Integrity Matters, except for the GOP
The election victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris provided so much joy and relief it is hard to describe. It was finally the end of Trump regime. It was the end of the lies, the misinformation, the end of the international embarrassment, America finally had an empathetic voice from leadership during the pandemic, a reason for hope.
Not so fast… Just like the pandemic, this guy just won’t go away. Trump has a message that the GOP just loves. A stolen election and the inside job to do everything to overturn it. He asks lawmakers to go out and ‘find him more votes’, He condemns anyone who doesn’t support his lies. He has given life to vial political actors like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, here in Idaho Janice McGeachin and Amon Bundy. Trumps basic philosophy of looking backward instead of forward is embraced by the greater percentage of the Republican party.
There is no doubt that Trump is directly connected to the January 6th insurrection and his Covid-19 rhetoric is likely responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. His minions have hijacked the very meaning of the word ‘patriot’, ‘freedom’, ‘liberty’, ‘justice’ and even the American flag in an effort to suppress progressive change, equal rights, social justice and climate science. Trump’s party flat out threatens our democracy because they realize true democracy threatens their ideology and their vision of returning to the ‘good old days’ of Trump’s toxic interpretation of American ‘nationalism’.
Most recently we’ve seen Republican members of congress threaten colleagues with violence. We have Democratic representatives that require protection to go to work. With the exception of a very few Republicans there is no condemnation of these atrocious acts. Those in the party who do have the integrity to stand up to these lies are condemned and in the case of Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, no longer recognized as a member of her own party.
The bi-partisan infrastructure bill was passed with the support of 13 Senate Republicans. Of course those lawmakers were shamed by the ‘Trump’ wing of the Republican party, not because they were opposed to the bill but because they helped the Biden administration get something done for the American people. Of note there were 6 Democrats who opposed the bill because the administration made too many compromises on the left in an effort to do so. That my friends is what we call bi-partisan middle ground. Integrity matters.