Rebuilding an Honest Republican Party
Trump has built his political career on big lies, starting decades ago. He told lies about the Central Park 5, about Barack Obama, about Hillary Clinton, about his Republican opponents; he ended up winning the Presidency while losing the popular vote in 2016. He continued to lie at extra-ordinary rates throughout his Presidency. The lies have badly infected the GOP and ultimately the nation. The party of Honest Abe is now led by dishonest Donald. The nation’s first President said “I cannot tell a lie; the current office holder is constitutionally unable to tell the truth. For some reason, certain people believe his lies, or overlook them or embrace them because they want them to be true or it advances their own agendas.
His latest big lie was that he won the 2020 Presidential election, a election he lost by over 7 million votes and in the Electoral College by 306 to 232. He convinced many adherents of the Republican Party of this lie – an estimated 80%. He was enabled and assisted by his sycophants in certain right wing media. His lawyers tried to convince judges of these lies – a process where you have to put on actual evidence; he lost all 60 cases.
He then tried to convince members of state legislatures and state election officials of his lies; he was turned down in Georgia, in Arizona, in Michigan, in Wisconsin and in Pennsylvania. He had three recounts in Georgia; he lost everyone. Results were audited, election fraud claims were investigated; he lost everyone. They did find three fraudulent votes in Pennsylvania; two of them were dead people voting for Trump through their relatives. He had a recount in parts of Wisconsin; he lost that as well. Some extraordinary, or really one should call them refreshingly ordinary, Republican election officials in Georgia stood up to his lies and called them out. They were recorded and available for every Congressional office holder to read or listen to.
He next turned to Congress and asked his GOP colleagues to overturn the election results based on his lies. And he turned to his diehard supporters and asked them to take to the streets to secure his “victory” in Congress. An FBI report from the day before the election warned of extremists’ plans to wage war or die to secure Trump’s re-election.
Several members of Congress and several Governors stood out in opposing the President’s efforts to overthrow a democratic election – Senators Romney, Sasse, Toomey, and Murkowski; Governors Hogan, Scott and Baker, and Representatives Cheney, Kinzinger and Meijer.
Several stood out as enabling Trump’s attempted electoral coup – Senators Hawley and Cruz, House Minority Leader McCarthy, House Minority Whip Scalise, Representatives Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. Several are very highly educated lawyers masquerading as populist tribunes. Hawley for example sought to fund raise based on his participation in the attempted electoral coup. Some of these legislators are now facing financial backlash from previously reliable corporate contributors.
Trump’s supporters from the streets took over Congress for about 5 hours before being removed; five people have died. His supporters are now planning armed insurrections in the US Capitol and all 50 state capitols for the period January 16-20. We’ll have to see what happens then; let’s hope it fizzles out, as Trump has now been removed from the Internet, and many of his adherents from the Capitol building take-over are ending up in jail and will be tried for their crimes.
On his way out of town, Trump will seek to pardon himself, his family, his attorneys and conceivably even those supporters seeking to overthrow the government by force.
What will be/should be the consequences for his actions? His violent supporters should end up in jails, be tried, convicted and imprisoned for substantial sentences for taking over the Capitol and trying to overthrow the government. His Congressional supporters of the election overthrow should be censured by their colleagues and removed at the ballot boxes in primaries or the general elections beginning in 2022. Trump himself should be impeached, convicted and then subsequently charged and tried in the criminal court system for seditious conspiracy. Those Trump lawyers who lied and brought false and unsupported claims before the courts should be disciplined by the bar. Republicans need to take strong leadership in cleansing their party.
Can the Republican Party be rebuilt after Trump’s efforts at an electoral coup and support for the Capitol takeover and insurrection? It will have to be, as you cannot support election results when you win and try to overthrow the government when you lose. You cannot build a party based on lies and refusals to accept democratic election results.
It’s not clear what the governing agenda will be for the Republican Party post Trump. It has shredded its credibility on budget deficits and free trade. It now appears to be a pro-Russian party. It is anti-government and anti-public health at a time when we all desperately need government help in combating the Covid pandemic and economic recession. It has lost support in the suburbs, the cities and gained support in small towns and rural communities. It has lost support among the college educated and professional classes while gaining support among some white working class voters. It has alienated many hard working, entrepreneurial immigrants and people of color. It has lost support among young voters. But it retains the allegiance of white evangelical Christian voters. It remains a powerful force in much of the South and the Great Plains states. It still controls many state legislatures throughout the industrial Midwest. It will be able to gerrymander many seats in Congress and state legislatures to preserve its powers. It could become a spokesperson for those regions of the nation and those segments of the population that are being left behind economically, but to date it has mostly waged culture wars, and really has had no economic or development agenda for poorer struggling states like a Mississippi or West Virginia or the rust belt communities and small town Americans. We do need an honest and intellectually vibrant Republican Party to emerge from the ashes of Trumpism. We need a party that debates, compromises and fights elections honestly, and that helps move the nation forward to our very real challenges. It cannot continue to deny the realities of climate change and racism, of growing economic disparities, and the evils of corporate monopolies and economic corruption and a rigged economic system. If it cannot evolve, it needs to dissolve. We cannot further tolerate or excuse the fascists, unreconstructed confederate sympathizers, white supremacists, holocaust deniers and their ilk trying to overthrow our democratically elected governments operating in alliance with Trump and Trumpism.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
1/12/21