A Republic, If We Can Keep It
But to say that today marks a turning point in the history of the American republic is a stark truth to be told. Our 240+ year experiment has survived a civil war, two world wars, and 3 previous impeachment proceedings. Yet never before have we faced what we are currently facing: a corrupt leader and a complicit ruling party hellbent on maintaining power in the face of losing their majority to a country that is browning before their very eyes. This browning terrifies them, so much so that they are willing to hitch their wagon to the most corrupt and vulgar individual to ever occupy the Oval Office. A Republican Party that once prided itself on the rule of law is now fully onboard the Alan Dershowitz line of thinking that a president can do whatever he wants, constitution be damned. Modern Republicans are more than happy to embrace a demagogue simply to own the libs.
I can't say that I am overly optimistic about today. Sith Lord Mitch McConnell knows how committed his party is to Cheeto Mussolini and he doesn't care. Trying to find 4 decent Republican senators is like trying to find a treasure by using a metal detector at the beach: you won't be successful and you'll look awfully dumb trying. McConnell has the votes and he knows it. But this is how far the Republican Party has come. Not only will they not vote to impeach a president who has clearly abused his power but they won't even vote to allow witnesses at this trial. Pretending we lived outside the country, if we read about a foreign leader getting put on trial in part for blocking witnesses and evidence and then had the head of his party actually go ahead and block those same witnesses and evidence at his trial then we would shake our heads at the brazen level of corruption. Yet that is exactly what is occurring here in the United States of America in the year 2020.
The great American experiment is not over. The majority of us are not on the side of sedition. But for the first time, we're facing a situation where the greatest threat to our country is a threat from within rather than a threat from the outside. George Washington's famous warning about the formation of political parties at his farewell address has come to fruition, but not in the way he imagined. It was not the tribalism of political parties but rather the absolute corruption of a single political party that has put us in the situation that we're in. There can be no checks and balances when one party no longer cares about right versus wrong. The framers never could have imagined a treason that runs so deep that one political party would lie, cheat, and steal to both attain and maintain political power in this country. The framers, for all their wisdom and foresight, never could have envisioned what the Republican Party has become in 2020.
This trial has been a farce perpetrated by Mitch McConnell. Donald Trump will get his victory lap at the Super Bowl and State of the Union. But at what cost has this been done? America is no longer seen as a beacon of light and inspiration. She is no longer a trusted ally. She is no longer a model of stability. She is no longer the indispensable nation. Instead of making America great again, Donald Trump has made America a loner, sitting out on the sidelines while the world moves forward without us. This latest farcical attempt at justice has shown just how complicit the entire Republican Party is. They've not only sold their souls, they've put the receipt up on the fridge for all to see. They wear this impeachment trial like a badge of honor, the 75% of Americans who wanted a fair trial be damned. They got their tax cuts and they know they have at least 9 more months of destroying the environment, taking away benefits from poor people, locking children in cages, forcing their health care decisions on women, blocking people of color from voting, and completely ignoring the pain and suffering of Puerto Rico. They have had no remorse up to this point and we certainly can't expect any after Friday. This is who Republicans are and who they will continue to be.
But we can still keep our republic. It won't be easy. Yet there are more of us than there are of them. More decent people who believe in helping each other. Who sees the value and dignity of the immigrant, the refugee, and the transgender woman. Who sees the Muslim, the Sikh, and the Buddhist as our brothers and our sisters. Who sees a single threat of injustice against one as a threat to justice against all of us. Who sees the moral arc of the universe bending, slowly, toward justice. Who sees that there is no "real America"; that each person's American story is uniquely their own. Here we stand, 240 years later, at the precipice of a unique historical moment. We are all that colonist in 1787 anxiously asking Ben Franklin what kind of government we have. Our government, our republic, is still there for all of us who admire its beauty and its faults. American is banged up a bit, but she will endure. She has to endure. For us. For our children. For our grandchildren. There's too much to love to give up without a fight.
And over the last two weeks, Republicans have shown us exactly what we're up against.