It is good to hear, at last, that there are growing rifts within the Republican party. I say this not out of spite. I hope good things for the Republican party. More than anything I hope it recognizes that if it fails to purge itself of Trumpism it is doomed to fall apart. And, everyone anyplace on the political spectrum knows that would ultimately be a bad thing, if for no other reason than without a Reblupican party there will be no check on Trump from the right. The troubling part is that it took an attempted insurrection to make the tough conversations within the GOP happen.
As Frank Bowan recently pointed out, the real impeachable offense was not the president’s incitement of insurrection, but his attempt to discredit the election results in the first place. Unfortunately, very few Republicans are willing to admit this, no matter how obvious it should be. It will take the Republicans admitting the obvious, and confronting Trump and his supporters with the fact that the attempt to overturn the election by the president is the real problem. That problem must be addressed if the country is to heal and move forward, and be truly safe.
The capitol is now a “green zone”. Governors across the country are scared. It won’t stop until enough people within the Republican party say the obvious–Donald Trump has no right to continue to claim that a free and fair election wasn’t free and fair, especially as the country he is sworn to protect is spiraling into armed conflict and chaos. Let us hope that there are enough Republicans willing to do the right thing at this point and at least make it clear that Trump will never have the bully pulpit that they has so far afforded him. That, at least, will be the beginning of setting right all that has gone so wrong under Trump.
Meanwhile, more American’s than ever are dying of Covid-19 and the Trump administration has botched the role-out of the vaccine, simply because no one at the top is paying attention. Many governors now regret they even bothered to listen to Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. Governors can’t even trust the people at the top to know what they are talking about. This isn’t the way Americans should have to live. Now is a moment when progressives need to put aside partisanship and support Republicans who are standing up to Trump, even as we may be angry that change hasn’t come soon enough. However, now, in many ways, is already too late.
Progressive Without Apology 