The Republican Party has gone completely crazy; they are unhinged. In addition to all the scandals that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is already involved in, SCOTUS Samuel Alito (a member of the SCOTUS conservative supermajority) is now embroiled in a scandal that involves flying an upside-down American flag at one of his homes and an “Appeal to heaven” flag at another. Both these flags were carried by those involved in the January 6, 2021 insurrection/riot and are considered by many Americans to indicate support of the January 6th insurrection/riot and those that participated in it. Yet, Justice Samuel Alito refuses to recuse from cases that will come before the SCOTUS related to the January 6th event, Trump’s request for complete presidential immunity, or any other cases involving Trump and his legal woes.
In addition to the SCOTUS, Republicans in the Senate and House have gone all-in in support of Trump. Some of them, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, went to New York and appeared in court during Trump’s Hush Money Trial and stood behind him in support as he spoke to the press during pauses in the trial for breaks. Since then, many of them – again, including Speaker Johnson, have referred to the trial as rigged, a sham, a disgrace, and used other denigrating terms to describe it. Speaker Mike Johnson even went so far as to say that the SCOTUS should get involved and overturn Trump’s conviction, in which he was unanimously convicted of all 34 counts against him by a jury of his peers. Imagine that; Speaker Mike Johnson, the self-proclaimed Constitutionalist who is second in line to the presidency and who is supposed to represent all Americans, is trashing the American justice system, and conducting himself like a Trump defense attorney!
Once again Republicans have circled the wagons around one of their own. It does not matter that he has publicly stated that he will be a dictator if he is elected to be president again. It does not matter that he is a convicted felon. Trump is their man; he is their presumptive presidential nominee. Virtually every Republican in the United States congress is supporting Trump whether overtly, covertly, or by their deafening silence! Not only are these Republicans supporting Trump but most Republicans throughout America are supporting him. Big business has lined up behind Trump and is holding fundraising activities to help him get elected. Most everyday Americans, and without doubt, these elected officials and business executives know that Trump is not fit for office. Notwithstanding, their lust for dominance, money, and power compels them to disregard Trump’s true nature and his existential threat to democracy. As a result, they view the concerns by many Americans that Trump is unfit for office as an overreaction and discount the real damage that he is currently doing to the country and the greater damage that he can do if he is elected president. This is shortsighted, frightening, shameful, and disappointing.
Many of Trump’s sycophants and other supporters are encouraging rich Republicans to “come off the sidelines and get involved,” encouraging Republican congressmen to withhold funding from prosecutors conducting the Trump trials, encouraging Republican Attorneys General throughout America to investigate Democrats and do anything else that they can to “defeat these [Democratic] communist.” Some congressmen are even threating to impede Biden appointments as a protest to Trump’s conviction. In the meantime while all of this is going on – despite his gag orders, Trump is busy calling Special Counsel Jack Smith a “deranged dumb son-of-a-bitch” calling DOJ employees bastards, and spouting lies and denigrating nearly everyone else who is not pro-Trump in his upcoming trials and the one trial in which he was recently found guilty on all counts, Rudy Giuliani is calling District Attorney Fani Willis a “Ho”, and Representative Byron Donald is telling Black Americans how much better off we were under Jim Crow than we are now. The amazing part about all of this is that no one in the Republican Party is pushing back on any of this. They are completely silent!
The 2024 election is a little less than five months from now and the Republican Party is going full speed ahead in their effort to get Trump elected president. Trump visited capitol hill Thursday and his congressional toadies were there to welcome and support him. Many of us are asking ourselves, what have we come to as Americans and how could things have ever come down to this?! My thoughts? Complacency: we have taken our freedom for granted for so long that we have forgotten that freedom is not free! It comes at a price and we must fight for it every day by regularly and faithfully performing our civic duty. That does not only mean that we must vote, but we have a responsibility to stay informed and keep abreast of what is going on in politics whether we like it or not. To invoke a currently popular slogan, when we see something, we must say something! We must say it to our elected officials and keep pressure on them to do something about it. If we do not do this or wait too long before doing it, we will end up in a situation like the one that America is in now. Hopefully, our current situation is only temporary, one that can be reversed, and one that we will learn from.
We have a two-party system of government in America. Because we live in a democracy, we have a right to expect reasonable discourse to occur between the two political parties in order to solve America’s problems and foster effective governance based on the will of the majority. We are a country that believes in the rule of law. That is key in a democracy and what makes it function effectively. If we discard the rule of law, work in any way to rig the system in favor of minority rule, trash our justice system and refuse to accept the decisions made that are based upon the rule of law and our overall democratic system, then we are no longer a democracy; we just have not formerly established and declared that we are something other than that! Right now, only one Party is conducting itself like a Party that believes in democracy and the rule of law. Only one Party is fighting to preserve those precious, irreplaceable things that are the foundation of a democratic system of government. That Party is the Democratic Party. Do you want a democracy or something else? The choice is a binary one.
Again, the 2024 presidential election is a little less than five months away; you must choose. If you want a Democracy, the Democratic Party is your only logical choice. Yes, the Republican Party says that it is the Party of the rule of law and it is their Party that wants to save America and the American democracy. But, in the words of Rachael Maddow, “watch what they do, not what they say.” Keep a close eye on what Republicans have been doing since Trump’s one term as president and what they are doing now; not what they have been saying since then and are now saying! To save our democracy, you must do your civic duty and vote. So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!
Eulus Dennis – author, M2: Street Cop To Top Cop, Operation Rubik’s Cube, and Living Between The Line