Having to Take a Stand

“A massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for

the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles,

even those found in the Constitution. Our great

“Founders” did not want, and would not condone

False & Fraudulent Elections!”

- Donald Trump, December 2, 2002

Sometimes ducking one’s responsibility  hoping a tough problem will go away or take care of itself works, and sometimes the problem gets worse to a point where it cannot be ducked and has to be faced. That is where Republican politicians and their allies in the conservative media are today with Donald Trump.

The man has just called openly and in writing for overthrowing the government and Constitution of the United States to place him in power. He made a similar demand before the election but without explicitly calling for abandoning the Constitution, which could have left Republicans with a shaky out of assuming the man was ignorant enough not to know that there were no legal or constitutional means to do what he wanted. This time he has left them no way out. They have to make a decision and announce it in public.

Republican politicians and people in the conservative media have either to reject Trump or by implication reject the American Constitution, laws, and way of life. At a minimum the Republican national committee should announce that Trump will receive no help or money from the party in the future, and Republicans in the house and senate should declare in public that they will oppose him as a candidate for any elected office at any time. The fully honorable thing would be for Republicans to join with the Democrats and impeach and convict him for attempting to overthrow the government in various ways from December 2020 to the present – serving the country by preventing him from running for any office. If they do nothing Republicans and their friends in the conservative media, including those among them who hold public office or served in the armed forces and swore an oath to the Constitution, will have shown that their professed fidelity to the Constitution and principles of the republic is not real enough to matter, and that having a professed enemy of the republic as a candidate is acceptable to them. They will have earned the contempt of Americans with whom that fidelity is real. (Those Republicans who are insufficiently motivated by honor or patriotism might want to consider pragmatic political reasons for rejecting Trump now. They need to be rid of him before the next election if they want to win it. If they get rid him now when they have good and explainable reasons, his supporters might understand and anyway will have two years to get over any disappointment.)

Whether Republicans do the right thing or not, Merrick Garland needs to. As a political matter it would benefits the Democrats for Trump to run for president in 2024. Garland needs to ignore that and prosecute Trump on charges that will stick.