Standing together may be the only alternative to a second civil war
Defending the Constitution and the Rule of Law is the last stand in the face of a right-wing driven political environment rife with a profound desire for retribution and revenge.
Yesterday, on the anniversary of 9/11, I found myself thinking a lot about how this country, in the face of great adversity, found a way to pull together some 22 years ago. Regardless of competing political ideologies, we coalesced as a nation to confront a terrorist attack on our homeland. It was a remarkable, yet painful, moment in our history.
I wonder if it would happen again today, given the same circumstances. Increasingly, it is apparent that our country is fracturing -- tearing itself apart at the seams. And we have only ourselves to blame because “we the people” have allowed extremist fractions gain an influential foothold in our government and our society. The last time we allowed such a situation in our history was prior to the Civil War as the industrialized North and the largely agricultural South grew further apart.
We have allowed the extremists in our society to turn our political environment to one that emphasizes retribution, rather than functionality or practicality or forbearance. The right-wing Republican movement seems driven by underlying fear and grievance. This irrational insecurity that drives MAGA voters has fostered a political environment that is rife with a profound desire for retribution and revenge. The right wing of today’s Republican party is more concerned about inflicting harm on Democrats, progressives, and other perceived enemies than it is about effective governance, about getting the people's work done, or about achieving a common good.
Joyce Vance recently pointed out a poignant example of this in her blog, noting that far-right House Republicans are increasingly positioning themselves toward impeaching president Joe Biden. She concludes that what these House Republicans are contemplating is "political theatrics and not a solemn impeachment proceeding based on evidence". Impeachment is the congressional equivalent of an indictment. Making the case for impeachment requires evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. And yet, even key members of their own party believe that they are essentially empty-handed when it comes to the burden of proof. As I'm writing this, Republican Matt Gaetz is threatening to shut down the government if speaker McCarthy doesn't entertain an impeachment — and it appears that McCarthy will acquiesce and allow such a sham impeachment inquiry. I wonder in what world any of this makes sense. And to the point that Joyce Vance was making, it is entirely based on retribution and rhetoric rather than the law or any modicum of rationality.
Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee has also recently commented on this, saying:
“The first MAGA-directed Congress is by far the most reckless and least productive in decades…Instead of working on legislation to promote the common good or even just keep the government running, House Republicans are weaponizing their offices and exploiting congressional power and resources to promote debunked and outlandish conspiracy theories about President Biden. This is a transparent effort to boost Donald Trump’s campaign by establishing a false moral equivalency between Trump—the four time-indicted former president now facing 91 federal and state criminal charges, based on a mountain of damning evidence for a shocking range of felonies, including lying to the FBI, endangering national security by illegally keeping classified documents, and conspiring to subvert the U.S. Constitution—and President Biden, against whom there is precisely zero evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever.”
Without doubt, former president Trump is at the root of this kind of abhorrent behavior. At the recent March 2023 CPAC convention in National Harbor, Md, our former president told the crowd “In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’ … “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution.” Former president Trump went on to say “This is the final battle” “They know it, I know it, you know it, everybody knows it. This is it. Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country.” Of course, none of what he said then or now was (or is) true.
For the prudent student of history, and the perceptive viewer of current events, it's clear that this kind of manipulative speech is nothing new for our ex-president. For decades Donald Trump has played the role of victim and vowed vengeance on those who cross him. This began as early as 1973 in response to a Justice Department investigation into his family business’s racially discriminatory housing practices. It didn’t end there. Trump’s retributional approach has continued repetitively and consistently since the early 70's, including the full duration of his presidency and, now, his campaign for 2024. This is simply part of his long con.
Jason Stanley, a Yale professor who wrote the book “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” said the danger in undermining trust in the rule of law was that it left little alternative to overthrowing or overturning the system itself. And he was correct.
In short, it is precisely this kind of behavior that points toward all that is wrong with American politics and, indeed, with our society as a whole. It' is at the very core of what is wrong with America. And today in America, there are way too many ignorant and/or delusional people who have bought into Donald Trump's long con. I keep waiting for the real Republicans “out there” (and I know they are still out there) to stand up and say, "this is not good for our country." As a nation, we need to stand together and defend the Constitution and the Rule of Law above all else -- because the alternative is likley chaos and perhaps even a second Civil War.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/donald-trump-cpac-republican-primary-retribution/673373/
