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Rant 622: Moving Past Bipartisanship

2/19/2021

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​These are, in today's Republican Party, spineless politicians rotten to the core without virtue. Without any level of human integrity, devoid of self-respect, self-reflection, without courage, and without the moral compass to recognize their own malevolence.
--David Jolly (R-FL), former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
 
It strains credulity that, following the events of the past several months and the masterful prosecution of the House Managers’ case against Donald Trump, any honest juror could have voted to acquit the Perpetrator-in-Chief. In stark contrast, the Trump defense team was bumbling and inept. Sadly, Trump could have sent stadium cardboard cutouts to represent him and the result would have been the same.
 
QOP (“QAnon Old Party”) cowardice and contempt for their country once again trumped decency and concern for constitutional democracy. The Reichstag rubber-stamp Republicans who were too terrified of their cult leader’s wrath to hold him accountable for attempting to overthrow the government and threatening their very lives, signified their complicity with Trump’s attempted coup in which five people died. In so doing, they abandoned any right to participate in governing.
 
It is clear after that shameful Republican performance that Democrats must go it mostly alone in order to pull America out of the depths to which it was allowed to sink during the Trump travesty. That means, as step one, moving rapidly to enact the American Rescue Plan. Step two should be getting rid of the filibuster that gives Mitch McConnell’s malignant minority unwarranted power to stymie any legislation Democrats pursue to rehabilitate the nation.  Absent that, you can bet the mortgage that McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and their 242 colleagues whose votes against impeachment and conviction demonstrate that they have no intention of cooperating across the aisle. They have blood on their chicken feathers.
 
The QOP is now nothing more than a modern re-creation of twentieth century fascist parties. They embrace the same themes, the same beliefs, the same drive for domination, and the same blind and slavish devotion to a malevolent madman. Any urge on the part of President Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer toward bipartisanship must be abandoned now if they want to get anything constructive done. At best there are only a handful of true Republicans worthy of their attention. For example, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), actually appears interested in being constructive. His proposed Family Security Act is something Democrats can enthusiastically endorse. But that is probably where any cooperation should end. Otherwise, Democrats will be whistling against the wind and become sorely frustrated in their sincere efforts to move the country forward.
 
The QOP’s latest display of gutless groveling is all Democrats need to realize that trying to make nice with these Quislings is a fool’s errand. Any lingering doubts about their sincerity and decency were blown up immediately after their latest shameful spectacle of spinelessness. The moment of awareness came when McConnell, the Janus-faced leader of the see-no-evil crowd, stood up in the well of the Senate and blasted Trump, expressing the hope that the criminal justice system will bring him to account. Has there ever been a greater demonstration of hypocrisy?
 
The proto-fascist wing of the Republican Party, led by “despicable he’s” such as “Cancun” Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson and Lindsey Graham, prevailed. No publisher would take on a Profiles in Cowardice book because there are simply too many QOP candidates for its pages. It’s time to stop expecting “Republicans” to finally do the right thing despite all evidence to the contrary. No Democrat should succumb to the fantasy that these aiders and abettors of Trump’s criminality are people with whom they can do business. Go it alone, Democrats. Reserve bipartisanship for a future Congress peopled by individuals with integrity who value decency, honor and the preservation of the republic.
 
Dick Hermann
February 19, 2021

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    Richard Hermann is the author of thirteen books, including Encounters: Ten Appointments with History and, most recently, Mother's Century: A Survivor, Her People and Her Times. Soon to be released is his upcoming Close Encounters with the Cold War, a personal reflection on growing up in the nuclear age. He is a former law professor and entrepreneur, and the founder and president of Federal Reports, Inc., a legal information and consulting firm that was sold in 2007. He has degrees from Yale University, the New School University, Cornell Law School and the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School. He lives with his wife, Anne, and extraordinary dog, Barkley, in Arlington, Virginia and Canandaigua, New York.

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