“If fascism comes [to America] … it will probably be ‘wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution’.” - James Waterman Wise, Jr
Following November’s presidential election, GOP voters seemed to send a mixed message. While eager to hang on to their congressional candidates - many who supported Trumpism - they seem to be ready to show Trump himself the exit door. Were they hoping for a return to something that would come close to reflecting traditional conservative values and allegiance to the Constitution?
If that is indeed what many GOP voters signaled for, their Party leaders failed to get the message. The conspiracy absurdities that Trump continues to promote, without any credible facts or data to support them, now reveal a political party that has detached itself from reality. More seriously is the appearance it gives to aligning themselves with a wannabe dictator.
Failing to gain either the popular or electoral majority, Trump sycophants fell in line with him to use this country’s legal system to overturn the legitimate election that created a Biden/Harris victory. And to the horror of many Texans along with Texas evangelical, Beth Moore, it seems that this cuckoo choo-choo is being driven by some of our own citizens.
With Crayolas gripped angrily in his child-like fist, Texas AG Ken Paxton - who’s currently under federal indictment for securities fraud - scrawled out an absurd, unprecedented lawsuit to support the lunacy of those who signed on to this nonsense.
Putting their name to this coup attempt was our own Michael Burgess and eleven other Texas Republican congressmen. Senator Ted Cruz, whose wife and father were insulted in 2016 by Donald Trump, gleefully agreed to his request to represent this joke in the nation’s Supreme Court.
To their credit, the high court firmly rebuked the laughable lawsuit, sending these infantile whiners back to face (hopefully) most of their outraged constituents. Adding to the crazy was Texas’ GOP Party Chairman Adam West who called for acts of secession from the states whose AGs signed on to Paxton’s document.
So what’s a traditional Republican faced with as many of their members capitulate to the incompetent and power-crazed whims of a narcissistic buffoon?
Where moderate Republicans are vying with extremists elements in their Party, progressive Independents like me could cross over in primaries to vote for such GOP moderates. This doesn’t bind us to that candidate in the general election. But the loss to a sensible adult Republican in the vein of a John McCain, Mitt Romney or even Susan Collins would be preferable over those Louie Gohmert types we’re getting stuck with.
Another option for that 20-30% of GOP voters who still seem to live in the real world could be to simply start voting for the Democratic candidate in traditional Republican strongholds where Trump devotees have won the GOP nomination. Such sacrifices would hurt in the short run but should eventually reawaken the saner aspects to Lincoln’s Party - the man who championed the cause of preserving the Union. Not to do so it seems would only further drive the once mighty GOP down that rabbit hole that will forever reflect a hopeless, pathetic shadow of its former self.
A century ago Democrats, stained for decades by the actions of many in their party for their support of slavery’s brutal suppression followed by Jim Crow racism began to turn things around from this negative image. They would lead the way in forging legislation that created the kind of equality for all men and women that many founders had originally idealized.
Is there sufficient moral clarity within the GOP to do the same today by pulling itself away from their voter suppression tactics and the autocratic abyss that Trump has led them into?
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