Republican Day of Reckoning

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Republican Party has been playing footsie with extremists since the late 1940's when political snakes like Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon were building their political careers with communist watch hunts.   Nixon, through his "southern strategy," brought the once proud Party of Lincoln below the Mason Dixon Line and made it a haven for the old southern racist politicians who felt they had been betrayed by the likes of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

Gradually a two-tiered Republican Party emerged, one where the power ultimately rested with old money Brahmins, and the political power was generated by an angry white base that could be easily stirred up and directed into appropriate action.

It was a sweet deal and it worked as long as everyone stayed in their lanes.

But something happened in 2016 and the Brahmins lost control.  The country was coming off of two terms with a black Democratic President, and many in the Republican Party were frantic in their desire to reclaim the White House for white America.  Things were so chaotic within the GOP that an outsider, a television huckster who had never run for political office, managed to somehow obtain the party's presidential nomination.  

Many in both parties assumed the political outsider would lose the election, but the candidate ignored accepted political behavior and decorum and ran a reality show type of campaign that appealed to individuals in both parties who felt they had been ignored for too long - and the outsider won.

Donald Trump, as President, had a certain amount of control over the federal government as well as the Republican Party, and many within his party rushed to ingratiate themselves to him, a fealty that for most was hard to break, even after he left office four years later.  And even though Trump had been soundly defeated in his re-election bid, he left office claiming that he had somehow been cheated, and much of his following remained steadfast and vocal in their support of him.  

Republican politicians were given a choice:  they could remain openly affiliated with Trump, or they could suffer the wrath of the masses.

And now most are stuck to him,  unable to extricate themselves from the Trump orgy of lies, greed, neglect, criminality, and racism that permeated the government and the nation for four years.

Ronna Romney McDaniel and her Republican National Committee are riding uncomfortably in Trump's back pocket, or his golf bag, and so is Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader in the House, and a host of other GOP politicians, some of whom know better but feel unable or afraid to leave the safety of the pack.

By being bound to Trump, these sorry politicians and pundits are also bound to his irresponsibility, his his criminality, and his insanity.   They have made themselves co-owners of things like the January 6th attack on the US Capitol - and feel forced to peddle misinformation and outright lies.

Now, however, with the Republican National Committee going over the dam with its bizarre "legitimate political discourse" statement, the Brahmins are finally finding the wind to begin bellowing.  This week they fired one of their political big guns - Mitch McConnell - at Trump.  Mitch snarled back at the RNC and told them that it is "not their job" to single out Republicans for criticism - read:  "Leave Cheney's daughter alone!" -  and that the mayhem of January 6th was indeed an attack on the US government.

A day of reckoning appears to be at hand for members of the Republican Party.  They can continue to blindly follow Donald Trump as he leads them over the cliff, or they can kneel to Mitch and the Brahmins.

Pass the popcorn, please!