising to defend our country and its Constitution in words that resonate for years to come.
Tens of millions of us are watching. We will not forget and we will use our votes accordingly – for years to come.
Ken Bossong
© 2021 Kenneth J. Bossong