By Rowan Wolf

I am both enraged and deeply saddened by the Republicans who voted to acquit Donald J. Trump of inciting the attempted insurrection of January 6, 2021, by a mob that he had inflamed, called to Washington for this explicit purpose, and then ordered to the Capitol to carry out the insurrection. There was no doubt in almost anyone’s mind, regardless of political affiliation, as was made clear in the duplicitous speech of Mitch McConnell (addressed more completely below). However, before further continuation of that discussion, it is important to recognize that impeachment and the trial in the Senate are far different than criminal prosecution, and in many ways much more critical to the sweep of the future in the United States. The choice to acquit Trump for his blatant actions to overturn the vote of the people is now a precedent of UNIMPEACHABLE offenses – into perpetuity. The practice of a peaceful transfer of power, probably the greatest gift to this country of George Washington, is now optional.

Few in the House or Senate would privately argue that Trump did NOT bear responsibility for the attack on the Capitol. To state that positively, virtually everyone in Washington agrees that Trump is guilty of inciting the violence of January 6, 2021. Those who voted against convicting him utilized one of two bogus (and in my mind unconstitutional) loopholes:  1) that it is unconstitutional to even have the trial now that Trump is out of office, and 2) that Trump is now a private citizen and private citizens cannot be impeached. To address point 1, the Senate passed a rule on Monday that removed what came to be called the “January Exception”. Namely that continuing with the trial WAS constitutional. Regarding point 2, Trump was President when he incited a mob to attack Congress, and he was President when he was impeached. Therefore, the argument that he is a “private citizen” in this matter seems exceedingly weak at best.

Below is McConnell’s speech from the Senate floor (2/13/21) just MINUTES after he voted to AQUIT Trump. This speech is a classic bit of bot hypocrisy and gaslighting. While he essentially repeats his agreement with the House Managers’ case, he then says that he had to vote to acquit because Nancy Pelosi CHOSE to wait on delivering the papers to the Senate. First, this had already been resolved at the beginning of the week and everyone should have been operating under the NEW rule. Second, it was McConnell who refused to call the Senate back into session and would not receive the impeachment documents.

In voting to acquit Trump, some of the Republicans were voting to acquit themselves. This includes Cruz and Hawley who were not only most vocal in the Senate, but also widely present for the insurgents who attacked the Capitol, as well as those in the states who had been at other “Stop the Steal” rallies. Only seven Republican Senators were brave enough to vote to convict Trump: Richard Burr (CT), Bill Cassidy (LA), Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Mitt Romney (UT), Ben Sasse (NE), and Pat Toomey (PA). All of them are getting hammered by the right-wing press and by their state Republican conferences. I suggest that people throw some change and good words to them. While I don’t support any of them on most things, it took guts for them to vote against Trump and the party. The same can be said for the Republican Representatives who voted to impeach: Jamie Herrera Beutler (WA), Liz Cheney (WY), Anthony Gonzalez (OH), John Kato (NY), Adam Kinzinger (IL), Peter Meijer (MI), Dan Newhouse (WA), Tom Rice (SC), Fred Upton (MI), and David Valadao (CA).

It is critical to remember that the Republican march to the right began long before Trump took his run for the presidency. I discussed this at length in We Are Hip Deep in Alligators Because Too Many Did Not Stand for Truth. The short version is that by 2010 (six years before Trump became president) the Republican party had already embraced the right-wing hate groups including white power and white nationalist groups. What Trump did go was to reach out to these groups in explicit ways and make them formally part of his base. In fact, Trump’s followers had shifted their loyalty from the party to him – something that GOP power brokers up and down the ballot should take heed – as the crowd chanted “Kill the GOP” at the first Million MAGA march in December 2020.

It is important to recognize where the Republican Party has gone. They have now fully embraced not just “domestic violence extremists” (DVE) but white supremacists and white nationalists. These were all officially “hate groups” not that long ago. Frankly, white supremacy lies at the heart of the path that the GOP has taken. Their pattern of both gerrymandering and voter suppression has been to silence the votes of black and brown voters as they have directed their appeals to white voters in coded racial ways. Under Trump, those appeals dropped much of their coding, and Trump wannabees like Cruz and Hawley have done the same.

The GOP at both state and federal levels are now openly embracing not just white racism, but white supremacy. They have been a minority party for some time. Rather than examining issues and expanding their base, they have utilized strategies that have allowed them to maintain power (gerrymandering and voter suppression, the electoral college and the courts, and appealing to voting blocks among other strategies). However, they have maximized utilizing the politics of fear to which Trump added the politics of hate. The lack of morality and norms as well as unfounded lies and propaganda have been added. The most recent demonstration of this is that the majority of Republicans in the Congress were willing to vote to throw out the votes of millions of people (largely black and brown) to overturn the election of Joeseph Biden. Many directly and indirectly had participated in “Stop the Steal” rallies (which should have been called “Steal the Vote” rallies). virtually all had carried water for Donald Trump and did nothing to stand against the worst of his behavior and policies.

On January 6, 2021 we saw the culmination of Donald Trump’s (and his allies) efforts to overthrow the election he had lost. Efforts to overthrow elections is called sedition. However, the utilization of a mob (army) to breach the Capitol and kill those in the direct line of presidential succession – Mike Pense and Nancy Pelosi, as well as the then VP-Elect, Kamala Harris. I’m relatively sure that this could have been a very bloody situation had any of the Congressman or Senators been captured.

Donald Trump was attempting to decapitate one branch of government – the legislative branch. This was more than a “change their minds” action, much more than sedition; it was an attempted coup d’éta. Why do you think that Trump delayed asking his fifth column to withdraw as well as refusing to send reinforcements to the Capitol Police? Because he was enjoying the show? No. He was hoping that they would find and capture the leadership and hopefully others on the target list (the “squad” perhaps, or Democrats in general, and certainly “rogue” Republicans who were not behind him).

I find it hard to believe that Senate Republicans did not know that – particularly after a number of them had reportedly directly called for Trump to save them and had not gotten a response. Trump attempted to murder them so that he could stay in power, yet they voted to acquit him. Now Lindsey Graham is touting his “Trump Plus” strategy as the way for Republicans to regain power in 2022.

What we have is a party that has openly embraced white supremacy, legitimated the use of violence to suppress people of color and others who don’t support them, as well as using violence in political contests. We have a party that has fully abandoned both democratic principles and the Constitution. We have two parties operating on different governing strategies. One that is increasingly diverse and attempting to address inequity, and the other that has embraced the violent enforcement of white supremacy, fascism, and oligarchy. If that party, the Republican Party, gains power in 2022 or 2024 (and perhaps beyond) then America as we think we know it, and any attempt to have a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-class democracy will die.

I am fully aware of the corporate influence on BOTH parties, However, I believe that we are seeing something new arising in the Democratic Party, and among the citizenry. While the Republican Party has become whiter and more extreme, the Democratic Party is looking more like the United States and is openly pushing for addressing systemic inequality. This is a time to take action, and there are many levels and many issues that need each of us.

Feature Graphic: Weeping Liberty via DC Clothesline (http://dcclothesline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/cl3.gif)

Rowan Wolf, PhD

I am a sociologist, writer and activist with life long engagement in social justice, peace, environmental, and animal rights movements. My research and writing include issues of imperialism, oppression, global capitalism, peak resources, global warming, and environmental degradation. I taught sociology for twenty-two years, was a member of the City of Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force, and maintain my own site Uncommon Thought Journal. I may be reached by email at [email protected]. On a personal note, I am also a survivor of pulmonary hypertension by the gift of a donor’s lungs in 2011. I do my best to honor that gift by trying to be my best self and give to the world what small gifts I have. Among those is a deep passion for life, and the lives of all those with whom I share the planet.