The party’s refusal to disqualify Donald Trump means he’ll be able to intimidate them for years to come.
Republicans had a choice to make over the last few months, a period during which their presidential candidate refused to concede after losing and whose behavior inspired an attack on the Capitol that will now put an asterisk on America’s tradition of the peaceful transition of power.
They could have shown a modicum of backbone, realizing that there are worse things to fear than the president’s defunct Twitter account. They could have voted to impeach Trump, convict him, and disqualify him from future office. They could have drawn a clear line that they won’t submit to politics by mob agitation.
Or they could continue to cower in fear, terrified that his base would punish them at the ballot box for doing the right thing. The GOP took the path of cowardice.
As Shakespeare told us, a coward dies a thousand deaths, while the brave man dies but one. The GOP has chosen to die a thousand deaths. Rather than standing up to the Trumpist mob and risking political destruction once, they will die bit by bit, over and over, acquiescing to one indignity after another and destroying the party slowly.
This coward’s dilemma is summed up in the one new thing we learned during the impeachment, though not in the hearings themselves: a more detailed report about Donald Trump’s refusal to help congressmen under immediate threat from the Capitol rioters.
In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy. …
A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, “Who the f— do you think you are talking to?” according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call. …
The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene.
Keep these details in mind when you consider the meaning of the House and Senate votes on Trump’s impeachment.
https://thebulwark.com/the-gops-cowardice-means-they-will-live-in-fear-forever/